Once upon a time there was a land far away in the West, they called it “Home of the brave”, “Land of Opportunity” and all those glamorous names you can imagine. Cut the crap, let’s get to the point. Let’s examine what it really is before we tell all these stories about this land. What I would like to examine in this post is the pros and cons of the DREAM Act.
Introduction
The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act or DREAM Act, is a bill if enacted, which is going to offer thousands of young illegal immigrants a means of providing green card and the road map of citizenship. The first version of the DREAM Act was first introduced in 2001. Since then, the DREAM Act has been introduced in some form in each session of Congress (“DREAM Act Pros and Cons”, 2014) .This DREAM Act has its own pros and cons just like any other law to be enacted.
Goals and Eligibility Requirements
But before we rush into judgment, let’s understand the aim of the bill. The key criteria in eligibility for the DREAM Act is that applicants have to be between the ages of 12 and 35 at the time of the bill’s enactment; enter the country by age 15 or younger; prove five years of continuous residence in the U.S. prior to the bill’s enactment; have earned a G.E.D. or a high school diploma; and be younger than age 30 (Rivera, 2013). This bill is designed to help the wave of younger generation of undocumented immigrants to achieve their American dream. If this bill were to be enacted, it would have huge effects.
Effects on the Country and its Citizens
One of those effects is economical. People who are against the DREAM Act see the economic problem coming from two directions. One is that the act would add millions of individuals who are going to use public resources with paying low or no taxes at all (“DREAM Act Pros and Cons”, 2014).These government resources include healthcare, Pell Grant, social security benefits, and welfare. As Maryland Republican Pat McDonough puts it, “Maryland taxpayers would underwrite hundreds of millions of dollars annually to educate people who cannot legally work in this state or country (p. 6, Rivera, 2013).” This will result in more spending; thus, increased taxes.
Secondly, the influx of the newly documented immigrants is going to put pressure on the residents of the state or the country since they are going to be given opportunity to compete on the same grounds as other citizens. It is probably going to drive down salaries and wages of jobs (“DREAM Act Pros and Cons”, 2014). And since there is more manpower available, companies are going to take advantage of the cheaper labor.
On the other hand, supporters of the DREAM Act see opportunity with the soon to be documented immigrants. First of all, they now can file taxes, and that means more money for the government. In addition, these to be soon documented immigrants add money to the economy by opening up businesses that will create job opportunities. The passage of the DREAM Act would add $329 billion to the U.S. economy and create 1.4 million new jobs by 2030 (Gunzmán and Jara, 2012).
The economic issue is not the only thing that comes into question when we’re talking about the DREAM Act. We should also consider what message it conveys to the other immigrants. By other immigrants, I am referring to the ones who have complied with the rules and regulations on their way to citizenship. It creates a sense of inequality. The other thing that might add to this inequality is that in the bill it said that the students are going to get in-state-tuition, but we still have students on a student visa who still pay the out-of-state tuition. And on top of that, the difference between the out and in-state tuition is going to be covered by the taxpayers, or the state. If the state assumes the tuition difference, it may decide to decrease spending, or just increase tuition fees; and that would burden everyone.
The other shortcoming of this bill is that it might be advocating illegal immigration if these young people are granted their way to citizenship, since they clearly have broken the law. This is not a black or white answer. If you think about it, we are already condoning illegal immigration by our lenient implementation of our immigration policies. It is also very hard to strictly apply immigration laws because it takes ton of money. It is estimated that it would take at least $94 billion to detain and deport all the 12 million undocumented immigrants (Nizza, 2007). It just makes the U.S. appear less hypocritical if it were willing to legally accept the undocumented immigrants. And the first step in doing that is asking ourselves about what is really important.
What is the point of bragging about equal opportunity when it is clear that our policies are repressing the voiceless? In my opinion, after all these years, it is only right to let these young people give a chance despite the disadvantages. Whenever a public policy is enacted, there is always a sacrifice to be paid. America does not like to change things, even though it is very clear that what was being done is not fair. We have seen this with slavery, Native Americans, the Chinese Exclusion Acts, the Internment of Japanese Americans, and with the Civil Rights Movement. It’s clear that they deserve it in a way since they have been in the country for at least five years; they have already acculturated, and also have a lot of potential. So, let us do right when we have the chance to do so. I am sure we are going to be looking for ways to rectify the discrimination against immigrants fifty years from now.
Reference List
Gunzmán, J. and Jara, R. (2012, September 30). The Economic Benefits of passing the DREAM
Act. Center for American Progress. Retrieved from http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/immigration/report/2012/09/30/39567/the-economic-benefits-of-passing-the-dream-act/
Preston, J. (2013, September 23). Number of Illegal Immigrants in U.S. May Be on Rise Again,
Estimates Say. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/24/us/immigrant-population-shows-signs-of-growth-estimates-show.html?_r=0
Rivera, J. (2013). The DREAM Act and Other Mexican (American) Questions. Phi Kappa Forum, page
Dream Act Pros and Cons (2014, March 16). ASIA- PACIFIC ECONOMIC BLOG.
Retrieved from http://apecsec.org/dream-act-pros-and-cons/
Nizza, M. (2007) Estimate for Deporting Illegal Immigrants: $94 Billion. The New York Times.
Retrieved from http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/09/13/estimate-for-deportingillegal-immigrants-94-billion/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0