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Deana Lopez graduated from Berkeley High School last year with her future very much in doubt. Although she is starting her second year at Vista College, as an undocumented immigrant she has no hope for financial aid to transfer to a four-year school and couldn’t work legally even if she graduated. 

“I can’t work because I don’t have a Social Security number and I can’t apply for federal or state aid, so community college is the only option for me,” said Lopez, 20, who was three when her parents illegally ferried her over the border from Mexico. 

On Tuesday Berkeley City Council unanimously endorsed national legislation aimed at giving Lopez and thousands of other Bay Area youth in her predicament a shot at the American dream. 

A bipartisan U.S. Senate Bill—the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM)—would grant temporary residency to undocumented students provided they graduated from high school and lived in the United States continuously for at least five years. Students who then proceed to complete two years of college or a trade school, or enroll in the army or a volunteer service would be granted permanent residency. 

The House version of the bill is more generous, bestowing permanent residency to students enrolled in the seventh grade or higher who have lived in the country for at least five years. 

The Urban Institute estimates that between 50,000 and 60,000 undocumented students graduate from American high schools every year, though precise figures don’t exist because high schools are forbidden to inquie about students’ immigration status. 

By granting residency status to undocumented students, the legislation would enable them to apply for state and federal student loans, find a job and pay in-state tuition at state universities. 

Two years ago, California followed Texas as the second state to grant in-state tuition to undocumented students who spent at least three years in a state high school. Gov. Gray Davis signed the bill after rejecting a stronger version, which, like the Texas law, would have granted students access to state loans as well. New York and Utah are the only other states offering illegal aliens in-state tuition. 

The California law has opened educational opportunities for undocumented students, but without financial assistance or a work visa most attend cheaper local community colleges and find a dead end upon graduation, according to immigration advocates. 

“There are students who are going into adulthood who have no chance at a job and will become a drain on the system” said Humberto Retana of People United for the Legalization of Students. 

Brought over illegally as a child, Retana gained residency under a 1986 general amnesty signed by President Reagan. Retana said “this [legislation] is based on a simple idea—they’re here, we have to have some type of relationship with them, so this offers them the opportunity to integrate into American society,” he said 

Without the legislation, students say they have little motivation to excel, since a plum job is perpetually out of reach and deportation is never out of mind. 

“It affected my psyche in high school, said Luis Martinez, 20, a second-year student at Chabot College in Oakland and national CO-chair of Movimiento Estundtil Chicano de Aztlan (MeChA), a Latino student group. “It was really hard to be motivated, because no matter how many AP classes I took, I knew my future was limited.” 

Martinez, who was two when he illegally immigrated with his parents and older brother from Mexico, got a break a few years ago when his mother married a U.S. citizen. Since he hadn’t turned 18, he was granted residency, but his older brother was too old to qualify. 

“He is extremely limited with what he can do,” Martinez said. “If the Dream Act had been in place he would have had residency status and could have gone to college.” 

The legislation is opposed by the Washington-based Immigration Watchdog Group Federation for American Immigration Reform. The lobby argues that the legislation unfairly penalizes citizens and legal residents who do not violate U.S. immigration law and would open the flood gates to universal amnesty for illegal immigrants. 

“It’s a stepping stone,” said FAIR spokesperson David Ray. “The Dream Act exempts students from immigration laws and inevitably that loophole gets wider until no one is left out.” 

Ray said undocumented students should return to their native country, apply for university and then work the legal channels to petition for a visa. He said passing the legislation would prove an incentive for parents to smuggle their children across the border with Mexico. 

Humberto disagreed, saying most undocumented students have no interest in returning to a country they know little about. “Many of these students have been here for 10 to 15 years, he said. “They’re not going to go back from where they came from.” 

Neither side would wager on the legislation’s chances. Both bills are in their respective judicial committees, where the Dream Act is sponsored by powerful Utah Republican Committee Chair Orin Hatch.  

Still, after Sept. 11, the climate for immigration reform has cooled. President Bush buried a proposal to offer blanket amnesty to thousands of undocumented Mexicans after the 2001 terrorist attack, and has not voiced an opinion on the legislation. 

Lopez, meanwhile, says she is trying to concentrate on her studies in International Relations while the politics play out. “If this becomes law then hopefully I would transfer to UC Berkeley,” she said. “This would be a great opportunity for a person like me.”