The DREAM Act for Jessica Colotl
I’m a big fan of the DREAM Act, which would allow promising illegal immigrants to get college degrees and then get on the path to citizenship. This country desperately needs more college graduates, and there is little argument that undocumented college graduates would burden our financial resources. Because it is narrowly tailored, it wouldn’t prompt a stampede across our borders, as detractors claim.
And The DREAM Act would free promising students like Jessica Colotl to focus on their studies:
Jessica Colotl, 21, is a senior at Kennesaw State University, a political science major and a member of Lambda Theta Alpha, a college sorority. She wants to attend law school.
However, she came to this country illegally, with her parents, when she was a child. And her detractors don’t care what she’s accomplished since then. They want to send her back to Mexico, a country she barely knows.
But for years, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus has been reluctant to endorse the DREAM Act as a separate piece of legislation, fearing that, if it passes, they won’t get the necessary votes for the rest of comprehensive immigration reform. This week, the caucus, happily, changed its mind and will support the DREAM act as a separate bill. (h/t Think Progress)
Today however, at the Reform Immigration for America campaign’s “Relief, Reform, Respect for our Families” forum, CHC Chairwoman Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) announced that the caucus supports Sen. Harry Reid’s (D-NV) addition of the DREAM Act as an amendment to the defense authorization bill, stating “the time is now” for the DREAM Act:
As chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus I stand here before you to say that all along we have said to the Democratic leadership — in the House and in the Senate — and to the President every time we’ve met with him that we will not stand in the way of the DREAM Act, but there has to be a commitment that no amendments will be allowed to be included in this bill. We will support the DREAM Act. [...]
Congress ought to concentrate on a few small bills that would represent a modest improvement over the current reality for millions of those without papers — a life of living in the shadows, without legal protections, with continual fear of deportation and little chance for improved circumstances.
One of the best opportunities lies in the DREAM Act, which would allow promising undocumented students to start a path toward citizenship if they meet certain standards. The proposal — pushed for years by U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) — is intended to boost illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, have finished high school and want to attend college or join the U.S. Armed Forces. The bill is a win not only for those students, but also for the country as a whole.
Much of the fury directed at illegal immigrants feeds off the notion that many of them are unfairly taking advantage of benefits that should be restricted to American citizens. However, that’s not the case with college; undocumented students are not displacing bona fide citizens who have been denied a seat in Calculus II.
In fact, the United States doesn’t have nearly enough students attending college. President Obama has talked again and again about the country’s decline in educational attainment: the U.S. used to the lead the world in the number of people with college degrees, but we’ve fallen behind.
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162 comments Add your comment
Kamchak
September 16th, 2010
9:10 pm
…that the tea party generation…
The tea party movement is generational?
ronald
September 16th, 2010
9:10 pm
Cynthia- Are you editing my comments again? Post my last post! Jeez…
T-Town
September 16th, 2010
9:10 pm
Mr. C; Not according to Ms. Tucker who debated me earlier this year that the healthcare bill would create jobs. Now she subscribes that I buy into a “Dream” were we kept educated IAs. The problem is my educated children now must compete with the educated IAs while I pay for both of their educations.
T-Town
September 16th, 2010
9:11 pm
where not were
ronald
September 16th, 2010
9:15 pm
T-Town you are right. Cynthia’s logic is unbelievable on this topic. This is why Democrats are going to take it in the pooper in the midterm cycle. Every option the liberals come up for almost any topic results in more spending and they still don’t understand that CUTTING SPENDING is #1 on people’s minds these days.
And for Cynthia to suggest that US colleges aren’t graduating enough students? Wow…just wow… Is she blind to the job market currently available to kids graduating right now?
Mr Charlie
September 16th, 2010
9:16 pm
Kam, as CT loves to point out, it is primarily made upper middle aged (Dog whistle?) white folks…..T-Town, CT knows nothing about how the health bill will affect our economy, nobody does. I don’t kow if anyone has even read it yet, lol, but I suspect the supreme court will cut it down, the government can’t make anyone buy anything…
True, your children will have to compete with IA’s for jobs, but the IA will also create jobs. Bottom line is, you can never have to many smart people.
The REAL GodHatesTrash, Superstar
September 16th, 2010
9:17 pm
Liberals are unwilling the face the cold, hard fact that the main reason illegal aliens are here is for jobs.
They do take the jobs of American citizens, and drive down wages for many others.
That’s just how labor markets work. A larger supply lowers prices.
The building trades used to be a way to make a good living; that is much harder now, not just because the economy is bad, but because illegal labor drove down wages even when times were booming. The housing boom in Georgia heavily depended on the low wages of illegals, and there are thousands of McMansions that were built that wouldn’t be here today driving down the prices of the rest of the housing stock if it weren’t for contractors hiring illegals and paying them $4-5/hour or even less.
Of course, the United States’ economic and cultural growth has always depended on a growing middle class, but our immigration policy since Reagan is part of an overall economic policy that is hellbent on destroying the American middle and working classes.
It is illegal to hire someone who is here illegally. But there is no enforcement. Place like Dalton (rugs) and Gainesville (chickens) are heavily dependent on cheap illegal labor, and many people are millionaires and billionaires because they have found it easy to exploit people who are desperate.
And, after three decades of essentially open borders, many formerly middle-class Americans are desperate too. Underneath the racism, the hate-mongering, the xenophobia, and the laziness and sheer stupidity of the tea-baggers lies a real grievance – the denigration of their labor and the destruction of their jobs. Liberals are seen as sticking up for illegals at the expense of their fellow Americans, and, as ignorant and hate-filled as we can see many of them are, the destruction of their jobs and their economic futures is all of our concerns, since even decent folks are already caught up in it this, or soon will be, too.
ronald
September 16th, 2010
9:18 pm
Cynthia has quite a bit of gall to actually write a column that suggests that taxpayers should pay for illegal alien kids to go to college. In the middle of the financial storm that the country is in, with the difficulty of middle and lower-income families to make ends meet…Cynthia suggests that the taxpayer should also shoulder the bill for Mexican illegal alien kids to go to college. Just wow…
ronald
September 16th, 2010
9:20 pm
I am willing to bet that Cynthia has never balanced her checkbook.
T-Town
September 16th, 2010
9:24 pm
Mr. C; While I may agree with your statement: “True, your children will have to compete with IA’s for jobs, but the IA will also create jobs. Bottom line is, you can never have to many smart people,” I have my own views and crosses to bear. I brought my hispanic grandson here legally at great expensive. Now I’m at the crossroads in my heart with my granddaughter. Do I bring her here legally at a great expense or illegally and wait until their is some sort of amnesty? My heart is heavy.
Mr Charlie
September 16th, 2010
9:26 pm
Superstar, the failure was the companies who were/are allowed to circumvent tax, social security other employee related expense by hiring illegals. Why knock the tea partiers? The age, demographic, and value system of the average member were from a generation that led the world in education. Not too bad for a bunch of flat earthers, huh?
Kamchak
September 16th, 2010
9:30 pm
Commie, why would you agree with our hostess on this issue of “upper middle aged white folks,” when you obviously disagree on any and all issues?
Mr Charlie
September 16th, 2010
9:30 pm
T-Town, I do feel for you. It does seem as though the people who follow the rules get the short end of the stick. There is not doubt about that.
Mr Charlie
September 16th, 2010
9:34 pm
I agree with CT in this topic on immigration too. Unlike you, I think for myself.
Kamchak
September 16th, 2010
9:35 pm
Liberals are unwilling the face the cold, hard fact that the main reason illegal aliens are here is for jobs.
Kinda late to the party with that observation, Capt. Obvious.
I’ve been pointing that fact out since St. Ronnie of the Ray-Gun’s amnesty of 1986.
Tech man
September 16th, 2010
9:37 pm
GO ATLANTA DREAM! Now that’s a DREAM I believe in!
Mr Charlie
September 16th, 2010
9:40 pm
Kammy, agreed on that too, and GW made it worse after 911. There was a time when immigrants went to California to pick fruit during the season, then when back across the border when the season was over.
after 911, they were concerned that they could not make it back across then next year, so they brought thier famlies and instead of going back home after the harvest season, they emigrated west and started working construction, and when the populations grew, opened businesses to service the latino community.
T-Town
September 16th, 2010
9:42 pm
Mr. Kamchak; It is quite apparent with your “I’ve been pointing that fact out since St. Ronnie of the Ray-Gun’s amnesty of 1986″ statement that you have problems with some aspects of a amnesty program of any type. As I have a vested interest in any outcome, just what would you like to see?
Kamchak
September 16th, 2010
9:47 pm
No, Commie.
IAs have been coming and settling in the construction biz for decades.
It did not all of a sudden become worse.
The REAL GodHatesTrash, Superstar
September 16th, 2010
9:47 pm
Now Charlie, get real.
The tea-baggers are largely bottom-feeders, a demographic well-below to only slightly above average in intelligence, people with severe anger management and emotional problems that are often exacerbated by their paranoia, anti-intellectualism, and underlying mental deficit (it is extremely hard for stupid people to recover from mental illnesses). The idyllic parenting that you imagine for these folks often included arbitrary beatings by drunken fathers and slatternly mothers, living in stultifying myopic multi-generational rural poverty.
Let’s face it – large areas of this country – such as most of the south – have never had better than a third-world education system. As an example, Georgians have always been pathetically behind other areas of the county in education, loooong before there was a federal department of education – since the beginning of the colony for gawd’s sake! If it wasn’t for Rockefeller, Georgia’s children would probably still be dying of rickets, if it wasn’t for FDR, you’d probably have less than a thousand flush toilets in the whole state.
You can tell a lot about the tea-baggers by where they are from – largely, they are from the same areas of the country where the Klan is prominent, where inbreeding and teen pregnancy are the worst, where homicides and substance abuse are the highest, and where the most people attend church to try to think they are better than everyone else and talk to their imaginary gods.
barking frog
September 16th, 2010
9:51 pm
Anyone who honorably serves in our military
should be granted citizenship.
T-Town
September 16th, 2010
9:52 pm
Mr. Real; Do you mean it comes from “trailer-hood” and not “the hood?”
Kamchak
September 16th, 2010
9:52 pm
Mr. Kamchak; It is quite apparent with your “I’ve been pointing that fact out since St. Ronnie of the Ray-Gun’s amnesty of 1986″ statement that you have problems with some aspects of a amnesty program of any type.
Nope.
I have a problem with silly cons not owning St. Ronnie exacerbating a problem, then expecting someone else to clean up the mess all the while spewing poutrage blaming others.
Nothing Is Free
September 16th, 2010
9:54 pm
The REAL GodHatesTrash, Superstar
The tea-baggers are largely bottom-feeders, a demographic well-below to only slightly above average in intelligence, people with severe anger management and emotional problems that are often exacerbated by their paranoia, anti-intellectualism, and underlying mental deficit (it is extremely hard for stupid people to recover from mental illnesses).
Any hope of your offering any data other than your own ignorance?
I have to say, when I see someone as stupid and hate filled as yourself, I am more than happy to see what is going to become of your racist and hate filled party.
You are an imbecile.
Mr Charlie
September 16th, 2010
9:54 pm
I disagree, for years many IAs passed freely over the border between California and Mexico. After 911 that was no longer the case. Sure they worked construction for decades, but the culture was to keep the family in Mexico, send the money back, and go back and forth as they pleased After 911 they started bringing their families.
911 border policies had more to do with he amount of children being born here than the “Anchor Baby” conspiracy ever did.
Nothing Is Free
September 16th, 2010
9:55 pm
The real piece of trash
You can tell a lot about the tea-baggers by where they are from – largely, they are from the same areas of the country where the Klan is prominent,
Hey imbecile. YOu support the party that invented the KKK, TWICE.
You are as ignorant as you are stupid.
barking frog
September 16th, 2010
9:57 pm
The REAL GodHatesTrash, Superstar
September 16th, 2010
9:47 pm
Georgians have always been pathetically behind other areas of the county in education,
——————————————————-
Don’t know where you’re from, but evidently spellcheck ain’t been invented.
Nothing Is Free
September 16th, 2010
10:00 pm
barking frog
When they are slamming and drooling on their keyboard, they ignore the squiggly little lines.
Nothing Is Free
September 16th, 2010
10:02 pm
The Real piece of Trash
- -where the most people attend church to try to think they are better than everyone else and talk to their imaginary gods.- -
Poor baby. That would be a chip on his limp little shoulder just too big fort the little boy to support.
And he’s an evangelist to boot.
Mr Charlie
September 16th, 2010
10:06 pm
Superstar
” largely, they are from the same areas of the country where the Klan is prominent, where inbreeding and teen pregnancy are the worst, where homicides and substance abuse are the highest”,
Throw out the inbreeding comment, replace the “Klan” with the “Black Panthers”, and I would swear you are talking about the voting districts where Obama took 98%.
Mr Charlie
September 16th, 2010
10:09 pm
Superstar, say what you want, but the Tea Party generation led the world in education, medicine, space exploration and technology.
You sould be asking them how they did it, instead of saying vile ugly things about them.
The REAL GodHatesTrash, Superstar
September 16th, 2010
10:09 pm
I see I have touched some nerves here. There are always people that are quite uncomfortable with the facts, especially people with low cognitive skills.
Here, Nothing, is an abstract of an interesting study in New Zealand about low IQ and mental illness:
OBJECTIVE: Cognitive reserve has been proposed as important in the etiology of neuropsychiatric disorders. However, tests of the association between premorbid IQ and adult mental disorders other than schizophrenia have been limited and inconclusive. The authors tested the hypothesis that low childhood IQ is associated with increased risk and severity of adult mental disorders.
METHOD: Participants were members of a representative 1972–1973 birth cohort of 1,037 males and females in Dunedin, New Zealand, who were followed up to age 32 with 96% retention. WISC-R IQ was assessed at ages 7, 9, and 11. Research diagnoses of DSM mental disorders were made at ages 18, 21, 26, and 32.
RESULTS: Lower childhood IQ was associated with increased risk of developing schizophrenia spectrum disorder, adult depression, and adult anxiety. Lower childhood IQ was also associated with greater comorbidity and with persistence of depression; the association with persistence of generalized anxiety disorder was nearly significant.
CONCLUSIONS: Lower cognitive reserve, as reflected by childhood IQ, is an antecedent of several common psychiatric disorders and also predicts persistence and comorbidity. Thus, many patients who seek mental health treatment may have lower cognitive ability; this should be considered in prevention and treatment planning.
Mr Charlie
September 16th, 2010
10:13 pm
Superstar, dude, when you start talking about “inbreeders”, you probably need to inventory your own mental facilties.
Tommy Maddox
September 16th, 2010
10:20 pm
“The Real” whatever:
You remind me of that old Thermos Greenwood song which made fun of the police – “Who Gave the Monkey a Gun?”
A mind is a terrible thing…
The REAL GodHatesTrash, Superstar
September 16th, 2010
10:23 pm
Low IQ equates to higher suicide rates in males, as does obesity.
All you fat stupid tea-baggers – be careful when you are playing with your guns!
(Grammar police: I know, I know. Yes, fat stupid tea-bagger is redundant.)
The REAL GodHatesTrash, Superstar
September 16th, 2010
10:25 pm
And Mr. Maddox, you remind me of a retarded child playing with an alligator.
I certainly understand why your parents bought one for you.
Mr Charlie
September 16th, 2010
10:25 pm
Superstar, don’t talk about IQs, standardized tests, or obesity. If I start throwing out facts, well, I will get banned by CT again.
Nothing Is Free
September 16th, 2010
10:26 pm
The real piece of trash.
So your response is a cut and paste about low IQ?
Do you really want to do this? Ignorance and bigotry is the most common tell of low IQ so that would place you in the lower 20 percentile.
I’m not going to waste my valuable time arguing with a low brow imbecile such as yourself. But I will say that I would put my physical strength, my national awards, my IQ and my education up against yours, any day. It’s a simple fact that folks that come to blogs to pick fights are to cowardly to face anyone in real life.
You are an ignorant little twit who apparently wants to pick a fight while setting on your fat arse, hiding behind that outdated CRT.
It’s not my fault that you are who you are. It’s not my fault that you have apparently failed in life and are extremely bitter about it. It’s not my fault that you live your pathetic life in fear and need to come to places like this where you can pretend to be a big man when you are just a little twit.
Now please, find another unrelated cut and paste that will continue to demonstrate what a pathetic, little loser that you have made yourself.
Tommy Maddox
September 16th, 2010
10:27 pm
Stupidity can be addressed; ugly cannot.
Nothing Is Free
September 16th, 2010
10:30 pm
Tommy Maddox
No, when we were addressing the real piece of trash, we addressed both stupidity and ugliness. I would be willing to bet that the sad little boy doesn’t have much going for him.
Tommy Maddox
September 16th, 2010
10:32 pm
It’s funny since my parents did buy me one of those alligators from the side-of the-road joints in Florida before I-75 was built.
It croaked – I survived unhurt…
Nothing Is Free
September 16th, 2010
10:34 pm
Tommy Maddox
I have to finish a project and upload before midnight or take a huge hit financially.
I’ll leave the imbecile in your capable hands.
Have fun.
Rick Sultana
September 16th, 2010
10:35 pm
What we would like here is for people to obey the law, lest we promote anarchy. Now laws can be modified; in that there is reasonable debate. But illegal is illegal, is it not?
The REAL GodHatesTrash, Superstar
September 16th, 2010
10:38 pm
“But I will say that I would put my physical strength,”
Nothing is Free – cyber tough!
LOL!
Tommy Maddox
September 16th, 2010
10:38 pm
Folks around here get a little torqued with that word “illegal”.
Mr Charlie
September 16th, 2010
10:46 pm
G’nite, and be sure to check under the sheets before you climb into bed.
Tommy Maddox
September 16th, 2010
10:51 pm
Good thing about us fish – we came armed and shoot back.
Kamchak
September 16th, 2010
11:00 pm
…I will get banned by CT again.
So many sock-puppets to choose from.
Tommy Maddox
September 16th, 2010
11:08 pm
Well you came out late!
nopology
September 16th, 2010
11:13 pm
To quote one of ct’s high profile “place for politics” mutual admiration personalities. . ” I have a nightmare”. The smart thing for this girl to do would be to get pregnant, get the anchor set and not worry about it. . .Once thje kids here all her problems would just go away! Why a need for another program- OOPS! My bad- more buracracy! Silly me!