Jose Antonio Vargas' story is remarkable. He disclosed in a New York Times Magazine essay that he is an undocumented immigrant from the Philippines who learned of his true status at the age of 16 when he applied for a driver's permit. In spite of that challenge, he became an award-winning journalist, having worked for the Washington Post and the Huffington Post, written for an array of other top-flight media outlets, and interviewed a number of high-profile newsmakers.
Without doubt, Jose is a special talent with a special story; he's using that profile to advocate on behalf of other undocumented young men and women who have attended high school in the United States and could benefit from the enactment of the DREAM Act. If passed, the Act would grant lawful status to these undocumented young adults if they complete at least two years of college or military service and fulfill other conditions. Democratic leaders tried to get the DREAM Act passed in the lame duck session of Congress in December, and although the legislation passed in the House, Harry Reid fell five votes short in a Senate cloture vote.
Turns out that I'm helping to represent another DREAMer (as many such young adults are commonly referred to) who is currently age 16 and facing deportation. Ernesto (a pseudonym) may not have the remarkable accomplishments that Jose has to his credit, but I sense that given the opportunity, Ernesto also can contribute importantly to our society. Like many children born in Mexico, his parents brought Ernesto across the border surreptitiously several years back. Mexico's economy shed jobs as a result of NAFTA and the country's inability to compete in agriculture and manufacturing with world trade compact nations like China. So Ernesto's parents and many others crossed the border in search of work to feed their families.
Fast forward to Ernesto's first year in high school and a grading period where he got terrific grades. On a stroll after dinner, the family went into a toy store where Ernesto spotted a toy gun he liked that shot harmless plastic pellets. His father bought him the toy as a reward for his grades, but everything spiraled downhill from there. Ernesto proudly took the toy gun to school to show his friends, and a teacher spotted it. The school's zero tolerance policy included toy guns, so Ernesto got reported to the local police. The local police fingerprinted Ernesto and ran a standard check with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and they discovered that Ernesto was undocumented. As Ernesto faces the prospects of being deported to Mexico, his teachers and school officials -- filled with regret for the role they unintentionally played in this tragedy -- are lobbying ICE officials and political leaders to halt Ernesto's deportation. They describe him as a "wonderful student," a "critical thinker and debater," who is "deeply insightful and compassionate." The sense that I get from Jose's story is that had he been in Ernesto's shoes in high school, Jose's teachers would have done the same for him. The sense that I have from getting to know Ernesto, his family, and his teachers, is that Ernesto has talent, too.
Much of the positive media coverage on the DREAM Act has focused on DREAMers who have overcome struggle to do well in high school and college, aspiring to be doctors, engineers, or to enter other professions. For those of us who support the DREAM Act, it's hard to resist the impulse to highlight the remarkable success stories of the young adults we have encountered. In recounting Ernesto's story, you can see that the easy thing to do is focus on what a wonderful kid he is, especially in the eyes of his teachers. Doing so is probably the politically savvy thing to do as well.
However, I'm reminded by Ernesto's very same teachers that not all of their DREAMers are straight-A students, and that these others students shouldn't be ignored. First, like any cohort of students, some will do well academically, and some won't. That doesn't mean that we need to be ashamed of the C students. It means that many of those students are not destined to be Ph.D candidates at Berkeley. Second, and of greater concern, teachers tell me that many of their undocumented students -- for some beginning in middle school -- are aware of their status and see little reason to apply themselves academically. They see college as unreachable because they are ineligible for many scholarships and loans, plus without authorization, they don't see how they will be able to find work with or without college. For that group, we need to re-instill a sense of hope and purpose for education. I'm reminded of the important words of the Supreme Court in its 1982 case, Plyler v. Doe, that reminded us why it's important not to foreclose public education to undocumented students:
[M]any of the undocumented children disabled by this classification will remain in this country indefinitely, and . . . some will become lawful residents or citizens of the United States. It is difficult to understand precisely what the State hopes to achieve by promoting the creation and perpetuation of a subclass of illiterates within our boundaries, surely adding to the problems and costs of unemployment, welfare, and crime. It is thus clear that whatever savings might be achieved by denying these children an education, they are wholly insubstantial in light of the costs involved to these children, the State, and the Nation.
For every Jose Antonio Vargas or Ernesto, we are very likely to encounter DREAMers who are not near the top of their class, but they are here at any rate because their parents are dreamers as well. Their parents' dreams may appear simple and clichéd, but they are true nonetheless: to make an honest living for an honest day's work, to put food on the table, to be part of a safe community, to instill strong family values, and to send their children to school out of hope for a better tomorrow. Like Jose and Ernesto, they too are remarkable for getting their families here out of sheer determination to lead a productive life.
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Consider the plight of young people here illegally. He cries for them because they face the possibility of having to return to their possibly unfamiliar native countries with a good American education. But per the Bureau of Labor Statistics Unemployment Report of June 3, 2011 the unemployment rate for White Men and Women less than 20 years old is 20.6%. For Hispanic Americans in this age group the unemployment rate is 26.1%. For Black Americans in this age group the unemployment rate is 40.6%. Why do you forget these destitute Americans?
Why is he not crying for the poor American child who, because of competition from people living in the USA illegally, will not have the chance to build job skills for their future because there are not enough jobs for them when they are young? Try to explain that to the one in four American youths who are have seen their opportunities disappear to those who have no legal right to be in the USA. This is a classic lose-lose situation. Should the person living illegally in the USA lose by being deported? Or should the Citizen lose because we do not enforce our law?
I have a dream too, that the 14th amendment will be corrected and the supreme court makes a decision on who is and who is not a citizen. Plus require one US citizen parent to be born a US citizen. Citizen by blood by border.
"Those who were not qualified under naturalization laws of the United States to become citizens of the United States would be unable to renounce their prior allegiances and consent to the full jurisdiction of the United States as needed to become a citizen. This is how children born to Indian’s and Asians were prevented from becoming citizens themselves under the language chosen.
What changed after the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment? Not much really. States adopted laws that excluded either “transient aliens” or those not bona fide residents of the State. New York by 1857 had already a code that read, “All persons born in this state, and resident within it, except the children of transient aliens, and of alien public ministers and consuls, etc.” This code overturned the court ruling in Lynch v. Clarke (1844) where the court was forced to consider the English common law rule in regards to children born of aliens because New York had no laws on the subject at the time."
http://federalistblog.us/2007/09/revisiting_subject_to_the_jurisdiction.html
Gads, come up with a better argument than that, puh-lease.
This is NOT about talent, this is about America's sovereignty and American law.
Visit the U.S. Consulate in any third world country. Outside the doors there are literally tens of adults weeping because they have been denied access to America. These honest, hard-working people ALSO honor American law because they will not come. If anything, we should accept these people.
I am 7000% against illegals. Capture them, take their assets and send them to their home country. Our borders MUST be closed to everyone except those willing to knock at our front door.
We would be fools not to.
Yes you would. Obtaining a US Citizenship is not a game show.
Now, should we revise our laws to make becoming a citizen easier? Maybe, but current illegals still need to get behind those who are already in line.
"Undocumented immigrants" is newspeak. Under US law, they are aliens. Because they are here illegally, they are illegal aliens.
"Political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." - George Orwell
What I cannot understand is the actions of these parents. It's one thing for them to come here. It's quite another to bring small children
Stop rewarding illegal behavior.
I am not arguing that "all" illegal immigrants are good and some should probably be deported based on their ability to be a productive member of society (criminal behavior, etc), but many certainly can...and allowing them to have a clear and slightly easier path to citizenship should not be a problem.
Why deny them?
After that, we need to completely reform our LEGAL immigration system, streamline the process for people to immigrate legally, learn the language, etc.
My grandparents, and countless others, entered this country through Ellis Island, legally, dreaming of a better life. After coming here, they worked hard, learned the language, and became citizens.
If you come here illegally, you have no right to stay.
It was a complete accident of birth that allows you the privilege you have now, nothing else.
Your grandparents had a clear, relatively easy way to get into the country and become citizens, it is more difficult to do so now, much more difficult. We had a system setup to take in a huge amount of immigration back then, we don't have that now.
Who says these people are not working hard (many of them take the worst jobs that you won't take)...they would likely learn some language skills, they have to....BTW....what language did you have to learn to be a citizen? What is the "official" language of the US?
I recognize there is a defacto language, being english, but there is no "official" language.
In short, your forefathers did the work, and you got it for free. And that is fine and fair in my opinion....but why not let existing immigrants have the same chance your grandparents had?
They all can, if they apply and come here legally. Someone whose first act to come here is breaking one of our laws does nto speak well for that person.
I don't think anyone is saying that they (illegal aliens) are not hard workers, but that doesn't change the fact that they have broken the law to get here. Just because someone is a "hard worker" doesn't give them the right to be an American citizen. This is a country of laws, and if you break the law there is a price to pay.
Our spineless government should make English the official language, it would be good for the country in the long and short run.
Once the borders are secured, and the people who are here illegally are penalized in some manner, I would fully support an easier way for those wanting to come into this country legally to do so.
Obamas’ Illegal’s stealth DREAM ACT: I C E JUNE 24
ILLEGALS MAY STAY, NO DEPORTATION IF
Illegal has any relative in us armed forces
Illegal is enrolled in ANY school
Illegal is IN ‘ ILL HEALTH’???? or has ‘disability’???
Illegal is PREGNANT OR NURSING
Illegal ALREADY HAS ANCHOR BABY
These nightmare instructions will guarantee 90 % of the illegals will be able to AVOID DEPORTATIONS AND SOON BECOME VOTING CITIZENS HERE. Obama is getting his new voters in time for nov 2012 even if these ignoring our immigration laws are IMPEACHABLE OFFENCES.