Over the past few months, the topic of immigration has continued to fuel debate among legislators, the media, and the American public. With federal immigration reform currently stalled in Congress and controversial state laws like the one passed in Arizona continuing to threaten the livelihood of hardworking immigrant families, our nation faces a difficult crossroads. In the midst of this political turmoil, it has been the voices of youth across the country that have forced us all to remember the many lives that remain on hold and the dreams that remain unfulfilled due to our broken immigration system.
Last week, hundreds of undocumented youth traveled to the nation's capital from around the country to urge Congress to move forward with the DREAM Act, legislation that would provide certain undocumented students with the opportunity to earn permanent legal status if they came to the United States as children, have good moral character, finish high school or obtain a G.E.D., and complete two years of college or military service.
The bipartisan bill was introduced by Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Richard Lugar (R-IN) and currently has significant Congressional support with 39 co-sponsors in the Senate and 126 in the House. The DREAM Act has also received overwhelming support from the higher education community, religious leaders, teachers and school counselors, civil rights groups, and child advocates.
Some may wonder why such a bill has been successful in garnering so much support at a time when tensions around immigration run so high. The answer is simple. The DREAM Act makes economic sense for our country as a whole and embodies the American value of putting our children first. A recent poll conducted by Opinion Research Corporation and First Focus, a bipartisan child advocacy organization, reveals that a significant 70% of Americans favor the DREAM Act. And this is true across party lines, as a majority of Democrat, Republican, and Independent voters favor the bill. In fact, Americans are more than twice as likely to strongly favor the bill as they are to strongly oppose it.
As Americans, one thing we all agree on is the importance of investing in the education of our children. In 1982 the Supreme Court ruled in Plyer v. Doe that access to a public K-12 education could not be denied to any child due to immigration status as doing so would result in the creation of a permanent "underclass." This statute has enabled immigrant children growing up in America to attend our schools and dream of pursuing a college degree. Unfortunately, higher education is often not a feasible option for the nearly 65,000 undocumented children who graduate from our nation's high schools every year.
One such student is Laura Lopez, a DREAM eligible youth who was brought to the U.S. when she was just one year old. Like so many young people in her situation, Laura's parents risked everything in order to provide her with an opportunity for a better life. Laura, who has no memory of the country of her birth, grew up completely unaware of the limitations she would face down the road due to her immigration status. It was not until she was applying for college that she became aware of the challenges she faced in funding her education and the fact that she would never be able to use her degree to pursue a career in the country she calls home. With a great deal of persistence and courage, Laura successfully completed her degree with honors at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Unable to legally work in America, she now dreams of pursuing a career and attending law school. However, Laura realizes that without legislative action, her dreams will inevitably fall short of becoming reality. After already waiting nearly a decade, Laura has joined hundreds of her peers in publicly sharing her story with the hope of bringing about change for so many others like her.
Hundreds of thousands of children should not be forced to place their dreams on hold. After already investing in their education, it makes no sense that the system then acts to prevent these students from putting their talent to use. The vast majority of the American public believes that leaving so many children to face an uncertain future undermines our values as well as the future prosperity of our country. However, Congress can do something about it and do right by these children by passing the DREAM Act now.
This blog is part of the Peaceful Revolution series that explores innovative ideas to strengthen America's families through public policies, business practices, and cultural change. Done in collaboration with MomsRising.org, read a new post here each week.
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We don't have the money to fix that for our citizens.
But let the people of other nations yell that they want something from us and suddenly what we can't do for our own we can do for the citizens of other countries, especialy if they broke our laws to demand it.
No, we don't need the Dream Act. Foriegn nationals who broke our laws need the Dream Act.
This is not for American children. If they give a path to citizenship at all that should be enough.
A lot of people crossing border work hard to break our laws and then expect to be rewarded for it. The reward should be a ride to the South of Mexico so they will have to work a lot harder to break our laws again.
As far as other nations students, our foriegn aid programs can help educate them in thier country, not ours. Better yet, let their own nation pay for their education. We have problems of our own to deal with.
1) Join the branch of the U. S. Armed Service of your choice and:
a) Be put on the fast track to becoming a Naturalized Citizen of the United States of America.
b) Contribute to the GI Bill so you can get a College Education or an advanced degree.
c) Learn a technical skill and gain leadership skills.
d) Utilize the other benefits you earn by your service to your Country.
R/ PRONESE
I'm sure there are a lot of GREAT kids that have been brought here by their parents. But I'm also sure that there are a lot more GREAT kids in the world who's parents haven't broken our laws and who would never do such a disrespectfull thing. If we are so intent on hitting the half BILLION mark population wise in the next few decades then why not allow millions upon millions of the other ones in first?????
Of course, there are certainly a lot of details that need to be looked at. For example, the US should be sure that the investment in education will actually pay dividends - which, given the state of US education policy in general, is always questionable. But I think the DREAM Act, as it stands currently, is promising and could benefit all Americans.
There is only so much room. Most people have limits on numbers somewhere in their thoughts on population growth. Very few would want this country to have over a billion. Most do not want us to hit 500 million. They know that would be a disaster since we are already out of good water in many states, we have to import oil from hostile nations, have no places for landfills, sewage systems that overflow into rivers and we are paving over open space at a record pace for housing tracts and strip malls.
7 billion people on this planet - I choose to have sympathy for most of those before any illegal.
By the way did you know that the child of a taxpaying citizen cannot go to a college across state lines without paying huge increases in tuition. Yet under the dream act the child of an illegal who pays no taxes can go cheaply.