I was so disappointed when the DREAM Act didn’t pass yet again in spite of the pretty big campaign for awareness of people like Juan and the situations they are forced into. It’s blatantly inhumane to treat people this way and that’s something people of almost any political ideology could easily understand, so I’m hopeful as long as people continue fighting and campaigning to reach the public on this issue, appealing to just our basic sense of human decency that this will have to change.
It’s so true. These are the people we supposedly want to build a fence up against. They’re really not that different from us, they’re America too.
I heard an NPR report about a woman currently attending UCLA who has been in the US since age 2, and she says there are many students like her. That broke my heart because she’s working as a waitress — which she says she’s terrible at — and having to turn down jobs at labs (she’s pre-med) and translating for professors because of her status. She can’t get student loans, or even work-study. She lives hours off campus because it’s the cheapest rent. Does the country need to make her miserable, or does it need to let her become an obstetrician? The damn DREAM act shouldn’t be controversial. It affects very few, and those few are the proverbial best and brightest. Congress should pass it before lunch.
Fear mongering has convinced so many that immigrants are somehow less than human. I think it’s so that people never really relate to their plight, so they never see how unfair it is to just cart people off after they’ve built a life here or were raised here.
most of the people who are to pass the damned act are immigrants themselves!!!!!!! fuckers. where would we be without immigrants?
Within our racist immigration system, this dude *will* have a real chance–his English is excellent; he’s obviously well-spoken; he’s comparatively “white,” etc. etc. All he’ll have to find is an immigration officer who can get over his Spanish-sounding name. Yes, I know this sounds truly truly awful. And it is. I’ve been in the green card line myself, with my application ready to turn in, a white, educated woman who speaks English almost without accent. I was treated with courtesy and had my work permit after 30 minutes ON THE SAME DAY. Behind me were a Chinese father and his grown son; the father, who was applying for a green card, didn’t speak English well, so the son translated. They were treated much more rudely than I was, sent back to their seats to fill out an additional piece of paperwork and had to get back into the very end of the line, which probably meant another 2-3 hour wait. Now, that was in 1999 in Sacramento, so who knows how the system is now. All I remember is my complete bewilderment at the rudeness …
… and I’m realizing that I should have probably used a whole lot more quotation marks in my above comment (especially the first paragraph) than I did, to indicate the stupid irony of this. Anyway, I attribute this to my first beer in weeks …
For individuals brought into this country as children; for people who have grown up knownng NO other country; for immigrants who do not see themselves as that, having been brought up in the EXACT soceity in which “citizens” have been brought up in – it is SO wrong to deny them citizenship. to me there is a moral imperative to do this BECAUSE if someone has been in this country as a child, educated here, been exposed all the myriad parts of sociey, they ARE citizens. Citizenship is SO much MORE than a piece of paper; it is being part of the mosaic, reflecting the culture and values; having similar dreams and opinions – FURTHER, if ALL these years these children have been allowed to stay with their families – USUALLY becuase it is convenient to look the other way when businesses take advantage of “cheap” labour, then it is WRONG at the end of the day to say see ya! In Canada there have been similar issues, as outrageous. Kids who were brought up here from a very young age deported on cmmitting a crime; when they have been brought up and exposed to the society that molded them – the SAME society in which ‘CITIZENS’ live. WRONG. Then there are “citizens” who stay JUST long enough to get citizenship, then leave, never to be seen again UNLESS they want medical care or to take advantage of this country when the reality is that they have NO intention of forming any ties or loyalty or connection – it is simply a convenience. Give me the Juans; for their hearts are with THEIR country – the one which molded them, formed them, created who they are – the one that says they don’t belong…
I’m more than a little confused. Are people who were brought here as children unable to apply for citizenship on their own when they turn 18 or are they not willing to do so because their parents are illegal immigrants who are at risk for deportation if their adult children become citizens?
Thanks for posting this. It’s cross-posted. I work for an organization that provide legal services for immigrant DV survivors, and this young man’s story is mirrored in the stories of many of our clients and children. Selkie nailed the issue with: “For individuals brought into this country as children; for people who have grown up knownng NO other country; for immigrants who do not see themselves as that, having been brought up in the EXACT soceity in which “citizens” have been brought up in – it is SO wrong to deny them citizenship.”