Children in the United States are sent to elementary school, middle school and high school. They then graduate and go to college or enter into the work force.
However, each year 65,000 kids — who grew up essentially the same way as every other American child — enter a state of limbo.
These kids are the children of illegal immigrants. They, for this reason, can neither seek higher education nor enter into the work force.
This situation is not unlike that of Plyler v. Doe, wherein Texas tried to deny a free education to undocumented children. The Supreme Court of the United States ruled that this law was a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. They concluded that the law was “directed against children, and impose[d] its discriminatory burden on the basis of a legal characteristic over which children can have little control.”
These children grew up in the United States. They know English and many are athletes, honors students and would-be U.S. servicemen, but we are punishing them for something their parents did.
That being said, there is a solution. The DREAM Act, or the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, would allow these children to be “eligible for a 6 year long conditional path to citizenship that requires completion of a college degree or two years of military service.”
Co-Author of this legislation, Senator Dick Durbin, (D-Ill.) said, “We should not punish children for their parents’ mistakes. That is not the American way. The DREAM Act says to these kids: America will give you a chance. We will give you the opportunity to earn your way to legal status if you work hard and play by the rules.”
The DREAM Act beneficiaries must “have arrived here at the age of 15 or under, have lived in the U.S. for at least 5 years, graduate from high school, serve in the military or attend college for at least 2 years, and have good moral character.” These stipulations ensure that people receiving help from this legislation are dedicated to making a positive impact on their country and community.
The DREAM Act is the only immigration legislation that has gained the support of the Obama Administration. Obama has called it “the right thing to do,” and later said, “we actually want well-educated kids in our country, who are able to succeed … and become a part of the American dream.”
Alabama’s own Senator Jeff Sessions has already voiced opposition to this progressive legislation, reducing it to merely a streamline for citizenship for both children and parents that came to this country illegally.
That is exactly what this legislation does not do. This legislation does not reward students for their parents’ unlawful behavior, but rather gives students hope and an opportunity for a better future by adding compassion and understanding to the cold system of oppression, which punishes these children for their parents’ mistakes.
I hope all of us who are privileged enough to have a place we can call home without scrutiny are willing to extend a compassionate hand to fellow Americans and write, call, or visit legislators to demand that they show support for this bill. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “It is not the words of your enemies that you will remember, but the silence of your friends.”
These people, these Americans, are not enemies of the United States, and as fellow Americans, we can no longer be silent.
I hope the young people of our generation have the capacity to set aside our privileged prejudices and help our brothers, our sisters and our friends prosper so that they may receive the same opportunities we all have. The DREAM Act is an avenue for this type of selfless and compassionate citizenship.
These children — Americans by name and by allegiance — have been seated at the American dinner table. The proposition of the DREAM Act begs the question, should we feed them or let them starve?
Michael Patrick is a junior majoring in political science.
