Bob Corker, Jim Cooper: Laws should be fixed to help DACA recipients go to college

Melissa Heil is living the American dream as an educator and advocate for the deaf community.

Heil is part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that protects people brought to the United States as children from deportation and allows them to work.

Now, she is one of 536 scholars whom donors have helped send to 20 Tennessee universities.

DACA recipients in Tennessee are not allowed to apply for financial aid, scholarships or bank loans to pay for college, making it challenging to earn college degrees.

On Thursday, Equal Chance for Education held its second fundraiser to send students like Heil to college.

It costs the scholars $25,000 to earn their bachelor's degrees. Right now, there are 99 students in Tennessee on a wait list hoping someone will sponsor them to attend school, according to Equal Chance Executive Director Molly Haynes.

"I'm the first recipient of the E.C.E. scholarship," Heil said about the program that began in 2014.

Now a graduate student at Vanderbilt, Heil is hoping as a Hispanic woman to inspire children who look like her to earn degrees.

Many believe the funding issue can be solved.

During Thursday's event, former U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, University of Tennessee-Knoxville President Randy Boyd and former Washington Post publisher Don Graham argued for change in Tennessee to provide a boost to the state's economy and fill thousands of jobs in critical fields like nursing and education.

Corker said legislatures are playing "political football" with bills to determine border security and immigrant rights.

Corker said pairing the two in the same bill often makes it challenging to provide DACA recipients with basic rights.

Graham said many children come to America at age 4 or 5 and 14 years later, they graduate high school without similar options as other graduates seeking college degrees.

"They cannot borrow $1," Graham said. "People complain about student debt, but they cannot borrow."

Cooper said immigrant children deserve a chance and called the lack of legislation helping those children the "worst form of discrimination in American history."

"And we are doing nothing about it," Cooper said.

Corker said he believes for many 20-year-olds will see meaningful immigration reform in their lifetime.

"Because of the economic growth that comes to our country, allowing people to be in our country, to be educated to produce, it's just so self-defeating," he said.

Reach reporter Craig Shoup by email at cshoup@gannett.com and on Twitter @Craig_Shoup. To support his work, sign up for a digital subscription to www.tennessean.com.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Bob Corker, Jim Cooper: Laws should be fixed to help DACA recipients