The Dream Act

Volume 3: December Comments Off

by Robert Truong

The Alien Minors Act (also called “The DREAM Act”) is a bill that has been introduced several times in the United States. This bill grants a citizenship for immigrant students and those wishing to join the US military. Basically, the Dream Act is a solution for someone looking for a legal status. It will allow immigrants live legally, obtain driver’s licenses, attend college, work legally, and apply for short traveling.

Qualifications
• Proof of arrival in the US at an age 15 or younger
• Proof of residence in the US for at least five consecutive years since their date of arrival
• Must be 30 or younger
• Graduated from high school, be in good standing, and agree to attend college or join the military for at least two years
• Good moral character (clean profile)

The problem is that immigrant students are being denied their hard work. They can’t graduate high school. Not to mention it takes around $20,000 to go to The College of New Jersey or Temple. Even if you don’t choose to go to that college, about any college takes a load of cash. If the young teens don’t have any money, they would go to the military, but immigrants aren’t allowed in, so what happens to them? Some very educated students are found washing dishes for money, and cleaning houses.

A teacher here at LPS named Devin has had a student named “Susana” that was an outstanding student that did all of her work, and the quality of it was surely exceeding the limit of a high school senior. Sadly, “Susana” was not a legal student. She moved to the U.S from Mexico five years earlier. Because of her efforts, she became a person who couldn’t speak much English, to a person who mastered it in only five years! “Susana” applied to the top universities, and was hoping for scholarships to pay for it, but no scholarships came knocking at her door since she wasn’t a legal citizen. After all of her hard work, this kind of news made her feel sad and down. Like a miracle though, she was lifted by a university that assisted her on her way to victory.

Although she received help from a university, how many students get that lucky? Also, out of all the people in the United States, for sure there is a lot more students that have worked hard to only find out that it was for nothing when their education was denied. Since not all students are lucky enough to receive help from a university, the Dream Act would allow them to be open to all the choices a legal student would have.

There are illegal students that have done everything that a legal student has done, and still become denied entry to a college. A student named Denise has done this, and she was an honor student for more than twice. She knew that she was undocumented, and she feared it. The thoughts that ran through Denise’s mind were “When I am finished with high school, then what?” She eventually got a fake social security card to make money so that she can support herself financially. She was accepted into Baruch College in New York City, and started her first job, which she was very proud of. Even though she gained employment and education through misguided means, she says that she had no choice. She still doesn’t regret what she has done because she has received her well deserved education.

The things that students do just to have an education are unremarkable. It seems like life is harder, much harder for students that have this issue, but this can be helped if the Dream Act was passed.

admin @ December 19, 2007