Provost Fred Kniss & Castillo
Isabel Castillo ’07 of Harrisonburg., Va., was interviewed on Oct. 14, 2010, by Bob Edwards of NPR’s The Bob Edwards Show. Edwards also interviewed Deanna Durham, EMU assistant professor of social work and other friends of Castillo in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The interviewees spoke about the importance of Congressional passage of the DREAM Act, to provide paths for Castillo and other undocumented young people to emerge from the shadows and earn their US citizenship.
Castillo and her many supporters inside and outside of EMU were devastated when the DREAM Act failed by only five votes to get the necessary 60 votes to advance it in the Senate. The DREAM Act would have permitted the sons and daughters of undocumented immigrants to qualify for citizenship after meeting rigorous tests: They would have been brought into the US before age 16 by parents who were undocumented; lived in the US for at least five years; have no criminal record; and would have served at least two years in the military or completed two years of college. After meeting these qualifications, they would wait six years to apply for citizenship.