City Council Calls For Immigration Reform

Citing the case of undocumented student Eric Balderas '13, the Cambridge City Council passed a resolution Monday calling upon the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to halt the removal of immigrant students.

At its first meeting since late June, the Council showed its support for the passage of the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act—a piece of legislation that would provide qualified undocumented youth with a six-year-long conditional path to citizenship upon completing two years of higher education toward a degree or two years of military service—or similar immigration reform.

The resolution was authored by Harvard Divinity School student Christopher C. Hope, who also serves as a minister at the Pentecostal Tabernacle in Cambridge and a human rights commissioner.

Though Balderas' name appeared in the resolution—on behalf of which several undocumented youth spoke during the meeting—the rising Harvard sophomore was not present at Monday's gathering.

In early June, Balderas tried to board a plane from San Antonio, Texas to Boston in June with his Mexican consulate card and Harvard identification, prompting the attention of immigration officials who soon discovered Balderas' undocumented status. He faced possible deportation to Mexico, but was ultimately permitted to stay indefinitely.

Balderas could not provide comment because he has been advised to not speak with the press.

"These are young immigrants who come to our congregation...to ask for prayers to be allowed to stay in this country to continue their education," Hope said at the City Council meeting. "For them, this great nation has been everything they've known."

What began as a sultry and delayed start to the special Cambridge City Council meeting yesterday dragged into the cool late night with a couple of lengthy recesses and an audience that gradually petered out.

For two hours during the public comment session, Cambridge citizens and affiliates approached the stand to draw attention to other agenda issues such as increasing the parking permit price and allowing abutting neighbors to raise chickens and ducks in their back yard.

The illegal immigration presentations were woven in with dissenters of the city manager agenda item of seeking other barriers to allowing Cambridge residents to have chickens and ducks in their back yard—which one speaker as "undocumented chickens."

—Staff writer Xi Yu can be reached at xyu@college.harvard.edu.