Senate filibuster defeats DREAM act
If a college degree wouldn’t help you get a job, and you weren’t allowed to apply for student loans to help you pay for that degree, would you still want one? For many students across Utah, these are real questions that need to be addressed.
The DREAM Act, which was most recently defeated by a senate filibuster on Dec. 18, 2010, would have provided otherwise-deportable aliens that graduated from U.S. high schools and have lived in the U.S. for five continuous years, the opportunity to receive a college education and enter the U.S. labor force with permanent residency. Similar bills have been introduced multiple times since 2001, but all have been defeated. Yet, students all around the nation, and here at Utah State, still maintain hope that congress will one day give them a shot at their future.
Lupe Tellez, president of the Latino Student Union, said most who would be affected by the DREAM act were brought here when they were younger, and have to live with the consequences of decisions that were made for them.
“They can’t go to school, they can’t get a job, unless they do it illegally,” Tellez said.
She said many don’t speak Spanish and know no other home than the U.S.
Issues regarding illegal immigration have been of particular concern to Utah because of its estimated population of 110,000 unauthorized immigrants, most of which are of Latino heritage, according to the PEW research center.
Isael Torres, treasurer of the Latino Student Union, said some of the main criticism of the bill was that it would reward illegal action and encourage unauthorized immigration.
“It’s really easy to use the racism card, but that’s not quite it,” he said. “I do understand that the country is concerned about immigration, but I don’t think anyone in their right mind or with a heart can say that it’s right to single people out based on something that they had no control over.”
Freddy Novoa, sophomore in psychology and president of Voices for Planned Parenthood, said the argument that it would encourage illegal immigration doesn’t hold much water. His parents immigrated to southern California to find work.
“People who come here come to work, not to go to school,” he said. “They think education is unnecessary because there are already so many opportunities in America.” He said the only thing that would encourage illegal immigration is a change in labor laws, not in education. Yet his optimism for the DREAM act may not be the same as his colleagues in the Latino Student Union, who recently called Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch’s office and left a string of messages voicing their support for the legislation.
“The problem of immigration as a whole needs to be resolved first,” Novoa said. “It’s the bigger issue.”
Bill Furlong, a professor of international relations, said the DREAM act could have a positive impact in multiple ways.
“These are innocent kids,” said Furlong, referencing the fact that many were brought over before they could make their own decisions. “A lot of Hispanics can’t finish high school or get good jobs and then get into drugs or gangs. The DREAM act was an attempt to give these kids a real option for a good future.”
Furlong also said the bill would have a positive impact on U.S. relations with the Mexican government, which follows U.S. immigration policies closely.
“You can’t just say we’re going to ship them back to their home,” Furlong said. “What home? They don’t have another one. They’ve grown up here, they speak English, they went to high school here.”
While he is in favor of the DREAM act, he has no hope that it will be passed in the near future due to the Republican majority in the house.
“I don’t see any real immigration reform going through congress in the next six years,” he said. “A statewide DREAM act is possible though, and if it’s possible in Utah, it’s possible in a lot of places.”
– mike.burnham@gmail.com