DREAM Act Portal Forum - DREAM Act suffers a short-sighted death

By Timothy Knopf

The DREAM is dead. More specifically, it was murdered by 36 Republican and five Democratic U.S. senators last Saturday. Despite the 55 senators who supported the DREAM Act in a vote to move on to a vote, its 41 opponents successfully strangled it since Senate rules require 60 votes to end debate.

I’m talking about the DREAM Act, the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, a measure 10 years in the making and which passed the U.S. House of Representatives just days before in a 216-198 vote.

The DREAM Act would have provided a path to citizenship for the estimated 1.2 million children and young adults under age 30 who came to this country illegally with their parents before they were 16 years old. Applicants would have needed to live continuously in the U.S. for five years and graduate from high school or receive a GED or college acceptance. They also would have had to pass background checks to prove they weren’t lawbreakers or a threat to the country. Meeting those requirements would have allowed them to apply for citizenship after a 10-year wait and after completing two years of college education or serving in the military.

These were rigorous requirements, a difficult path to citizenship, but a path that so many were eager to follow. Consider these young people, many who came to this country as babies in their parents’ arms. Many have no memory of their “homeland” and may not speak a language other than English. They’ve grown up here, and since this is the only country they’ve known, they think and act like “Americans.” Still, they face the same daily threat of deportation as their parents. A traffic stop could lead to detention and deportation to a country they do not know and a language they may not understand — essentially a foreign country. They cannot receive a Social Security card, work legally or pay taxes.

I can’t justify the actions of their parents, who consciously chose to violate federal law and enter our country illegally. They’ve got to deal with the consequences of their actions. However, I understand their desire for a better life for their children’s future. This nation is built on the unwanted immigration that began with gold seekers in Jamestown and religious zealots in New England before moving on to a stew of Europeans, Scandinavians, Asians and Africans seeking a better life, each group rejected and mistreated by those who arrived before them. Still, this country has prospered and been made stronger because of the courage, intelligence, drive and ingenuity that these immigrants brought with them in their effort to create a better life.

What was accomplished by killing the DREAM Act? Will those 1.2 million young people suddenly vanish or return to their “home” countries? I don’t think so. Instead, they’ll go on living on the margins of society just like the estimated other 11 million illegal immigrants, hidden in plain sight, unable to legally work, pay taxes or even get a driver’s license. They’ll continue living a black market half-life in an underworld where good Americans pay them minimum wage or less under the table and take advantage of their predicament. Without a path to citizenship and a full role in American society, they’ll go on living off the grid and under the radar as best they can. Will that make America stronger or safer?

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that passage of the DREAM Act could have reduced the federal deficit by $2.2 billion over 10 years through the taxes paid by these immigrant youths once they were educated and employed. Does the loss of this human and financial capital make American stronger or safer?

As a recently retired teacher in a local, low-income high school, I suspected that a number of my students were undocumented. In fact some of my very best and brightest students fit that description, and they hung their dreams for college and a professional career on the passage of the DREAM Act. My heart broke for them when it failed.

Recently in Spokane, a young woman, brought here as a child, was arrested and deported. In San Francisco Sang Chi, an undocumented dental student at City College of San Francisco, was detained for deportation earlier this year, rescued only through the intervention of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Most other states have similar stories. Will treating potential future dentists, doctors, lawyers and business people as criminals make American stronger or safer?

I am proud that both of our U.S. senators voted for the DREAM Act, and I think it’s interesting that those states representing the former slave-owning Confederacy (with a few exceptions) consistently and successfully voted to kill this bill.

I fear for us all when we allow bigotry, ignorance and fear to champion over justice, good will and good sense. The Senate Republicans have achieved a pyrrhic victory that will make this country weaker and less safe by denying these millions a legitimate role in the only country they’ve known and by rejecting the principles so precious to our founding fathers.

Timothy Knopf, a retired teacher, lives in Everett.