The DREAM Act Debate: Educating Immigrants
Posted October 23rd, 2007by Lisa Pierce
Melanie Anderson, REFORMA member and Assistant Director of Government Relations for the American Library Association, sent the following information:
On October 24, the Senate will take up consideration of The DREAM Act (S. 2205). The DREAM Act is a critical piece of legislation that allows the children of illegal immigrants who entered the United States before age 16 and lived here at least five years to gain conditional legal status and eventual citizenship if they attend college or join the military for at least two years.
The DREAM Act will likely come up for a “cloture” vote on whether the DREAM Act can be debated and ultimately voted on. The cloture motion will require 60 votes to pass. If it fails, the DREAM Act will be pulled from the floor. Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL), the bill’s sponsor, is optimistic he can get the 60 votes he needs. You MUST contact your Senators now and urge them to vote for passage of the DREAM Act.
Learn more about the DREAM Act.
October 25th, 2007 at 8:56 am
I must admit i admire your persistence in pursuing your “dream act”. But real Americans are not going to stand for any form of amnesty why should we? We have sent this message over and over and over EARN it just like every other “citizen” of this country has thats all we ask. The American people are growing tired and weary of your self serving excuses as to why any illegal deserves special treatment. We owe you nothing it is the illegal who owes us everything. —-Your on very thin ice here and you know it so my advice is for you to tread very lightly we are tired of getting stepped on!
October 29th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
How and why do you say “special treatment”?? I Don’t feel like it’s anything special. I feel like it’s the right thing to do!! You are not in their shoes! You don’t know what it feels like to be them! So that’s why you just don’t get it! Delve into yourself and try to change places and maybe you will get some knowledge of how it is to be in their situation! Get educated and become diverse! Then you might think a little different! No one is stepping on you! You don’t know what it is to be stepped on! Until you are in an undocumented person’s shoes!!!! Real Americans?? What is an American First?? You should ask yourself that. Wow, just because you were born here you get to decide who should be an American? An American is anyone who has dreams and pursues them in America and accomplishes them! An American should not be a greedy person that feels threatened by diversity.
October 31st, 2007 at 4:57 pm
It IS special treatment. They are creating a social service solely for illegal aliens to benefit from–rewarding them for ILLEGALLY entering this country, and promoting it for millions of future illegal immigrants who enter the US. NOTE: before you try and claim I’m racist…let me point out that there is a HUGE difference between an immigrant, and an ILLEGAL immigrant. Why should these people just be able to cut in line in front of HEAPS of people who have been waiting, and trying to become a US citizen by respecting the laws of this country and becoming a legal citizen according to the immigration laws we already have. Does Mexico give out freebies for Americans who are illegally in their country? NO. Why is it that Americans are being inflicted with Mexico’s poor and needy? Don’t they have colleges in Mexico? Why don’t these people improve their own country instead of demanding things from the US. Why do people who illegally gain access into our country get an advantage over many other people in need all over the world? That isn’t fair. The US helps many other countries, they shouldn’t be rewarding individuals whos’ families came here by criminal means…they already drain other US social services by being here (healthcare (how many ERs have closed now because they can’t keep up with all the illegals who come in with runny noses…when it’s supposed to be for EMERGENCIES…for CITIZENS). Plenty of them are STEALING social security that doesn’t belong to them, that they never paid into …yet they forge documents and get it anyhow…I could go on all day. Now, why should the US help pay for them to attend school here? Help LEGAL immigrants pay for school…not ones who shouldn’t be here in the first place. Go back to Mexico and apply to become a citizen the right way….like all the other legal immigrants who have done it for years. An AMERICAN is someone who is a legal citizen in this country. Why does every other country have an identity, yet legal citizens of America are expected to have no culture or anything to hold on to simply because we are a “melting pot”? It’s not about being scared of diversity, and your statement there is what is ignorant. LEGAL immigrants are welcomed here…from all over…ILLEGAL ones are NOT…and should not be given social benefits in a country they shouldn’t even be in in the first place!
If you wanna pay for them to be here…for school, healthcare, etc etc….by all means…start a fund and do it. Don’t force legal tax paying citizens to subsidize the cost illegal immigrants drain our country of already!
November 1st, 2007 at 4:06 pm
En mi opinion’s DREAM Act posts have certainly ignited strong feelings.
For information on how a leading Mexican university is in fact recruiting U.S. students, check out the following article in The Chronicle of Higher Education:
http://chronicle.com/subscribe/login?url=/weekly/v54/i10/10a03503.htm
And for information on how DREAM Act advocates are strategizing for the future, here’s another article (and some more heated comments) from the Chronicle:
http://insidehighered.com/news/2007/10/29/dream