Outraged by Congress's failure to allow undocumented students a path to citizenship, Bay Area technology leaders, activists and nonprofits are pulling their resources to help these students without legal immigration status attend college.
Silicon Valley millionaire Jeff Hawkins, the inventor of the Palm Pilot, donated around $300,000 to Educators for Fair Consideration, a San Francisco nonprofit that helps undocumented students achieve their academic and career goals.
"We are currently in an exploratory phase," Hawkins told the Peninsula Press. "There is so much more we need to do."
What gauged Hawkins interest was when he discovered one of his daughter's high school friends was undocumented.
Hawkins said these young people have done nothing wrong and shouldn't be punished because they are undocumented.
Many Bay Area leaders were inspired to help undocumented students after Congress failed to pass the federal DREAM Act in December 2010. The bill was designed to offer a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children but are pursuing higher education or service in the U.S. military.
If the bill were passed, it would have made 2.1 million young people eligible for conditional legal status.
"When the DREAM Act didn't pass, I didn't foresee that a lot of private donors would be interested in this," Kathy Gin, co-founder and CEO of Educators for Fair Consideration, told the Peninsula Press.
More than one in four of all potential DREAM Act beneficiaries, or DREAMers, live in California.
