Spanish professor Ana Patricia Rodriguez and several students are doing everything they can to keep the dream alive.

Yesterday, by failing to advance the National Defense Authorization Act, Senate Republicans successfully stymied legislation that offers a path to legal status and higher education for thousands of undocumented immigrants who were illegally brought to the country as kids.

When legislators wedded the DREAM Act to the reauthorization bill, some saw the move as a Democratic effort to pull in the Latino vote.

A number of Republican congressional representatives opposed the move, in part because they said giving undocumented immigrants access to federally funded student aid programs and institutions of higher education would put a burden on taxpayers.

But for student activists and faculty advocates of the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act — better known as the DREAM Act — this is merely another setback in a years-long fight.

Last week, Rodriguez and the Maryland Dream Youth Committee hosted a panel on to discuss the issue. At the First Look Fair, the Latino Student Union asked students to sign a petition in support of the legislation.

“It’s a very interesting movement because it involves the undocumented students themselves, their teachers and others,” Rodriguez said. “It’s not just a Latino issue; it’s wider than that.”

An estimated 612,000 individuals would meet the DREAM Act requirements to obtain conditional legal status, according to the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.

Students taking up the charge said the key is getting others engaged with the cause.

“I’ve seen people get excited. The thing with excitement is that it only lasts a little while,” LSU’s Vice President for Political Advocacy Isai Diaz said.”We want to change that.”

The Maryland Dream Youth Committee, a new lobbying group for the DREAM legislation that was started by students, including some from this university, regularly communicates with state senators and representatives and rallies others for support.

“We want to pass this as soon as possible so that as many people as possible can be included in this,” said sophomore engineering major Karen Guzman, a founders of the committee.

“At the end of the day it’s not about whether you’re illegal or not, it’s the education aspect,” she said.

Although students echoed the notion that the DREAM Act extends beyond being a Latino issue, few other student organizations have begun to champion the legislation.

MaryPIRG, for example, does not have a pronounced stance toward the DREAM Act, said David Bransfield, the advocacy group’s campaign coordinator for its voting project.

But Bransfield added he thought the underlying principles of the act align with the organization’s purpose.

“Immigration legislation has been ignored for too long, and these students are suffering because of it,” said Bransfield, a junior English major.

“These are kids who did not make the choice to come here. Their parents did.”

mquijada at umdbk dot com