Thursday, October 30, 2008
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.
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3 comments:
I found your post very interesting and as an immigrant myself, it hit a soft spot. I never thought about how many undocumented children are in school and what they will do to survive once they become young adults. I wondered how many students were actually affected nationwide and as of 2007 an estimated 50,000 undocumented college students and about 1 million children over all. I noticed the big drop off in the number of students who make it to higher education. It is understandable because of the cost and they may see it as useless since they will not be able to use their degree here. As children they did not make the decision to come to the US and are victims of the circumstances.
California did sign a similar bill in 2001 but I can see how the Dream Act has an up hill battle on a national level. Unfortunately as illegal residents they cannot be “rewarded for all their hard work” because they were illegitimately brought into the country. A county that is divided on immigration reform will not reward bringing children illegally into the country so they can have, for the most part, free education. That is the conundrum, how to help those that are already here but not encourage further illegal immigration? The positive thing is that with the Democratic Party in power it stands the best chance of making it back for consideration. It could definitely be included in an immigration reform bill; hopefully there will be 60 votes to avoid that scary filibuster threat from Republicans.
I found this blog pretty interesting and an issue the government should be concerned about.Every year about 65,000 US raised students who would qualify for the DREAM Act’s benefits graduate from high school. These include honor roll students, star athletes, talented artists, homecoming queens, and aspiring teachers, doctors, and U.S. soldiers. They are young people who have lived in the U.S.
for most of their lives and desire only to call this country their
home. Even though they were brought to the U.S. years ago as
children, they face unique barriers to higher education, are unable to work legally in the U.S., and often live in constant fear of detection by immigration authorities.
Our immigration law currently has no mechanism to consider
the special equities and circumstances of such students. The
DREAM Act would eliminate this flaw. It is un-American to
indefinitely and irremediably punish them for decisions made by
adults many years ago. By using DREAM Act, Congress would legally recognize what is de facto true: these young people belong here.
I strongly agree with the idea that DREAM Act, which provides a path to U.S. citizenship for hardworking and talented immigrant students who have been raised in the U.S., is critical to improving the pipeline from high school to college and providing meaningful employment.
I found your post very interesting. I also agree that the US National Government should pass the Dream Act, which would allow achieving illegal immigrant high school students to continue their education and not worry about their immigation status. Many families come to the United States in search of the "American Dream". Unless the US Government passes the Dream Act immigrant parents and their children will work side by side in the same low paying jobs.
If the immigrant has children who are born in the United States they will qualify for medicaid and ther government programs. This will put a strain on our economy and the cycle will continue. Right from the beginning many immigrant students face the language barrier and culture shock. They have to work twice as hard in school. Students from Mexico have to grasp the educational concepts in spanish then "translate" them into english because by third grade everything is in english. YES! Reward them with their residency for all the hard work. Hopefully, the US National Government passes the Dream Act proposal.
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