Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials will not seek charges against the seven undocumented students, including one Detroiter, who were arrested April 5 and released the following day for protesting in downtown Atlanta, a public affairs representative for the agency said.

Dayanna Rebolledo, 21, a Henry Ford Community College student who lives in Detroit, was one of the seven. She — along with David Ramirez, Andrea Rosales, Viridiana Martinez, Jose Rico Benavides, Georgina Perez and Maria Marroquin — was in Atlanta to protest a law that would make it illegal for undocumented students to attend public universities in Georgia. The others are from areas throughout the country including Chicago, North Carolina and Georgia.

Alabama, South Carolina and North Carolina also have a ban on undocumented students attending college. The ban is set to take effect in Georgia this fall. The students went to Georgia State University, where they sought to deliver a message to its president, Mark Becker, and get him to denounce the bill. When they were denied access to him, they staged a sit-in on Decatur Street, where they were arrested.

Temple Black, of ICE’s public affairs office in the Southeast, said the matter was handled by the Atlanta Police Department. Bill McCafferty, of ICE’s Atlanta public affairs office said ICE did not interrogate any of the students.

However, Rebolledo said within two hours of their arrest by Atlanta police, two ICE agents came to question them at the Atlanta City Detention Center. She said the agents, whose names she could not recall, were polite and seemed overly nice to them, which she said was odd because they were told the students are undocumented.

After they were instructed to fill out paperwork, which included some personal questions, Rebelledo said; they refused and asked for a lawyer. The agents then backed off and deportation proceedings were not put in place, she said. The Atlanta Police Department charged the students with obstruction of traffic and unlawful assembly — both misdemeanors.

Rebolledo said they decided to stage the protest to empower undocumented persons to seek equal rights and not be afraid to speak out.

“Especially here in Georgia, (undocumented) people are afraid,” she said during an April 7 phone interview from Atlanta. “They’re afraid to go to a rally; they’re afraid to drive.

“Knowing that people are still in fear, if I share my story — if I come out of the shadows — I might empower other undocumented students to do the same.”

She added that they were uncertain why they were released.

Wayne State law professor Jonathan Weinberg said in an email that while it is not a crime to be in the U.S. unauthorized but that if ICE agents detain someone they do have the right to deport them. But since there are nearly 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. and they don’t have the resources to deport everyone, they have a priority to remove only those who have committed serious crimes, he said.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, there were roughly 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. in 2010, 60 percent of whom were from Mexico. In 2008, 5.8 percent of Michigan’s total population — or 582,742 people — were foreign-born, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. A Fiscal Policy Institute study from 2007 said immigrants are responsible for 11 percent of the area’s total economic output.

Unauthorized immigrants made up 1.3 percent of Michigan’s workforce in 2008, or about 65,000 workers, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. A Perryman Group study also found that if all illegal immigrants were removed from the state, the economy would lose 20,339 jobs permanently as well as $3.8 billion in economic activity and $1.7 billion in gross state product.

Illegal immigrants both use taxpayer services and contribute to the economy. Many anti-immigration groups want more fencing along the border with Mexico or stricter immigration requirements.

ICE agents in Detroit were criticized for pursuing suspected illegal immigrants without a warrant at Hope of Detroit Academy on the city’s southwest side in early April. It is against ICE procedure to patrol near churches and schools.

St. Hedwig Catholic Church in southwest Detroit held a vigil for Dayanna Rebolledo hours before her April 6 release to help raise the $1,800 for her bail and garner support.

Undocumented people have to pay more for college, can’t get a driver’s license and, since they don’t have a social security number, they can’t get a legitimate job. They also face the threat of deportation if they are arrested.

As a senior at Western International High School in Detroit, Dayanna’s sister, Beatriz Rebolledo, 18, said that while other students talk about their plans to go to universities and colleges, she plans to go to a community college. Her family can’t afford to pay the rate of tuition for her, which is usually the same as the rate for out-of-state students.

Undocumented persons can obtain legal status or citizenship in a number of ways. They can go back to Mexico and apply — which Beatriz Rebolledo said doesn’t usually work — they can marry an American citizen or they can take a residency or naturalization test. The tests can cost hundreds of dollars and have requirements such as having a Green Card, which is for permanent residents legally in the U.S.

Weinberg said it is virtually impossible for an undocumented person to obtain a legal status in the U.S.

“Current law … allows people in other countries to immigrate to the U.S. only if they fall in specific ‘preference categories’ — because they already have close family in the U.S., because they meet certain educational and employment requirements, etc.,” he said in an email. “Most ordinary people in other countries, without close family here or fancy educations, simply cannot legally come to the U.S.; there are no lines they can wait on or fees they can pay.”

Dayanna Rebolledo’s family, which includes her sister and parents, has lived in Detroit for 11 years since they flew into the U.S. from Baja California, Mexico. She is the founder and leader of One Michigan, an immigrants’ rights group based in Detroit in which her sister is also a member. Her family’s visas expired years ago and they are all undocumented.

“The DREAM Act seemed to be the only thing we had going for us,” Beatriz Rebolledo said. “When it didn’t pass, it was heartbreaking because there’s nothing to do now….We’re still fighting for the Dream Act because we know we can get it.”

Senators Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) first proposed the DREAM Act in 2001, which would allow qualified undocumented youths who were brought to the United States before turning 16 to go through a six-year conditional path to citizenship. It includes either two years of military service or completion of a college degree.

Belem Rebolledo, Dayanna’s mother, said Dayanna started doing activist work two years ago. She said many undocumented youth who live in America don’t have any ties to their home country.

“Some of them come when they’re just born, some of them don’t know they’re not from here,” she said. “They’ve never been to Mexico; some of them don’t speak Spanish. …If they send them back, they can’t live there.”

Pastor of the Hispanic community at St. Hedwig, the Rev. Cornelio Noel, who is a legal immigrant from the Philippines, wants to see the DREAM Act pass someday. He came to Detroit in 2003.

“The problem is if we don’t have comprehension or understanding of the problem itself, the tendency is to be xenophobic,” Noel said.

Dayanna Rebolledo is making a sacrifice for others, he said, and she has a dream for the community. Sometimes, though, the sacrifice is public, like her arrest.

“Even though your status is undocumented, nobody has the right to take your dignity,” Noel said. “It’s unkind.”

Priscilla Martinez, co-founder of One Michigan and a legal Mexican emigrant, said Dayanna Rebolledo wants to see universities in Michigan change tuition rates and acceptance requirements.

“Her other mission … is to start pushing universities here in Michigan to be really aware that we’re not holding back anymore,” Martinez said. “We’re going to come out, and we’re going to make sure they have good policies for undocumented students.”

Contemporary Michigan policy on undocumented youth varies depending on the institution, but many undocumented students pay three times the in-state tuition rate or the out-of-state rate.

At the time of publication, Maryland was set to become the 11th state to offer discounted or in-state rates to illegal immigrants after a 74-66 vote April 8 on its House of Delegates, The Baltimore Sun reported. The bill has passed the state Senate, and experts expect it to pass. Under the bill, “an undocumented student who attended at least three years of high school in Maryland and whose parents have paid state taxes would qualify for in-state tuition rates at a community college,” according to the Sun.

From there, they can transfer to a four-year university and pay the in-state rate as well.

Other states that offer tuition breaks for illegal immigrants include California, Texas and New York.