i think some people in this forum are still confused about the difference between the nature of CIR and DREAM Act and as a DREAM Act activist, i find this very alarming and cause for serious concern. i even got into some heated arumented in another thread. and i do apologize for my language but we really need to clarify this. if people in this forum are confused about the spirit of DREAM ACT, what does that tell you about how the general public may think about this???? some people may read this and say "What the hell, we know this already" but some people are missing it by a mile. this is very important concept to cover.

like i mentioned in another thread, the whole idea of CIR is to provide pathway to citizenship for those who have knowingly and willfully commited illegal act, violating immigration laws. that constitutes 12 million people, and yes that includes our parents.

DREAM Act is to provide legal recourse to those who were brought here when they were toddlers and kids who had no decisional making capacity and had no say in coming to this country unlawfully. they ended up growing up here and have become now adults who cant simply just go back to their "home country" because all they know is here and "home" is in fact, here. that constitutes hundreds of thousands at most, including us.

DREAMies did not commit the crime. CIRies? they did. this is a HUGE sticking point that we need to focus on and drive that point to people's head so that they dont think that this is all a same thing--amnesty for illegals.

there needs to be a clear fundamental distinction between DREAM and CIR and not try to pass on DREAM as a mere extension of CIR or subset of CIR. we cant associate ourselves with "CIR illegals". yes we are talking about our parents and elderly and it feels wrong. but this is about the passage of the DREAM ACT, not CIR. we are not "them" (and to some of you: dont misconstrue this statement as me saying we are better then them because that's not my point). this is not being negative, or selfish. this is stating hard cold truth:

we did not knowingly commit the crime. we came here as toddlers and babies, we are educated, we speak english, we are assimilated, all we know is here. that makes us different. not better. different. that's why i think DREAM ACT needs to be a separate issue.

amnesty is by definition forgiving. CIR is trying to forgive those who have commited an act of crime and thats why it is a tough sell. DREAM Act is trying to save those who were victimized by that act of crime. FORGIVING AND SAVING. DREAM ACT is not an amnesty because we did not commit a crime to begin with. thats the nature of difference between DREAM and CIR.