The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, or DREAM Act has garnered a large amount of support from immigration rights activists and is by and large a bipartisan bill – and that’s because the bill is good, in principle. The bill would allow immigrants who entered the country five years or more before the bill's enactment and before they were 16 years old to receive provisional U.S. residency. Permanent residency would be granted if, within six years of obtaining conditional residency, the immigrant graduates from a two-year college, completes two years in a bachelor's degree program, performs 910 hours of volunteer community service, or serves in the U.S. armed forces for two years. Wait – what?!!
With a war raging in Iraq and what seems like the proposed exit strategy that takes us through Iran – our troops are tired, they need rest and they need to come home. Where will the reinforcements come from for this never ending war on terror? The DREAM Act? If it passes – you bet ‘cha. “An estimated 68,000 active-duty military personnel were born in foreign countries, and 8,000 others enlist every year. That compounded with the fact that recruiting Latinos has become a top priority, the DREAM Act seems like a good bill that morphed into a backwards draft.
Beth -
I'm asking for an alternative measure. The DREAM Act should be a much better measure than it is. As it stands, it offers very little to the thousands of students in this situation. I'm just stating facts now. The DREAM Act is terrible, just awful, and there has to be a better act that the government can com up with i n this time of war. Churches and other groups cannot afford to send everyone of these children to school. Not everyone of these children will have good enough grades to go to school. 910 hours of community service is a full time job. When faced with financial difficulties, and other stresses - when you have a recruiter that is coming after you because you're Latino and they're looking to get the number of Latino recruits up, and that recruiter is telling about the money you're going to get and the benefits your family is going to get...what do you think the easiest option is going to be?