This morning, my mom called to tell me that a boy I went to elementary and middle school with was stabbed to death yesterday at 2am in Providence. We were never close friends; he was always a trouble-maker, so we didn't really hang around with the same people. Still, reading the article in the Boston Globe this morning immediately brought his face to mind. Unfortunately, and I say this with utmost respect, I'm not terribly surprised that this happened. If he was anything like the 8th grade-version that I remember, he probably didn't have a lot of direction in life.
Yesterday morning, just a few hours after this young (white) man was killed, the Senate voted to end discussion of the DREAM Act. They fell only 5 votes short, and 4 Senators abstained from voting. As I watched the final tally of votes appear on the screen, I immediately started crying. I was overcome with thinking about the youth who were suddenly told, yet again, that they mean nothing to our country. Many, if not most, of these young people have spent practically all of their lives in the United States and barely remember their "home country". They speak English, went to school here, and hope to build their adult lives here. Yet, with a quick vote by 100 people (mostly white men), their chances of becoming citizens of the United States were basically destroyed. And since Congress will become considerably more conservative for the next two years beginning next month, it will be a while before this piece of legislation is ever brought up again.
What message does this send to young people who were brought to the United States by their parents without the proper documentation? Does it say, "Study hard and work hard so that you'll get a good job and be able to contribute to society"? I don't think so.
Let's imagine a 6-month-old child who is brought to Philadelphia from Puebla, Mexico by her parents without legal documents. She grows up speaking Spanish at home and English at school. She is bright, making good grades and having exceptional communication skills, and wants to become a doctor. But when she wants to apply to college, she finds out she can't qualify for any federal loans. That's okay though; she gets accepted to a private university and is given enough merit scholarships so that she and her parents can pay for the rest of her education. She does very well in college, but now what? She can't apply to most graduate-level programs without a valid social security number. She can't apply for any decent jobs without a valid social security number. She can't apply to get a valid social security number without returning to Mexico (where she doesn't know anyone) and waiting the 15-ish years it takes to start the legal immigration process to the United States. So she's kind of stuck.
This is a true story. And there are hundreds of thousands of stories that are similar to it.
The DREAM Act wasn't an "amnesty bill." But it would've given this young woman, and many others, the opportunity to apply for citizenship in the United States if they had come to the US before the age of 16, lived here for at least 5 years, graduated from high school/got a GED, and completed at least 2 years of college/military service. After all those processes, the individual would still have about a 6 year waiting period. But it would've been an available path for young people to no longer be held responsible for the actions of their parents/guardians.
For me, the irony of tabling this bill is that our economy is a mess. And now there are lots of young adults who will be forced into unskilled labor, regardless of how smart and hard-working they are. Granted, even the most xenophobic people aren't suggesting we don't need unskilled labor in this country; after all, who would pick up our trash and mow our lawns and build our houses? But it might also be helpful to have more well-educated people who might be able to solve our financial/environmental/health/etc. problems.
So, why should undocumented youths stay in school? What is stopping them from dropping out of high school at age 16 and joining gangs or getting pregnant or working at McDonald's?
There are lots of issues related to our current immigration laws, and I do not think that the passing of the DREAM Act would've solved them. But it at least would've been progress, a step in the right direction.
I just pray, for all of those individuals who were directly affected by yesterday's quick vote, that they never give up their dreams. And for everyone else who feels that they have no direction in life, that they keep searching, preferably without the help of drugs and violence.
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