The Dream is a Reality

I was so excited to hear that the Dream Act passed in California! This bill will allow California high school graduates who have no legal documentation, to attend college and apply for financial aid. This is a great step in the right direction -- more college graduates means more productivity, more creativity, more safety and more financial stability for our state. 

As we have more college graduates we will have more small businesses and more job creation -- something California is in dire need of with a 12.1% unemployment rate. Giving bright high school students the chance to attend universities and colleges will give them the opportunity to create, innovate, and help California remain the eighth largest economy in the world. 

I don't understand why there are people who would rather create a second-class citizen who has fewer rights and options. A second-class citizen who cannot contribute fully to society. I don't want to live in a place where youth is angry because they are being punished for their parents' actions, retaliating through violence or becoming a true burden on society because they are unemployable. 

The Dream Act tells elementary, junior and high school students that there is hope, that they have options. Despite their parents bringing them to this country without their knowledge or consent, they can make something of themselves and contribute to our society. This is a far different message from what these undocumented students received before -- what was the point of studying and doing well if they could not attend college and have successful careers? 

As long as they are not criminals; gangsters, violent offenders, drug dealers -- in some way a detriment to our society, why not let them be an asset? 

Some argue that the Dream Act will encourage people to cross our borders illegally. What these people fail to see is that the parents who brought their children here illegally didn't expect their children to be able to attend college. They came anyway and they would continue coming because a lack of college education is the least of their concerns. People risk their lives and the lives of their children to come into this country because staying where they were would be a certain death for them all. Their children would literally starve, suffer and die if they didn't come here. 

People come to the U.S. and will continue to come here even if no services are provided for them or their children. What brings them are jobs and what keeps them here are jobs. In Mexico, 47.4% of the population lives in poverty, according to a report by the Government of National Assessment of Social Policy Development. In Guatemala, 75% of the population lives in poverty, 58% in extreme poverty, according to The World Bank. And according to The World Bank, 20 percent of Nicaragua's population, "fall below the extreme poverty line and are food poor; that is, they cannot meet the daily minimum caloric requirement even if they were to devote all of their consumption to food." Really, a college education is probably amongst the last things on these parents' minds. 

In the end it doesn't really matter how these students came to be here. What matters is that we give them a place to go and a way to make our state and our nation better through continued hard work and dedication. The Dream Act will allow them to achieve this.