For years, the DREAM Act has been the low hanging fruit of the immigration reform debate. Yet almost a decade after a version of the law was first proposed, it is no closer to passage or implementation.
The DREAM Act centers on young people who are not legal residents, but came to the country as children in the company of illegal immigrants. Now graduating from high schools around the country at the rate of about 65 thousands a year, they don't qualify for most college loan or scholarship programs, and their home states charge them radically higher out-of-state tuition for higher education.
The DREAM Act would end those problems for students who are out of status, and finish high school, or spend two years in the military. Its opponents do not want to open the door to eligibility for legal status for so many thousands of people, and the law's supporters don't want to accept half a loaf in the form of passage of a measure that falls short of the far reaching fix they seek for immigration.
The young people themselves? They are sympathetic characters out of central casting... many are successful students, committed to making lives in the United States. They were not responsible for their presence in the US, whatever their status. The lawbreakers were really their parents, and it just rubs certain Americans the wrong way to see their opportunities limited by something they did not choose. Their home countries are places they hardly know, or don't remember.
So for America, what's the best play? Make these young people wait for a thorough solution to immigration reform? Let them in temporarily pending the completion of their education or training? State colleges and universities are strapped, and charging in-state tuition to thousands of kids would mean foregoing lots of cash. On the one hand, they have no plans to return to countries that are foreign to them now, on the other hand they are, as one of our panelists pointed out, unemployable under American law. So which is it, encourage investment in a young adult to give them the tools to be more productive in the work force? Or concede that an illegal immigrant with a college diploma may end up more frustrated than one without it.
When I was in Iowa in early 2008 for the campaigning before the Iowa caucuses, I followed Gov. Mike Huckabee, then the governor of Arkansas, to a college campus where he got a question about the DREAM Act. During a campaign season marked with escalating tough talk about immigration and enforcement, Gov. Huckabee was alone among Republicans willing to make it possible for illegal immigrant students in their states to enroll as residents and pay accordingly. "They're not going home to a place they don't even remember," the governor said, "I think we're a better country than that."
There are logical, legal, coherent arguments to be made on both sides of the debate. Even Americans who have little patience for pleas for a "path to citizenship" for people who've come here to live illegally agree these young people are not to blame for their predicament and don't want to see them punished.
So again, for supporters of the DREAM Act, what's the play? As more and more states prepare to introduce laws that mirror Arizona's SB1070, what shot does the law have? Are Republicans in any mood to give the President any kind of legislative victory that could strengthen Latino support for Democrats as we near the midterm elections? Are Latino voters going to credit President Obama?
It's starting to look like the sour mood in the electorate won't be improved unless the US starts racking up better job numbers. For a country with millions of unemployed and underemployed, there may be little stomach for a policy that puts hundreds of thousands of new, better educated graduates on equal footing with native-born workers.
Until more of these questions can be answered its hard to see the DREAM Act going anywhere soon. These littlest immigrants, now all grown up, are collateral damage in the war over immigration. As in many of the big battles over social policy, the loudest voices at the end of the ideological spectrum now control the debate. The people who need the law most just have to wait.
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Point is: The Dream Act will open up the doors for those who wish to continue their personal growth and currently are not able due to their legal status.
I am not sure how you compare a legal immigrant with an illegal. First of all, these legals don't have the mental padarox I have in my mind of wanting to serve America. It as if I were raised Christian, but you want me to study witchcraft.
Myself and many others do not and would not support other illegals coming or staying. This is because unlike legal people and illegals with US born babies, we suffered tremendously. Some of us have been abused in many ways, all of us lived in poverty and hardship. But yet I don't feel you owe me anything. On the contrary, I feel you the citizens are handcuffing me and this is an impediment to finish my mission, that is to make America a balanced country. No left and no right, just balance.
Knowing many people in this case, I can tell you we are centrists but do find ourselves being defended by the DNC. I am not against my own people, but I don't believe all illegals should be legalized, for the majority of them take this land for granted and don't surrender to the flag.
Thank you for your moment...
ism3x
I support the DREAM Act I'm concerned that this is a ploy to legalize most illegals since nothing would prevent DREAM Act kids from sponsoring their parents.
Few people "deserve" anything - they must earn what they have. So tell us what Illegal Immigrants who came to the USA as children have done to earn special consideration. In California it has been documented that children illegally immigrate to the USA to sell drugs. San Francisco was shielding them from ICE until recently. Do they "deserve a chance to be Americans�
Now do you see the problem with the DREAM Act as currently written?
The House version of the DREAM Act grants legal residency if “the alien, at the time of application, has been admitted to an institution of higher education in the United States, or has earned a high school diploma or obtained a general education development certificate in the United States.†This essentially includes ALL Illegal Immigrants who have “been physically present in the United States for a continuous period of not less than 5 years immediately preceding the date of enactment of this Act, and had not yet reached the age of 16 years at the time of initial entryâ€. Claims that this Act will only rescue the best and brightest are untrue based on what this bill really says.
The Senate version adds to the text above “the Secretary of Homeland Security may waive the ground of ineligibility under section 212(a)(6) of the Immigration and Nationality Act and the ground of deportability under paragraphs (1), (3), and (6) of section 237(a) of that Act for humanitarian purposes or family unity or when it is otherwise in the public interest.†This provision includes the ability to waive “any alien who, by fraud or willfully misrepresenting a material fact, seeks to procure (or has sought to procure or has procured) a visa, other documentation, or admission into the United Statesâ€
There is also no end date for the DREAM Act, so the bill would provide a permanent magnet for future illegal immigration. It would also lift the current federal ban on offering in-state tuition to illegal aliens, meaning illegal aliens will receive a lower tuition rate at state colleges and universities than U.S. citizens from another state.
Furthermore, the DREAM Act contains no provisions for increasing border security and interior enforcement and provides no verification mechanism for illegal aliens who say they qualify for the DREAM Act Amnesty.
It's not fair to punish our kids to reward illegal aliens.
The Dream Act states that a candidate must have been in the country for over 5 years before the bill is passed, so any incoming generations aren't eligible. I think one of the big points of the DREAM Act is to allow the candidates to pay in state tuition. How can you expect someone who is deprived of the right to work, is VERY limited to scholarships available to them, and receives no federal aid whatsoever to pay around 24,000 a year (not including room and board)?
Who's doing anything to your kids? Chances are, your kids are good friends with illegal immigrants.
Read this 16 year old's blog to get a better point of view from someone who knows about the subject rather than trying to make up your point of view.
www.dreamacts.blogspot.com It's amazing that someone as young as him can be inspiring to even the most of us. I am against illegal immigration, but this kids did not break the law. Their parents did. However, he also states some useful facts that I believe we all should be aware of.
It is interesting to see many illegal youth not being able to fend for themselves, for they do not know the higher governing systems of this country. It is scary to see people who are deciding my life,some claiming I deserve this while others saying I am just illegal. Let me tell you something... If this Dream Act does pass, you're going to see many of these people joining the military, because it is in our blood. We were not raised like your children were, spoiled, we were dominated and disciplined by hardship and poverty. We have the passion and loyalty and you would not pay for our college, we would pay you for our k-12. Even in politics my illegal youth friends seem to be moderate. But the majority cannot find the correct terms of wording to defend themselves. I am one of the few lucky who figured out the scheme that is a government. I dislike illegals feeding from their US born babies, they do not know suffering, I do. Have kindness when deciding my life. Thank you for your moment in this space and time.
ism3x the illegal American.
If these illegals received free loading benefits as you claim, we wouldn't need a Dream Act. They don't qualify for loans or grants, and in some states even admission to college.
Stop trying to demonize the most vulnerable members of our society. They are innocent individuals who had no choice in coming to the States. Criminalizing their mere existence is morally apprehensible and you ought to be ashamed of yourself if you thought otherwise.
Prosecute their parents - I will agree. They were adults with conscious choice in the matter.
Prosecute their kids - I do not agree. Nobody should be labeled a criminal without choice or action.
"I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me. Away from me you evil doer."
Per ‘Immigration Crackdown May Boost US Job Prospects’ by David R. Francis "a study by Northeastern University's Center for Labor Market Studies in Boston attributes the "unprecedented" levels of legal, illegal, and temporary immigration as a factor underlying the "devastation" in the job scene for America's teens and young adults over the past seven years. That's especially the case for males with no schooling beyond high school and youths from low-income families. Summer seasonal jobs as a proportion of all jobs are at the lowest level now in the past 30 years." And this was published BEFORE the current recession.
You quote Matthew 25. What about Matthew 5 "I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven..."
The Dream Act isn't an amnesty back door.
Read my friend's article to learn all about it because he explained it very well.
http://dreamacts.blogspot.com