DREAM ACT: Illegal immigrants at high schools across the United States are concerned that their opportunity for citizenship and a college education has expired with the election of Donald Trump.
By Brandon Byrne, Staff Writer
Many illegal immigrants in the United States work incredibly hard in high school and accomplish a great deal just like any other student looking to attend a university. Though these students have the skills and talent to go to a university, their lack of citizenship holds them back; these students will not be able to attend college solely because they are illegal immigrants.
The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM Act) was made to correct this issue. It was designed to grant long-term residency status to illegal alien minors who demonstrate enough academic rigor to graduate from a four year college. This law makes college a possibility for these students, as without legal immigration status, students would not be able to receive student loans. This law pays dividends for the U.S. because in order for a minor to obtain legal immigration status through the DREAM Act, they must go to college, which creates more college educated workers. Bill Gates explained in his Washington Post article “How to Keep America Competitive,” how to promote economic grow; educated members of the workforce are key to maintaining the U.S. dominance in the global economy. “The most important factor is our workforce […] we need more young Americans to enter the workforce with the math, science and problem-solving skills […] to succeed in the knowledge economy,” Gates said. However, many believe that the election of Donald Trump as the President of the United States threatens the DREAM Act’s survival.
Donald Trump has clearly established his stance on illegal immigration. He opposes the DREAM Act in his book “Great Again.” When asked about his stance on the law, he explained “the DREAMers (DREAM Act beneficiary), it’s a tough situation. One of the things we’re going to expedite – when someone’s terrific, we want them back here. But they have to be legal […] look, it sounds cold. It sounds hard. We have a country. Our country is going to hell. We have to have a system where people are legally in our country.” Trump and other dissenters of the DREAM Act feel that keeping this law would promote more illegal immigration because the act rewards illegal aliens by giving their children an opportunity for higher education. Trump wants to take away the DREAM Act so that there would be an incentive for immigrants to come legally.
This law promises to directly affect illegal aliens around the U.S., especially in Southern California. According to estimates reported American Immigration Council, over half a million people in California alone would be eligible for the DREAM Act, and 1.3 million more people would meet the requirements in the rest of the country.
Many young people were overjoyed by the possibilities presented by this law. “I don’t even know how to describe what good news this is to me. I can’t think of all the opportunities I will have […] I‘ll be able to go back to school, I’ll be able to get a better job—maybe with some benefits and maybe one that doesn’t require hard manual labor.” Joel Cruz, a DREAMer, said. Not only does this law enormously help undocumented students but it is “more than making money and having a job, it gives us dignity and self-respect,” Jean Yannick Diouf said. Diouf is another DREAMer who feels that he, like all DREAMers, are people who may have been born out of the U.S. but grew up in it, so they feel that they are just as American as any other citizen and that they deserve citizenship on those grounds.
The DREAM Act’s possible repeal will specifically affect Poly because there is a considerable number of students at Poly that need the DREAM Act. Mrs. Nava helps students apply for the DREAM Act and she is not too worried about the DREAM Act being taken away because “this law has to do with education and good student staking advantage of the American dream so I just don’t see him taking that away,” Nava said. On the other hand, there is still some unrest among DREAMers. “The DREAM Act possibly being cut is a huge fear with me and my whole family since I am going to be the first one in my family to go to college[…] We are very uncertain about the situation.” a DREAM Act student said. This leaves many DREAMers to ponder what they will do if their opportunity for higher education is taken away.