Making the DREAM Act a reality

On Monday Oct. 12, 50 Ann Arbor area immigration reform advocates embarked on an eight-hour road trip to rally in support of the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act in Washington, DC. Upon arrival the following morning, the four caravans of University of Michigan students and community members joined 10,000 other ‘dreamers’ to rally on the Mall.

The DREAM Act, most recently introduced to congress in June 2009, ensures that undocumented citizens who meet specified criteria can apply for permanent residency in the United States.

The DREAM Act allows eligible undocumented residents who have demonstrated a strong desire to become a committed American citizen to become documented. Because the Act has such stringent qualification requirements, it really only aids those undocumented residents who are “American” in every aspect but legal title. In fact, the Act caters largely to those who have lived in the US for the majority of their lives.

Currently, without this act, many states require undocumented students to pay out-of-state tuition. If the overwhelming cost of higher education alone isn’t enough of a discouragement, they are also subject to deportation upon discovery. Therefore undocumented residents are left with few, if any, options.

“Lots of students are having to waste their lives. There’s nowhere else to go,” said Mohammad, an undocumented citizen from Ann Arbor who preferred to keep his last name private. Mohammad works closely with Dream Activist, Undocumented Students Action and Resource Network.

Additionaly, many argue that this bill would benefit the American workforce by bringing in educated and highly motivated people.

In a post on the New York Times “Room for Debate” blog, Tamar Jacoby, president of Immigration Works USA, wrote that “the vast majority of immigrants bring drive and skills to America. The Dream kids are stars, strivers of special promise. But they’re far from the only immigrants, legal and illegal, who help make the country prosperous and vital.”
“Two-thirds of the students in U.S. university computer science and engineering programs are foreign-born,” he wrote. “So are 25 percent of doctors and nurses. Immigrants hold a quarter of U.S. patents.”

Despite the modesty of the bill’s objectives, it has yet to capture widespread support. Although lack of awareness is largely due to the health care industry’s inundation of congress, the media, and public discussion the past few months, the insubstantial backing can be attributed to the current size of the activist groups in support of the DREAM Act.
“Nothing big is going to move until health care reform is finished,” said Ryan Bates of Reform Immigration for America. “It’s a matter of Congress having time, and us being able to build a big enough movement to force it onto the agenda. It’s an easy issue to ignore.”

Hoping to spread awareness and public support, Reform Immigration for America has put on rallies in Detroit and Grand Rapids and established a coalition stretching from Detroit to Traverse City. Dozens of churches, labor unions, and community organizations have come together in support of the Act across the state of Michigan.
“It’s a matter of organizing and building public awareness of this issue,” said Bates. “A lot of folks, unless they come from an immigrant family, wouldn’t understand that the system is broken. A lot of what we are doing is sharing the stories of how the system is broken.”

UM campus organization, Migrant and Immigrant Rights Advocacy (MIRA), has also begun to actively promote the DREAM Act by associating itself with other liberal organizations such as the ACLU, College Democrats, and the Multicultural Greek Association. Currently, with the help of the College Democrats, MIRA is planning a 3-day DREAM Act promotional event running from Dec. 7-9. The evenings will include an expert panel, letter-writing to representatives, and  a movie showing.

However, despite the growing activism both on and off campus, the passing of the DREAM Act is truly contingent on the general public’s knowledge of its existence.

“We need to build more political awareness,” said Bates. “The anti-immigrant lobbies are very well organized and powerful. Politicians are not excited to stand up to these guys. As folks who can see the big picture, and we can see the big picture, we need to build enough power for our movement, so that we are bigger louder and more politically important than the anti-immigration movement.”

Due to the arguably modest nature of the bill, those aware of it appear to unanimously support it. The most effective way of informing the public and therefore gaining congressional support is simply talking about the issue with people you know.

“We need to talk about it, to mention it, to informally try to spread awareness,” said Zach Martin, co-chair of the AcaDems education committee of the College Democrats. “This is an issue that most people on campus will be very receptive and supportive of, but don’t necessarily know about.”

Though spreading awareness of the DREAM Act is priority at the moment, once the bill is reintroduced to congress in the upcoming year, it will become increasingly important to pressure Michigan representatives to pass the bill.
“It’s not over until we pass the bill and folks have a more just place in our society,” said Bates.