DREAMer Gaby Pacheco—So Many Gifts To Share

Gaby Pacheco just wants everyone to know she is as American as anyone else and she has gone to extraordinary lengths to try and prove it. But until Congress passes the DREAM Act, she won’t be able to share her many gifts because people won’t look past the fact that she is undocumented.

The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, which is supported by 66 percent of Americans, would allow undocumented students who have lived in the United States for at least five years and have graduated from high school or received a graduate equivalency diploma (GED) to legalize their immigration status by pursuing a college education or serving in the U.S. military. Congress is expected to take up the DREAM Act today.

Take action now. Call your representative at 1-866-967-6018 or your senator at 1-866-996-5161 and tell them something like this:

America needs the DREAM Act now. This bill will allow undocumented youths to earn their legal status through either a college education or military service. Additionally, the DREAM Act strengthens the U.S. economy by cutting the deficit by $1.4 billion.

Pacheco was just seven years old when her family moved here from her native Ecuador and settled in Miami. A gifted child, Pacheco, now 25, had a school career any parent would be proud of. She learned English very quickly and in the first grade, tested in the gifted level for math. She excelled in math, in science, music, ROTC, sports. By the 10th grade, she was taking college-level classes, participating and excelling in three sports and was a ranked officer in Navy ROTC. She says:

            I learned that if I tried hard, I could succeed.

But then reality hit. After she passed all the tests for her driving learner’s permit, she was denied because she was undocumented. Still determined to succeed, she worked even harder in school, taking advance placement courses from 7 a.m. to nearly midnight.

But it still was not enough. An obviously brilliant student—she graduated among the top three in her class—she also contributed 1,000 hours of community service. But she was discouraged from even applying to college because she didn’t have the citizenship paperwork she needed.

Finally, Miami-Dade College admitted her and once again, she excelled. She ran for student body president and completed a bachelor’s degree in special education. But she can’t get a job as a teacher. She wants to put her considerable skills to use teaching and reaching out to students with autism using music therapy.  But no one will hire her because she is undocumented.

 So she keeps fighting. Keeps trying to prove herself.

It’s been a long struggle. I’ve seen many friends just give up and go and work in restaurants and cleaning houses. I’ve seen people be frustrated and go crazy because they don’t know what to do next. I’ve had people come up to me and tell me they don’t have a desire to live any more.

 That’s why we need to pass the DREAM Act, she says.

There’s so much potential and so much desire to serve. More than anything else [there is a need] to be truly recognized as human beings, to be allowed to contribute, to make our lives, pursue our happiness and wake up from this nightmare we’ve been living and live our dreams.

Earlier this year, she walked more than 1,500 miles over four months as part of the “Trail of Dreams.” She and three other undocumented immigrants walked from Miami to Washington, D.C., telling people along the way their stories and asking them to support the DREAM Act. That trip finally gave her hope.

I truly believe that people don’t hate us. They’ve been misled by the media, sometimes even their own families, to believe that we’re bad and that we’re here to get the welfare. Every day on the walk, we talked to people who saw we are just human beings and we were able to regain some of that humanity we’d been searching for.