The “dreamâ€Â part of Senate Bill 1, the California DREAM Act, was snuffed out, at least for now, by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s veto pen.

Sponsored by Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, and passed by the legislature earlier this year, the bill would have allowed undocumented immigrant students to apply for community college fee waivers and other financial aid currently reserved for U.S. citizens. Undocumented students would have been eligible for Cal Grants that can be used at California colleges and universities.

The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act has been pushed for several years now, on both the state and national level, but so far without success. Senate Bill 1 is similar to a bill vetoed by Schwarzenegger last year. The big change from last year̢۪s bill was a specific exclusion of undocumented immigrant students from the Competitive Cal Grant Program.

After issuing the veto, Schwarzenegger said he didn’t want an “additional strainâ€Â on the state budget he claimed would have resulted from the law change. He also pointed out that the affected students are already eligible for in-state tuition rates.

While not unexpected, Fresno State̢۪s California Student Association representative Esmeralda Santos said she was hopeful the governor would change his mind after the Competitive Cal Grant exclusion was added.

“We respectfully disagree with the governor’s decision,â€Â Santos said. “[Schwarzenegger] thought it would negatively affect U.S. students.â€Â

Santos said that financial aid funds available for students were currently not utilized enough and therefore available for more students.

“These [undocumented] students are already accounted for in the Cal Grant fund,â€Â Santos said. “It doesn’t distinguish between undocumented students and others.â€Â

Cal Grants are funded by the state of California and are awarded on the basis of financial need and academic merit. The program is composed of both entitlement and competitive awards.

Entitlement awards are guaranteed awards for qualified recent high school graduates or high school seniors. Competitive awards are offered on a competitive basis to eligible returning community college students who missed out on the entitlement, but are not guaranteed.

Some restrictions would have applied for undocumented students, including meeting academic requirements and a verifiable financial need.

On Oct. 1, the California State Student Association, with support from Associated Students, Inc., organized a rally in the Free Speech Area in support of the California Dream Act. The rally was attended by more than 120 students, according to Santos, and was held late in the afternoon partially because “a lot of students affected couldn’t be there till then because they work during the day.â€Â

The Fresno State rally mirrored other rallies held all over the state that day in support of the bill in an intensive lobbying effort targeted at the governor. The rallies were primarily sponsored by the University of California Student Association and the California State Student Association.

Santos said the bill was important for California̢۪s future because of its perceived educational benefit for the state̢۪s workforce.

“I agree with this bill,â€Â Fresno State Migrant Services Coordinator Raul Moreno said in an interview with The Undercurrent, a Fresno newspaper. “These future citizens should be encouraged to become teachers, doctors and engineers, and productive members of our workforce. It is an investment in California.â€Â

The goal of the bill̢۪s supporters is to improve access and affordability of California colleges and universities to all students who want to learn in the state.

On the national level, a different version of the DREAM Act was included as a provision of the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006, which was passed by the U.S. Senate but didn̢۪t get any further. The national DREAM Act would have repealed a 1996 federal law that prevents states from offering in-state tuition rates to illegal aliens unless those states also offer in-state tuition rates to all U.S. citizens.

Opponents of the reform act also targeted the DREAM provision.

To allow undocumented immigrants access to in-state tuition rates would amount to an unfair amnesty, said Kris Kobach, professor of law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, in an article opposing the DREAM Act on behalf of the conservative Heritage Foundation.

To comply with the current federal law, California̢۪s DREAM Act would have opened up in-state tuition rates to all U.S. citizens.

Despite the setback, Santos said she and CSSA have not given up on the effort, and plan to lobby for the DREAM Act̢۪s reintroduction in future legislative sessions.