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EMU grad speaks up for undocumented students
By Bonnie Price Lofton Eastern Mennonite UniversityHARRISONBURG, Va. — For years, Isabel Castillo lived in the shadows in Harrisonburg.
Castillo
Recently she stepped into public view.
Castillo, a 2007 Eastern Mennonite University graduate, joined 20 other students and recent graduates who are undocumented immigrants in getting arrested for civil disobedience at the Hart Senate Office Building July 20 in Washington.
“I am not just doing this for me,” Castillo said. “I am doing this for the 65,000 undocumented students who graduate from U.S. high schools each year and who have no future the way things are now.”
All of those arrested were brought to the U.S. as children. They have been raised and educated here. Few recall living anywhere else, Castillo said.
Castillo and others were arrested after they refused to leave the office of Senate majority leader Harry Reid of Nevada when requested to do so by his staff members.
Reid’s office initially welcomed the protesters when they visited to ask him to put the Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors, or DREAM, Act to vote in the Senate by Aug. 4, when Congress ends its session.
“I have been waiting quietly since this legislation was first debated in Congress in 2001,” Castillo said. “Looking ahead, I do not think there is going to be a better opportunity than the present to get this legislation passed.”
Loren Swartzendruber, EMU president, and Fred Kniss, provost, have spoken in support of Castillo’s efforts.
“The DREAM Act is an important and necessary piece of legislation, and I have written to our Virginia senators encouraging its passage,” Swartzendruber said. “We are glad that one of our alumni is working so courageously to promote the DREAM Act.”
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