Blog Stage #5 -- Dream Act

The US National Government should be looking in depth into the Dream Act proposal. This Dream Act, according to Wikipedia, “is a piece of proposed federal legislation in the United States that would provide achieving illegal immigrant high school students the opportunity to obtain permanent residency”. I don’t quite understand why the US Government has opposed this proposal in the past. I feel that it’s a great way to encourage immigrants to pursue their dreams, attend college and obtain a college degree. Their residency would be like a reward for all their hard work during their high school and college years. The US Government would benefit from having more college graduates, instead of having immigrants working illegally at a job where they pay nothing more than the minimum, and dropping out of high school. We want more educated people in our nation; more educated people will equal a better economy for the United States. If immigrants are looking for a better lifestyle and want to pursue a career, why not give them the opportunity to enhance our nation even more? I have friends that were brought to the US by their parent’s right after they were born in Mexico. Some of these friends have been excellent students all throughout their entire life. Thankfully, Texas is a state where immigrants CAN go to college, versus other states require you to be a resident or citizen. However, it is very sad to me, to see how some of my friends, can only get so far. Once they are done with college, there is really no place to go. They can either chose to go back to their native country, or work illegally and if they work it will probably not be a job related to their career nor will it pay them anything near to the amount of educational background they have. This is where I really feel that the US Government should do something to help these students out. The US is known for the “American Dream”, for its valuable educational programs and schools, if these students are only after this, we should definitely grant them some kind of permission or reward to work in the US legally in their field of study. The Dream Act Proposal would be the best solution to this problem that MANY students are facing out there today.

BLOG STAGE 3 - October 3, 2008

I found an article in The New York Times Opinion arguing that the United States government should come up with a better strategy to “build a smoother path to legal entry and citizenship.” I feel that it is a great idea and that the argument is presented in a very fine way. The article is mentions how there are teachers, engineers, researches and other immigrants who are here in the United States following the “rules”, filing their paperwork, paying their fees and waiting for someday to become legal residents. It is very unfair I believe that we have people here from other countries, like Mexico, who are willing to be hard working people and do everything the right way and not be able to legalize their status. There are people coming over with college degrees, masters and some even with PhD’s trying to be proactive and looking for a better lifestyle. I believe that the author makes a good point when he mentions this because it’s like saying, why wouldn’t we give the opportunity to these people who are willing to work hard and make this a better country, to be able to become legal citizens in a much easier and smoother way. If the system was much easier, we would have less people trying to go around the immigration system and doing things illegally, rather than having people do things the right or legal way. Granting green cards to people younger than 40 with college degrees, is a very good and smart idea. We, as US citizens, want only but the best for our country. If we could only have more successful people, more college graduates, or simply have more people pursuing higher goals in life; our government and economy would blossom like never before. Therefore, if we have people like this coming over from other countries and can prove to us that they are here to be proactive, then we should definitely grant them an easier way to legalize their citizenship. The author presents this argument in a very detailed way and is why I can definitely agree with him, for his good examples and well written argument.

Article URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/03/opinion/03fri2.html?ref=opinion