French Montana has teamed up with MTV and the nonprofit Get Schooled to launch a new campaign called “We Are the Dream” that will provide resources to undocumented immigrants in the United States and help them get higher education. The rapper came to America from Morocco at age 13 and wants to make sure that other children who have immigrated to the U.S. have the same opportunities that he did.
"I am one of tens of thousands of first and second generation immigrants that are having a significant positive impact on the United States," the rapper told Rolling Stone. "I am excited to lead others in this fight to ensure Dreamers connect with support they need to get to college and make their American Dream come true."
Montana will be responsible for leading the campaign’s social media. His first project involves encouraging people to post selfies on Twitter and Instagram, share their country of origin, tag @GetSchooled, and use the hashtag #WeAreTheDream to “spread awareness and stand in solidarity with the belief that everyone should be able to go to college.” Get Schooled will also host a Twitter chat on February 20 with experts in higher education and immigration.
The rapper urged “every student out there that needs the right resources, that’s undocumented and wants to go to school or college” to head over to the campaign’s website, www.WeAreTheDream.US. There, undocumented students and their families will find plenty of resources and information on scholarships, sanctuary colleges, as well as personal stories. Students can also text “college” to 335566 to get personal help from counselors.
The Department of Education estimates that only five to 10 percent of the 65,000 undocumented children who graduate high school will go on to get a college education.
This new initiative comes as Congress keeps failing to come up with a compromise to address the roughly 800,000 people who came to the U.S. as undocumented children, who are called Dreamers. Under the Obama-era DACA program, they were allowed to stay in the country and legalize their status and go to school, work, join the military, and more in exchange for paying a fee and providing all their information to the government. Trump abruptly decided to end the program last year.
In addition, Get Schooled is offering $1,000 grants to schools and organizations who support undocumented students. The deadline to apply for this grant is February 28.
