SHOREHAM ― The first time Cristian Santos tried to cross the border into the United States from his home in a small, rural community in the Mexican state of Tabasco, he was kidnapped and held for ransom by the people who were supposed to be helping him.
“My family had to pay for me to be released, about 150,000 Mexican pesos (about $8,500),” Santos said. “Then they dropped me off. I didn’t have any food, any phone, any clothing. I was in this other (Mexican) state where I didn’t know anybody, left on my own.”
Santos’ family had not wanted him to risk the journey north to the dairy farm in southern Vermont where he now works, but Santos, 21, felt he had no future in Tabasco.
Cristian Santos, who works on a dairy farm in southern Vermont, hopes to get his higher education here, thanks to a new law providing access to state colleges and universities regardless of immigration status. As seen on May 31, 2024.
“I think like most of us who come here, the goal is to try to make a better living and have more opportunities in life,” Santos said. “I came with the idea I would be able to come up and save up some money and then go back to Mexico and study at university.”
Now, thanks to a new law passed this year, Santos dreams of getting his higher education here in Vermont. The Education Equity for Immigrant Students bill passed overwhelmingly in both houses of the Vermont Legislature, and was signed into law by Gov. Phil Scott on May 31. The new law provides access to in-state tuition fees and need-based financial aid at public colleges and universities to all Vermont residents, regardless of immigration status.
“(Santos) currently doesn’t have immigration status, he doesn’t have a social security number,” said Will Lambek, an organizer with Migrant Justice. “The new legislation makes financial aid (and in-state tuition) accessible to students without a social security number.”
The new law won’t go into effect until July 1, 2025, because the Vermont Student Assistance Corporation requested more time to get ready for implementation, according to Rep. Leonora Dodge, D-Chittenden-23, who was instrumental in getting the law passed.
“It shouldn’t matter if you’re an immigrant or if you’re born here,” Santos said. “We all have the same rights, we all should be treated with dignity, we all deserve the same things, because we’re all looking for the same things. We all want a better life. That’s what it’s about.”
Allowing everyone in Vermont to access higher education is a ‘win-win’
Vermont joins 24 states and the District of Columbia in allowing residents to access in-state fees and financial aid for higher education, regardless of their immigration status. Other states in the Northeast include New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts. Dodge thinks it only makes sense.
Rep. Leonora Dodge was instrumental in getting a law passed this year that allows all Vermont residents to benefit from in-state tuition and financial aid for public colleges and universities in the state, regardless of immigration status.
“For me, it’s a win-win for our state and the immigrant community,” Dodge said. “I have heard countless economic presentations by our state economists and they constantly point to immigration as the only future for our state to survive economically.”
Vermont is one of the top three states in the nation in terms of the growth rate of its Latino population, according to Dodge, many of whom keep the state’s dairy farms afloat by providing the labor force to do the milking.
“We tend to focus on the fact that the Latino population is only about 2% (of the total) in Vermont, but it’s the biggest minority group in the state, so it’s really important to figure out how to nurture this population and not just use their labor,” Dodge said. “When you just extract labor from a human being it’s not good for society and it’s not good morally.”
Cristian Santos speaks at a press conference in Montpelier at the statehouse announcing the education bill for immigrant students on Jan. 12, 2024.
Dodge credited Migrant Justice, the Burlington-based nonprofit that advocates for better living and working conditions for migrant farmworkers in Vermont, for pushing the immigrant education bill forward.
“Honestly, this bill could not have happened without Migrant Justice and the way they organized their advocacy, the way they are a voice for people who otherwise would not have a single peep in the Statehouse,” Dodge said.
Making sure immigrants who take advantage of getting an education won’t risk deportation
Lambek said a key provision of the immigrant education law is the inclusion of strong confidentiality protections to make sure Vermont colleges and universities aren’t sharing applicants’ information with federal immigration agencies, protecting people like Santos from risking deportation by pursuing a higher education.
Farmworkers and their allies went to the Vermont statehouse on March 14, 2024, to speak directly to legislators about the education bill for immigrant students.
“There are 24 states that have already passed this law in one form or another,” Lambek said. “There’s strong precedent for this being a positive measure that supports immigrant families, and hasn’t led to those negative repercussions.”
Like Dodge, Lambek believes the immigrant education bill was the right thing to do.
“For decades now, a lot of people talk about how the immigration system is broken, and that’s true in a sense, but at the same time, the current situation benefits a lot of people as well, because it creates this underclass of 10 million plus people who are in legal limbo, who have barriers to advocating for their rights, who are working jobs and accepting employment conditions that other people wouldn’t,” Lambek said. “There’s a reason why this has been the status quo for so many decades, because it benefits so many people.”
Bipartisan support for a bill that keeps motivated students in Vermont
Cristian Santos made it across the border on his second attempt, traveling with nine companions in a minivan to the Northeast.
“Driving from Phoenix to New York we stopped once and the driver got some pizzas and we ate,” Santos remembered. “We did the drive in about 36 hours.”
Cristian Santos has advocated for the rights of migrant farmworkers in Vermont through his affiliation with Migrant Justice. As seen on May 31, 2024.
In addition to his newly granted access to higher education, Santos has a pathway to a green card through what’s called Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, or SIJS, which is available to immigrant juveniles when there’s a family court finding in the United States that the person has been abused, neglected or abandoned by a parent or guardian.
A green card is given to those who have been granted the immigration status to live and work permanently in the United States.
Santos has received the family court ruling he needs, but he knows it will take many years to make it through the bureaucratic red tape standing between him and a green card. Brett Stokes, director of the Center for Justice Reform at the Vermont Law & Graduate School, which represents Santos, said the SIJS backlog is currently five to six years.
The momentum the Education Equity for Immigrant Students bill gathered so quickly at the end of this year’s session reflects a bipartisan recognition that it was the right thing to do for the future of the state, according to Dodge. She said the bill did not have to go through appropriations because the institutions involved said they were capable of handling what it requires without extra funding.
“A lot of my Republican fellow legislators were proud to vote for this,” Dodge said. “It just makes sense that capable and bright and motivated students that are trying to stay in the state should be given that opportunity.”
Contact Dan D’Ambrosio at 660-1841 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @DanDambrosioVT.
This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: New Vermont law gives undocumented immigrants hope for attend college
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Publish date : 2024-08-11 18:08:00
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