Right to DREAM: Immigration Reform and America’s Future

Eight: Next Steps: Where We Go from Here

119 EIGHT Next Steps Where We Go from Here That dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to his ability or achievement. . . . That dream or hope has been present from the start. —JAMES TRUSLOW ADAMS, EPIC oF AMERICA (1931) I n the first five chapters I addressed the following five most common arguments against the DREAM Act: (1) undocumented students are criminals; (2) passing the DREAM Act would reward and increase illegal immigration; (3) the undocumented burden services and drain tax revenues; (4) immigrants are changing the national character ; and (5) immigrants will never assimilate. As I have shown, the critics have gotten it wrong. We don’t hold undocumented children accountable for the behavior of their parents. The undocumented do not come to this country for educational benefits but for economic opportunities, and they pay more in taxes than they consume in services. Our fourth wave immigrants add more than $1 trillion in buying power to our economy. They embrace our values. They are upwardly mobile. They are learning English faster than did previous waves. They are rapidly assimilating and blending into our melting pot nation. And they are coming to this country for the same reasons as past generations—for freedom, liberty, and a better life. Simply, we are repeating the process that built this nation. As in previous waves, we benefit because we need their education, skills, entrepreneurship, and manpower to grow our economy and tax base. As I show in Chapter 6, the goals of the DREAM Act are modest. 120 NExT STEPS The proposed law would extend the benefits of K–12 education through college by making college more affordable. If undocumented youth completed two years of college or military service over a sixyear period and if they exhibited good moral character, they would be granted permanent residency and the opportunity for citizenship. Only 38 percent of the 2.1 million children and youth eligible for the DREAM Act would likely use the benefits. More importantly, the impact of the DREAM Act on state higher education budgets would be negligible. In chapter 7, I introduce two remarkable DREAMers, Juan and Zessna. When you know their stories, you have to wonder why we would think about deporting them. Don’t we want these remarkable young people to be part of our communities and citizens of our nation? The time is right for the passage of the DREAM Act. The 2012 presidential election has changed the political landscape. The historic turnout by Hispanic voters, driven by the anti-immigration rhetoric of the election, has left the Republican Party soul-searching and many immigrant voters with a greater sense of political voice. In the days following the election, Republican leaders, like Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, have said that the party must change and either welcome our newest immigrants or become irrelevant on the national political stage. Their views are aligning with the growing sentiment that denying these young people an education is not right, and the time has come for Congress to pass the DREAM Act and comprehensive immigration reform. And it is time for those committed to immigration reform to help frame the debate. Recently, Steve Jobs’s widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, said, “We think Congress’s inaction . . . is devastating for these students and tragic for the country.” She and a group of Silicon Valley technology leaders recently founded Educators for Fair Consideration, a nonprofit that gives scholarships, career advice, and legal services to undocumented youth. Most Americans agree with her.1 A 2012 Gallup poll reported that 66 percent of Americans thought immigration was a good thing and support was across political parties.2 And a July 2012 survey of likely voters by Bloomberg reported that 64 percent agreed with President Obama’s policy of deferred action.3 Perhaps, it is time for our politicians to stop listening to a vocal minority, to begin to address the NExT STEPS 121 immigration reform that the majority of Americans support, and to do what is right: allow undocumented children and young adults to stay in this country, permit them to go to school and work, provide them with a path to citizenship, and give them the opportunity to contribute to our society. How do we make this happen? How do we get a deeply divided and partisan Congress to...