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The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act – which proposes to give undocumented students access to higher education – gained momentum this week after an endorsement by The College Board.
According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, an estimated one million people migrate to the
Although these students were given the right to attend primary and secondary schools in the U.S., most are unable to go on to college and cannot legally work in this country without legal citizenship.
The DREAM Act is a bipartisan document that was originally introduced to Congress in 2001. A revised version of the Act was introduced to the Senate in March 2009.
The Act provides “undocumented immigrant youth in the United States with conditional residency and a pathway to citizenship provided they came here before the age of 16 and maintained continuous residence for five years, graduate from high school or obtain a G.E.D, attend two years of college or join the military and have no criminal records,” according to dreamactivist.org.
The College Board came out this week with a motion of support stating that, “allowing more people to get more education is in
“The DREAM Act will provide opportunities for students who are already doing well and have proven themselves,” said Jelisa Difo, a senior Social Though and Political Economy major at the University of Massachusetts, who believes that the DREAM Act will not just allow anyone citizenship.
The DREAM Act was introduced by Sen. Richard Durbin of
“We must also enact the DREAM Act, which is included in the Senate bill. This bipartisan compromise will enable immigrant students to pursue higher education like citizens, or join the military, as many are eager to do,” said Sen. Kennedy in a statement to the press.
“The DREAM Act is the right title, since the Act will give thousands of bright, hard-working immigrant students a chance to pursue their ‘American Dream.’ By denying them these opportunities, we deny our country their intelligence, their creativity, their energy, and often their loyalty,” he said.
UMass senior and SGA commuter sen. Vanessa Snow said the issue is also one of public safety.
“Kids should be allowed to be in school and off of the streets,” said Snow. “DREAM Act students will become working taxpayers and the
This return was noted in a 2006 study by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. The Foundation projected that
This past March, a group of nine UMass SGA members lobbied for the DREAM Act at the 2009 U.S. Students Association Legislative Conference. Lindsay McCluskey, former SGA Student Trustee and Center for Educational Policy Advocacy (CEPA) member, said that the group lobbied 10 out of the 12 Massachusetts Congresspersons and talked to them about supporting the DREAM Act.
McCluskey said that CEPA and Massachusetts Students Uniting (MSU) are working with another statewide organization, the Student Immigrant Movement, to help the passage of SB 714, “an Act relative to equal higher education opportunity for all
“One thing about the DREAM Act is that many people are trying to make the DREAM Act about immigration,” said McCluskey. “[But] the DREAM Act is about breaking down the barriers to access.”
Hannah McGoldrick can be reached at hmcgoldr@student.umass.edu
As I seem to remember from history class, when this country first got started we wanted freedom of belief and religious/cultural identity, safe haven for new forward ways of thinking and the option to create our own profitable markets and communities. Today there are still people looking for a place to do that. I mean who isn't really? I want to believe the US is still that place, it's just that in our overly-entitled popmedia glam club mindset, we forget who we are and were we came from.
Illegal immigrants fuel our economy and most of them are paying taxes just like you and me, they just aren't seeing any of the benefits. Huh? How does that work? I have the pleasure to work with lots and lots of kids who come here hoping for a chance to study hard, learn and help their communities, and make their parents proud, most of them are undocumented. Lots of them miss their homelands and are here because their parents have made incredible sacrifices (some that many of us, in our cush American sitcom reality, couldn't even imagine) in order for their kids to get a shot at the same things our ancestors came here searching out not so long ago...so instead they can get citizenship if they find a boss to vouch for them or get married but they can't "belong" by doing well in school and making their parents' struggles worthwhile by following through on their dreams? Oh wow- we certainly have come a long way....it just sometimes seems like it's a long way in the wrong direction. All I'm saying is these kids did not choose to be here and we as a country are making it pretty difficult for them to leave or to stay. If they go back home they are separated from family here and many have little shot at a good education, if they stay here they are separated from family there and realistically without the DREAM act as a gateway, they also have little shot at a good education and all most of them want to do is to make a place for themselves somewhere in the world. More than anything else they are children, they came here before they could choose - the are not illegal but involuntary immigrants, who came here against their own will- like the Native Americans or the Slaves, only they belong a different generation, they are the lost children of globalization.
I fully support the Dream Act, I am praying and working hard to get it put into place. I see it as a way for the US to take back some dignity and reclaim it's good name as the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.
As I seem to remember, when this country first got started we wanted freedom of belief and religious/cultural identity, safe haven for new forward ways of thinking and the option to create our own profitable markets and communities. Today there are still people looking for a place to do that. I mean who isn't really? I want to believe the US is still that place, it's just that in our overly-entitled popmedia glam club mindset, we forget who we are and were we came from.
It IS illegal immigrants who help fuel our economy and most of them are paying taxes just like you and me, they just aren't seeing any of the benefits. Huh? How does that work? I have the pleasure to work with lots and lots of kids who come here hoping for a chance to study hard, learn and help their communities, most of them are undocumented. Lots of them miss their homelands and are here because their parents have made incredible sacrifices (some that many of us, in our cush American sitcom reality, couldn't even imagine) in order for their kids to get a shot at the same things our ancestors came here searching out not so long ago...so instead they can get citizenship if they find a boss to vouch for them or get married but they can't "belong" by doing well in school and making their parents' struggles worthwhile by following through on their dreams? Oh wow- we certainly have come a long way....it just sometimes seems like it's a long way in the wrong direction. All I'm saying is these kids did not choose to be here and we as a country are making it pretty difficult for them to leave or to stay. If they go back home they are separated from family here and many have little shot at a good education, if they stay here they are separated from family there and realistically without the DREAM act as a gateway, they also have little shot at a good education and all most of them want to do is to make a place for themselves somewhere in the world. More than anything else they are children, they came here before they could choose - the are not illegal but involuntary immigrants, who came here against their own will- like the Native Americans or the Slaves, only they belong a different generation, they are the lost children of globalization.
I fully support the Dream Act, I am praying and working hard to get it put into place. I see it as a way for the US to take back some dignity and reclaim it's good name as the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.
I like how people are seeing this isn't as much of an immigration bill, but is an opening to student's future and education.
It is so hard for kids from 16 and on to live like this. I can't travel inside the US for fear of deportation, can barely drive with a license from my country of origin, can barely pay my second year of college. I graduated with 3.5+ from HS and maintain the same in college. I pay taxes as does my family and we have no criminal record nor have we asked for any government aid of any sort. We get by with what we earn. Now, in all honesty, I think we deserve some help to better my chances at being successful in college and get to a 4 year Univ. We are assets in the making, workforce for the future and ideas the future as well. We are also paying taxes (many undocumented pay taxes actually), so it is much more of a help than a nuisance for the country...
I hope this bill passes.
I hope that Congress and the US population in general can, if nothing else, learn and accept that this piece of legislation would greatly reward its candidates with opportunities that they have earned by abiding US law, getting an education, and contributing to US society. They fully deserve it. Now it’s up to Congress to realize that.