Dodge City ? Considering college for Juan Jimenez isn’t a matter of choosing Kansas State University or Kansas University. It’s a matter of possibility.

The 18-year-old Dodge City High School graduate has outlined his future, but it hinges on his legal status — which haunts him daily.

He’s reminded as he drives, considers colleges or plans his future career: He’s an illegal immigrant.

And without obtaining legal residency or citizenship, earning a bachelor’s degree — his goal — is impossible. He can’t afford the tuition rates imposed on students like himself.

“Everything revolves around you being legal here, and if you’re not, then I can’t do a lot of the things I want to do,” Jimenez says. “I’m limited.”

Jimenez’s mother yearned to give him opportunities she was denied in Mexico, so she brought him to the United States at age 5.

“She knew from her experience growing up in Mexico that if we stayed there, it was going to be extremely expensive to get an education, and we probably wouldn’t even be able to graduate junior high before we started working because we’d have to help out,” he says.

But now, his method of coming to the United States is the very roadblock to the future his mother sought for him.

Jimenez applied for U.S. citizenship in 1999 through his father, who obtained legal status years ago. But he’s yet to receive it.

Sept. 11, 2001, slowed down the process, he says.

Juan Jimenez, 18, Dodge City, wants to graduate from Dodge City Community College and attend either Kansas State or Kansas University, but because of his status as an illegal immigrant, he must pay out-of-state tuition that he can't afford. He came to the United States with his family when he was 5 years old but has not been able to obtain citizenship or legal-resident status, which would allow him to pay in-state tuition.

Jimenez graduated early from Dodge City High School, earning his diploma in December. Now he’ll finish his associate’s degree at Dodge City Community College, where he also took courses during high school.

By December, he hopes to get that degree and head to K-State or KU to study business administration and obtain a bachelor’s degree — the first in his family.

If Jimenez’s papers haven’t been processed, though, college will have to wait — unless federal or state legislation passes that would allow certain immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates.

Undocumented immigrants, no matter how long they’ve been in Kansas, must pay out-of-state tuition rates, which can triple the cost of college.

“I’m kind of setting my hopes on that I’m going to be able to do this,” Jimenez says of seeking a bachelor’s degree. “Hopefully, it will work out. But if not, I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do.”

Legislation

The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act of 2003, commonly called the DREAM Act, was introduced in July to the U.S. Senate.

So far, 44 senators have sponsored it — including Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan. — but it’s yet to pass out of the Senate.

The act would eliminate a federal provision that discourages states from providing illegal immigrants in-state tuition rates and would allow some immigrants who have grown up in America to apply for legal status, according to the National Immigration Law Center.

There’s also a Kansas measure, House Bill 2145, which would allow undocumented immigrant students who graduated from a Kansas high school or earned an equivalent diploma and attended Kansas schools for three or more years to pay in-state tuition rates.

The bill passed the House during the 2003 legislative session but was never taken up by the Senate.

Community colleges

As laws now stand, college is limited for undocumented immigrants, officials say.

Some, like Jimenez, attend community colleges, where fewer admissions restrictions exist. Applications ask students whether they’re state residents, which is defined as living in Kansas for six months.

That option doesn’t exist, however, on public university applications. Students must indicate whether they’re U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Then students provide their signature indicating that all responses are true.

Officials at neither level, however, verify students’ legal status.

“These are good-faith documents,” says Christine Crenshaw, associate director of undergraduate admissions at K-State.

If information is falsified, the documents are fraudulent and the student is subject to immediate dismissal, Crenshaw says.

“We don’t know if students are immigrants or not,” says Anthony Lyons, dean of student services at Dodge City Community College. “On our application for admission, their residency is self-reported. So basically, if they say they are a resident of Ford County or a resident of Kansas, as far as we’re concerned, they are.”

Long-term effects

Students who don’t attend college usually end up working in the service industry, school counselors and principals say. The long-term effects concern them most — effects that Padilla says are presently evident.

“You don’t have to look down the future — look at who’s cleaning up the hotels, look at who’s working at (beef packing plants). … Look at what’s happening now. You don’t have to look to the next generation,” he says.

Jimenez hopes people will be more open-minded, less quick to judge. Many illegal immigrants fear speaking out. They don’t want to risk deportation. But Jimenez takes that risk. People have to speak out, he says, to inspire change.

“People should try to understand a little bit more that the people who are going to benefit from this bill could be your next-door neighbor, and it’s people who want to learn,” he says.