........from the author of this piece on the editorial page of the NYT. I can't even grasp how this person's mind works. I read once that a liberal is someone who's interests aren't at stake at the moment. (I don't remember where or I'd attribute it.) I can only surmise that's what we are seeing here. This is someone who doesn't have to worry about paying their bills and taxes. This is someone who isn't working every angle to get their own kid into college.
A Chance to Dream
The Senate has a chance today to pluck a small gem from the ashes of the immigration debate. A critical procedural vote is scheduled on the Dream Act, a bill to open opportunities for college and military service to the children of undocumented immigrants.
Roughly 65,000 children graduate each year from high school into a constrained future because they cannot work legally or qualify for most college aid. These are the overlooked bystanders to the ferocious bickering over immigration. They did not ask to be brought here, have worked hard in school and could, given the chance, hone their talents and become members of the homegrown, high-skilled American work force.
The bill is one of the least controversial immigration proposals that have been offered in the last five years. But that doesn’t mean much. Like everything else not directly involving border barricades and punishment, it has been branded as “amnesty,” and has languished.
But this bill is different, starting with its broad, bipartisan support, from its original sponsor, the Utah Republican Orrin Hatch, to its current champion, Richard Durbin, Democrat of Illinois. Repeated defeats have forced Mr. Durbin to pare away at the bill’s ambitions. It focuses now on a narrow sliver of a worthy group: children who entered the country before age 16, lived here continuously for at least five years and can show good moral character and a high school diploma. They would receive conditional legal status for six years, during which they could work, go to college and serve in the military. If they completed at least two years of college or military service, they would be eligible for legalization.
These young people — their numbers are estimated at anywhere from a million to fewer than 100,000 — are in many ways fully American, but their immigration status puts a lock on their potential right after high school. They face the prospect of living in the shadows as their parents do, fearing deportation to countries they do not know, yearning to educate themselves in a country that ignores their aspirations.
The Dream Act rejects that unacceptable waste of young talent. The opportunity is there, provided the votes are there in the Senate.
What nonsense. The most ridiculous part is "The bill is one of the least controversial immigration proposals that have been offered in the last five years." It's like a criminal assaulting you and saying "Hitting you in the arm is ok, it was the least painful."
I'd call my Senators and Congressman, but Good Lord what's the point.
I'm getting in the shower now.