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American Dreamer

Amanda M. Fairbanks
By Amanda M. FairbanksDec 31, 2009
Amanda M. Fairbanks
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Every so often, radio captures what print cannot. Meet Sam, 18, who is one of the 65,000 illegal immigrants who graduated from an American high school last year.His story and Bertha, his saxophone, were featured yesterday evening on NPR's All Thing Considered.Fourteen years ago, when Sam was five years old, his family emigrated from Mexico. In Elkhart, Indiana, Sam's childhood and adolescence took on a distinctly American tinge-public school, Catholic church, playing jazz on his saxophone.But not until college application season rolled around, requiring with it a social security number to qualify for financial aid, did his undocumented status become reality.The story was made by Long Haul Productions, a not-for-profit in Three Oaks, Michigan. Their site features Sam's story in two parts. NPR's version is a 12-minute excerpt.What should Sam-and by extension, the thousands of undocumented kids just like him for whom the affordability of higher education remains perilously out of reach-do?And is the Dream Act, which is currently stalled in Congress, the answer?
educationillegal immigration

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