From this week’s Rose Cafe Series, Esmeralda touched on a point that I have actually seen at Cornell. She said that DREAMers generally get associated with a student label, and that they deserve to be in America and take advantages of its opportunities, while others who do not/cannot go to college are considered undeserving, and regardless, the parents get blamed for their kids’ situation.

One of the people who ran for the Student Assembly Minority Rep position had spoken about her story about being undocumented and her journey to getting to Cornell. Her story fostered a discussion in the end about undocumented people in the United States and whether they should get to stay, and I remember some of the responses saying, well if they work hard and attend college (like the candidate running had), they should get to stay. They proceeded to mention that it is not the undocumented kids’ faults if their parents brought them to America and put them in the situation they are in. This discussion was analogous to the points Esmeralda made in which people think that undocumented kids who can make it to college can stay and that the blame should be towards the parents.

It was shocking to me that as Cornell students, who are supposed to be thoughtful and intelligent, our analyses of such delicate situations can still be so shallow. It is a good thing indeed that Esmeralda came to Cornell to study AND advocate because we certainly could use her reasoning and logic to influence our narrow-mindedness.