WASHINGTON & SANTA FE, NM ( July 26, 2011 Following through on a campaign promise, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law Monday easing access to privately funded financial aid for undocumented college students. He also signaled that he was likely to back a more controversial measure allowing those students to seek state-funded tuition aid in the future.
Assemblyman Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles), author of the private financial aid measure, described it as an important but incremental step toward expanding opportunities for deserving students who were brought to the U.S. illegally through no choice of their own.
Cedillo is pressing ahead with a
more expansive measure that
would make certain undocumented
students eligible for the
state's Cal Grants and other
forms of state tuition aid.
Brown said he was "positively
inclined" to back that bill but
would not make a decision until
it crosses his desk.
"I'm committed to expanding
opportunity wherever I can find
it, and certainly these kinds of
bills promote a goal of a more
inclusive California and a more
educated California," Brown told
reporters after the bill-signing
ceremony Monday.
For Brown, signing Cedillo's
bill was a gesture of goodwill
toward Latino voters, who helped
elect him in large numbers last
fall. Legislation providing
education funding to
undocumented students has been a
top priority for many Latino
groups, which have found many of
their efforts thwarted so far at
the federal level.
Last year proponents failed to
marshal enough votes in the U.S.
Senate to ensure passage of the
federal DREAM Act, which would
have created a path to
citizenship for illegal
immigrants brought to the U.S.
before age 16 if they attended a
college or served in the
military.
Brown's position on the
California Dream Act was being
closely monitored after he
angered some prominent Latino
leaders by vetoing a bill last
month that would have made it
easier for farmworkers to
organize. Though Brown noted in
his veto message that he signed
legislation helping farm workers
unionize during his first stint
as governor in the mid-1970s,
his veto was sharply criticized
by the United Farm Workers,
which counted the bill among
their top priorities.
But several analysts who study
Latino politics said the
California Dream Act was far
more important symbolically to
many in the Latino community.
Fernando Guerra, director of the
Center for the Study of Los
Angeles at Loyola Marymount
University, said the bill was
viewed by many as a measure of
social acceptance of Latinos
because it would increase
opportunity for the best and
brightest among the
undocumented.
The California Dream Act has
drawn strong support across the
Latino community, said Jaime A.
Regalado, director of the Pat
Brown Institute of Public
Affairs.
"If Brown was looking at the
balance sheet, understanding
politically he needed to sign
one of these measures, it was
not going to be competitive,"
Regalado said. "It's seen as a
civil rights issue in the Latino
community, especially for youth.
The farmworkers' struggle is not
necessarily seen as what it once
was. This is an issue of the
now, an issue of the moment,
part of the Latino agenda and
part of the future."
During a signing ceremony at Los
Angeles City College, Brown
largely brushed over the thorny
politics of illegal immigration
and sought to frame the
legislation as part of the
struggle to maintain education
funding during California's
budget crisis.
"The debate is very clear:
shrivel public service, shrink
back, retrench, retreat from
higher education, from schools,
from the investment in people;
or make the investment," Brown
said. "This is one piece of a
very important mosaic, which is
a California that works for
everyone."
Brown used the issue last year
against his Republican opponent,
Meg Whitman, during a Fresno
debate.
After an undocumented student
had asked the candidates to
explain their position on such
legislation, Brown said that he
backed the proposal and that
Whitman wanted to kick
undocumented students out of
college, adding "that is wrong
morally and humanly."
