Putting on their walking shoes

Four students from Miami are making a 1,500-mile journey to Washington, D.C., in support of the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act - and they're doing it on foot.

The purpose of the walk is to promote awareness about immigration reform based on four principles: equal access to education, an end to the separation of families, comprehensive worker's rights and a pathway to citizenship.

The students started walking on Jan. 1 and plan to arrive in Washington, D.C. on May 1.

Last week, as they made their way through Central Florida, they stopped in Orlando. On Tuesday, they gathered in front of the Student Union to meet students and collect signatures for a petition.

Carlos Roa, 22, who is studying architecture at Miami Dade College, said they decided to make the walk because of a lack of progress within the immigration reform movement.

'Nothing else was working,' Roa said. 'We tried everything else: hunger strikes, lobbying, conference calls, rallying.'

Roa said his family moved from Venezuela to New York in 1989 to find a better life, but they overstayed their visas. Roa said his family faced many struggles, including poverty, bankruptcy, eviction from their homes and his mother's death from cancer.

'I did not really feel 'undocumented' until high school,' Roa said. 'You can't legally work, vote, drive, join the military or receive higher education. You can't achieve your dreams and aspirations - you're boxed in.'

Roa said he had wanted to join the military after graduating from high school, but he could not because he is undocumented.

Roa said he became an activist when he was 20. He joined a local chapter of Students Working for Equal Rights, an organization that works for education for immigrant youth.

'[The walk] has been a liberating process, because we're reaching out to different communities,' Roa said. 'It means a lot to talk to different communities to give them hope through our actions.'

Gaby Pacheco, 25, who is working on her third degree from Miami Dade College, also said she decided to make the walk because she was frustrated.

'I was fed up,' she said. 'I was tired. We weren't making any progress.'

She said that of the 2.5 million undocumented workers in the U.S., 5 percent have the ability to attend school.

'I was one of the privileged ones,' she said.

Pacheco said that so far the walk has been a great experience.

'It's been amazing,' she said. 'We've been able to meet real people with real stories.'
Pacheco said the hardest part of the walk is saying goodbye.

'Not just to my own family, but to all the people we meet,' she said. 'Everywhere we go, we feel like we're home. People give us beds, food, their time. It's hard every time we leave.'

Pacheco said that they have not experienced much backlash against the immigrant community during the walk.

'I think it's because we're in friendly territory,' she said.

'Sometimes people will say things like, 'Go back to Mexico!' ' Roa said. 'I say, 'Yeah, well, I've never been there. I'd like to go visit though.' '

Pacheco said she feels she has a responsibility to carry a message of love, peace and justice.

'We want to see a real paradigm shift, not just for the U.S., but for the whole world,' she said. 'We want people to see each other as human beings - not to see color of skin, not to see if they're men or women, just to see human beings. We want people to respect each other's rights and desires to accomplish their dreams.'

Juan Carlos Barrientos, 33, is a UCF student working on a master's degree in public administration.

He said that UCF students have likely been classmates with students who were undocumented.

'These are kids who grew up here,' he said. 'They're more Floridian than anything. They just don't have papers.'

Barrientos said he has been working toward passing the DREAM Act since 2003.

'I don't want [the walkers] to be my age and still be fighting,' he said.

The UCF chapter of SWER is working to change UCF policy to allow people to apply to UCF without a social security number.

One way to do that is to have President Hitt sign the resolution. The other is to have the resolution passed by the SGA Senate. On Jan. 14, the resolution was introduced to the senate and passed its first reading.

Resolutions, like bills, must be read and approved three times by senate to be passed.