Students at Smithfield-Selma High School in Smithfield, N.C., held a demonstration Wednesday, March 20. Thirty students, predominately Hispanic, walked out of class and marched through town in protest to a bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. This bill makes illegal immigration a felony and this demonstration is one of many held by students and citizens nationwide in protest.

Local grassroots organizations across the nation are putting together demonstrations like Day of Action for Immigrant Justice on April 10 in Siler City, N.C.

Sophomore in electrical engineering Andrew Pita is the external vice president of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers. He said the students had a right to express themselves through the demonstration at Smithfield-Selma High, and that he supports them. He compared the demonstrations to ones held during the equal rights movement in the 1960s.

“The only way to watch out for our people is to have the legal part of our population support them,” he said. “These people work hard for their money and hard for their families.”

Adriana Weil, a sophomore in biological sciences, said although she did not see the demonstration, she also feels like the students have a right to express themselves. Weil is the vice president of Mi Familia and is an exchange student from Puerto Rico.

“Everybody has a right to express their ideals and how they feel about all those people [immigrants],” she said.

The U.S. Senate debated the matter of illegal immigration this past week, and according to The Washington Post, on Thursday they reached a possible compromise. This compromise, if passed by the vote, will break illegal immigrants into three groups — long-term, mid-term and short-term.

Long-term illegal immigrants will be able to attain citizenship if they can provide valid proof they have been living in the U.S. for the past five years.

A number of things are required for this, such as having “to pay a $2,000 penalty, back taxes, learn English, undergo a criminal background check and remain working for 11 years.”

Other illegal immigrants who had been here for less time would have to return to a designated point of entry and obtain a new type of temporary work visa, but The Post said there were additional provisions excluding those who had worked in the U.S. less than two years.

A number of prominent officials, including President Bush, have shown public support for the compromise.

Weil said Mi Familia has not yet been able to discuss the matter as a group because they had not had a meeting recently and have been busy with elections for next semester. She said she intends to bring it up at the next meeting scheduled for Monday.

She said the final decision about illegal immigration will be a hard one to make, because it is an issue that has a different cultural significance for everyone.

“Every situation is different of why people come or not, so I don’t have a real definite say on it because of that,” Weil said. “It’ll be hard for the government to take into prospect every single, individual situation.”

Pita said the migrant work force is an essential part of the U.S. economy.

“Without the Hispanic migrant workers already in the U.S. the work force in the U.S. would be seriously hurt,” he said. “Many of the people that are legal would most of the time not do these jobs because they feel these jobs are under them.”

He said many immigrants are here to raise money for their families back home and work jobs that pay less than minimum wage because they don’t know any better.

“Most of the migrant workers I know up here scrape just to get by up here so their family back home can live peacefully,” Pita said.

Weil said she understands why the immigration is illegal, but the government should take into account the reasons the migration is occurring in the first place.

“I think everybody deserves a chance,” she said. “Maybe the U.S. should be more open minded about it — the other countries do have political and economic problems, it’s not just that they are intruding.”

Weil said she feels there should be additional qualifications to decide who should be allowed to stay in the U.S., while Pita said he feels it is unfair to force the illegal immigrants who had been here for over five years to pay such huge fines just to become citizens, especially since the majority of their money goes back home to their families.

“Most of them do not have the kind of money that the U.S. government is going to impose,” he said.

Although Pita said he sees it as a beginning, he does not feel like it is a permanent solution.

“It’s a step in the right direction, but we need to run a mile, so taking a baby step does not help,” Pita said.