Alvaro Huerta is a doctoral student at UC Berkeley. He can be reached at: ahuerta@berkeley.edu
Republicans managed to defeat the DREAM Act, but it’s a victorythat will haunt them.
The DREAM Act – the Development, Relief and Education for AlienMinors Act – died in the Senate on Dec. 18, just five votes shy ofthe 60 needed to advance.
The Republican Party once again demonstrated its disdain towardone of the most marginalized and vulnerable groups in this country:undocumented immigrants.
And let’s not forget the Democrats who voted against it. Thisgroup included Sens. Max Baucus of Montana, Kay Hagan of NorthCarolina, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Mark Pryor of Arkansas and JonTester of Montana.
If passed in Congress and signed into law by President BarackObama, the DREAM Act would have provided a pathway to citizenshipto many undocumented individuals demonstrating a strong commitmenttoward higher education or service in the military.
I had several reservations with this bill, but not the same onesthat the senators voting no had.
I didn’t like the word “Alien” in the title; no human being isan alien.
I didn’t like the fact that it would have induced young brownpeople to risk their lives in unjust wars like the one PresidentGeorge W. Bush waged in Iraq.
And I didn’t like the fact that it gave special treatment tothose who attend college. An immigrant kid who doesn’t go tocollege still contributes to our society, after all.
Apart from my objections, this bill should have passed. It wouldhave given hope and opportunity to immigrant children who came tothis country at least five years ago – often as youngsters.
At the end of the day, while this is a short-term loss forLatinos in this country, in the long term, the Republicans andthose conservative Democrats will pay a big price at the ballotbox.
The browning of America is a reality that an aging whitepopulation needs to come to terms with. As the largest racialminority group in the country with a higher birth rate than thenational average, Latinos will inevitably represent a majority inmany key states.
Latinos are rising and demanding to be treated as human beings -with or without legal status. We want our children to have an equalshot at the American dream, and not experience an Americannightmare. Source