A diverse crowd greeted the Associated Students, Inc. at their bi-weekly meeting Wednesday. ASI voted on a resolution in support of the DREAM Act which won by a majority.

The DREAM Act, which would allow some undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship by either serving in the military or attending college, is expected to be debated in Congress during the lame-duck session.

The ASI resolution was debated among senators, students and the public. Many members of the community attended the meeting, including a majority who were against the resolution.

Students for Quality Education presented their own DREAM Act resolution during the meeting.

Organizations like the Brown Berets, a Chicano activist group, were present and clashed with opponents of the DREAM Act and of illegal immigration.

Two detectives who were dressed in civilian clothing were present to control the crowd along with two police officers.

ASI Executive Vice President Selena Farnesi moderated the session that allowed for public comments from the crowd. During the session, a Brown Beret member spoke out of turn and was taken out of the building by the police officers and detectives. In agreement, others in the audience argued that California lands that previously belonged to Mexico were acquired by the United States in an unlawful manner.

Neil O’Brien, who has actively questioned the lawfulness of Pedro Ramirez’s position as ASI president, reacted strongly to comments made the Brown Beret member about the historical events that created the United States and the people who were oppressed, such as Native Americans and other indigenous groups.

An unidentified member of the audience also questioned the lack of information ASI had, information she claimed is needed to make an informed decision on the resolution.

“I just really want to know if anyone of the individuals here has done any investigation in any of this,” she said. “Are you listening to everybody’s comments and then just going to make a vote?”

She encouraged senators and students to pay attention to information from O’Brien’s presentation.

Since the revelation of Ramirez’s legal status, O’Brien challenged the legality of Pedro’s acquired position and over the following weeks launched his own investigation.

He found and made public the profile of Ramirez’s MySpace page and his Twitter postings on a poster board. With this information, he questioned Ramirez’s true feelings about the United States and if he has broken any additional laws.

Some ASI senators approached his presentation board and listened to O’Brien’s argument that called for the “immediate resignation of Pedro Ramirez as ASI President.”

Student senators debated the passage of the DREAM Act resolution. Some senators questioned if ASI was in the position to vote on the resolution. Senators Oscar Perez, Alicia Orosco, Jaime Moncayo and others differed and argued that the Student Senate Agenda for the meeting was clearly presented beforehand.

Some senators, including Oscar Perez, approached students to find out if they agreed with the resolution.

“I wanted to represent the student body, because the student body are the ones that voted me in,” Perez said. “I wanted to give their representation in the vote and I just didn’t want to vote for myself.”

Perez conducted surveys with students from Fresno State courses, 15 in all. Among them, nine classes passed the resolution that prompted Perez to not vote against the resolution, even though he does not support the DREAM Act.

Perez said that other senators failed to ask their constituents.

“It’s the DREAM Act and it really didn’t affect them,” he said.

The ASI senators who did not choose to vote were actually saying no to the resolution, Perez said.

“It showed who supported Pedro and who didn’t.”