Thursday, October 25, 2012

Not Much for the Dreamers




          Immigration reform is quite a sensitive issue for numerous voters in this upcoming election, especially Latino voters. Many people who hoped for this issue to be discussed were quite disappointed to find that the issue was left unmentioned in the first debate. Although it was discussed quite briefly—five minutes—in the second debate, nothing new was presented. President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney were both asked about their immigration plans. The two candidates presented their views and plans on immigration reform. From their discussion, it seems that there is very little hope for the supporters of the DREAM Act, an immigration reform bill that would provide more opportunities for undocumented aliens.
          Republican candidate Romney had always been against the DREAM Act. During the second debate, he said he opposes any amnesty for those without valid documents in America. Romney supports “self-deportation” and he is strongly against providing jobs to illegal immigrants. He also said he opposes driver's licenses and same state college tuition fees for undocumented aliens. The only pathway is “military service” to become a permanent resident of the United States for young people. But the fact is the military does not allow illegal immigrants to enlist. He opposes legalization for the "illegal" and forbids any benefits for them. Overall, he would make their lives miserable so that undocumented residents would be forced to leave.
       President Obama expressed his sympathy and support for those people who risked their lives to come here just to take care of their families. He is not willing to deport those groups of people who were bought by their families and think this is their country. He also stated that being an immigrant and being a criminal are two different things. People who came here to support their family are not criminals. He also mentioned that the Obama administration has worked diligently to pass the act. However, when asked why he did not present this bill to Congress in his first two years when his party was a majority in Congress, he could not provide a satisfactory answer. Obama has been criticized for not trying hard to pass this act in his term as he promised. On June 15, 2012, Obama announced that America will stop the deportation of eligible people under the DREAM Act and provide a two-year work permit for them. However, this may only be a trick to garner some votes, as suspected by some. Although many are hopeful of President Obama's stance on immigration reform, the fact remains that his actions have been different from his campaign promises. A few websites such as CBS news, Washington post, PBS news, ABC news and many others reported that America had the largest number (about 1.2 million over three years) of deportation during Obama’s term. Clearly, immigration was not a priority for him.
           In conclusion, taking into account the positions of both candidates and their respective consequences, seems to present the following dilemma: If Romney wins, he will not pass DREAM Act and probably follow the model of Arizona to encourage self-deportation. If Obama wins, he will not do much without the support of the Republicans. Both Romney and Obama admitted that we don’t have enough resources to deport 11.2 million people (by Pew Hispanic Center report, 2011). Regardless of whoever wins, it can be concluded from both candidate’s words and actions that there is not much hope on immigration reform or to pass DREAM Act in the coming future.

Published by Shanjida Khatun
 Updated on 11/1/12

2 comments:

  1. This is very informative and you were really clear on what you are trying to write about. I believe the Dream Act is a very soluble in that it provides working opportunities to immigrant that are not experienced in most areas of jobs. There is many people who from other countries who are willing to work on hand labor or low experience restaurant jobs that other people would not be willing to work for, mostly born in the United States. I understand why Romney would be against the Dream Act, where he is more conservative, and Obama is more open with this.

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  2. Thanks for your comment Jonathan. Actually, DREAM Act will not legalize this group of workers that you have mentioned, the people who are working into the restaurants or into the farms. DREAM Act is to legalize young educated people who were bought up by their families at their young age, who are here over 5 continuous years and went to schools and colleges in USA. In this case, there will be a job completion between them and the citizens. Because these people are educated and don’t have language barriers. One group’s opinion is passing this Act will create some pressure in the job market which is already sinking. Other group is mentioning about the moral sides involved with this. It is a complex issue. I guess, we have to wait to see how it goes with the people who got 2 years of work permits under this Act recently.

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