Last week, I discussed the importance of providing a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented people already in the U.S. There is, however, an important subset of people who were brought through, to no fault of their own, and have the ability to make contributions like every other American. These people are called "Dreamers" and deserve to be equals in the only country that they have ever known.
Dreamers are defined as people between ages 15 and 30 who have high school diplomas or are in pursuit of graduating high school. Currently, an estimated 1.8 million people can be classified as Dreamers.
There have been attempts to accommodate Dreamers, but none with success on the national level and only some measures have been taken in a few states. The DREAM Act, which would provide a pathway to citizenship for those with a college degree or two years of military service, has been a concrete solution within Congress ever since 2001 and is yet to pass. At the state level, 17 states have some form of tuition equity, an act where students who happen to be undocumented can go to public universities at the more affordable in-state rate, rather than having to pay out-of-state tuition, or even more costly, international tuition.
Part of the reason for the lack of momentum for this issue on a national scale is the inherent problems with a piecemeal strategy. It takes an incredibly large amount of political capital, usually an amount that can only be generated after an election, to pass multiple bills on each aspect of immigration. After the ordeal, the candidate and party that fought for these positive changes would have no more capital to get anything else done. This fact makes piecemeal an unviable strategy.
Dreamers are people who came to this country with their parents and had no choice in the decision making process. They are completely innocent. It is wholly unfair to claim that Dreamers broke our immigration laws because they could not have consciously made that decision. At the time of their arrival, they were kids, even infants, who did not know what a law or border was, much less the entirety of the complex immigration system. Dreamers grew up as Americans, and are Americans in every way except one: They were not born here.
There is certainly an economic argument to make as to why Dreamers should be given the rights and privileges afforded by citizenship, but the U.S. has a far greater moral responsibility. Are we really so cruel that we would deny people of certain rights because they unwittingly crossed a line? Should we deny people who have the skills necessary to do incredible good in the world the chance to go to college and contribute even farther to the country?
My hope is that the ultimate answers to those questions are no, but I fear that far too many people say yes. Dreamers know only one place, the U.S., and it would be a moral indictment of our character if the country rejected their own daughters and sons.
