Newsletter March 2012 – Silicon Valley Funding DREAMs

IN THIS ISSUE
The U.S. Naturalization Civics Test
EB-5 Program to End?
Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum
The Faces of US Immigrants: Augustus Saint-Gaudens, An Irish-American Sculptor
Recipes From The Melting Pot: Irish Soda Bread, A St. Patrick’s Day Favorite
Quote of the Month

Silicon Valley Funding DREAMs

In a recent article by Miriam Jordan from the Wall Street Journal, she writes that a group of Silicon Valley technology leaders, who have grown impatient with all the attempts by various legislative bodies to rewrite immigration laws, have decided to financially help undocumented youths attend college, find jobs and stay in the country despite their illegal status. The group includes Jeff Hawkins, inventor of the Palm Pilot; and the family foundations of Andrew Grove, co-founder of Intel Corp.; and Mark Leslie, founder of the former Veritas Software Corp.

Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs, has supported undocumented students for several years through her various organizations that help low-income high-school students. She has stated that “We think Congress’s inaction…is devastating for these students and tragic for the country.” In fact, the Silicon Valley money is in part a response to Congress’ failure to pass the DREAM Act. The U.S. has “put a lot of money into [undocumented students] already,” said Eva Grove, wife of Intel’s co-founder. Her family’s foundation already has given $1 million to immigration-related groups last year. She further said “It makes no sense to dead-end them after they are educated.”

Recently, California, Illinois and New York have passed bills that allow undocumented students to receive financial aid for college. Thirteen other states allow illegal immigrants who reside there and to pay in-state fees at public universities.

Again, it is left to private persons and individual states to step up to the plate to begin to mend an unnecessarily and embarrassingly broken immigration system.