As I began searching for evidence that might answers my questions, I felt overwhelmed to find a lot of information on immigration as a whole and what the DREAM Act constitutes of but haven’t been finding a lot of general American public opinion on this issue. My immediate source was the Poudre Library’s Academic Premier, where I easily located a vast variety of information on topics of immigration and the Dream Act along with some very powerful anecdotal journals from former DREAMers. Viewing the many scholarly sources offered I was not quite satisfied with the information found, which made me do some research on some organizational websites, comparing them with the CQ Researcher through Academic Premier.
The first article titled “Immigration Debate (Can Politicians find a way to curb illegal immigration?)” was published through CQ Researcher (a division of the Poudre Library’s Academic Premier) during 2008 and then updated in December of 2010. An article summarizing illegal immigration, analyzing the situation and a possible immigration reform. Towards the end of the article I found a section specifically on my topic: “Should illegal immigrants be allowed to attend public colleges and universities?” a brief space that is used to put forth FAIR’s view on the subject, versus the opponent side; The American Immigration Law Foundation. FAIR states that “[undocumented students] … are taking slots and huge amounts of public subsidies that would otherwise go to Americans or legal immigrants.” Raising the question whether as to: should illegal immigrants be banned colleges and universities all together? The American Immigration Law Foundation argues that the DREAM Act is a reasonable compromise that wouldn’t give undocumented/illegal immigrant students access to scholarships and grants. The states that do have in-state tuition rates for illegal immigrants have not seen an increase in registration. According to the article the DREAM Act would “protect students and if we’re going to have them in this country because they aren’t going to leave the only place they’ve known as home, then we might as well embrace it and help them be as educated as possible”. "It would be helpful to our economy to have these kids get college degrees." A question that arose after reading this was “Are undocumented immigrants being subsidized in one way or another indirectly by the government and taxpayers? How many states would be willing to completely shut down higher education as a whole to undocumented immigrants? I would tend to believe that we as undocumented immigrant students paying the out-of-state tuition rate would be helping the government and our communities by putting more money back into the system. I thought this was where all or most public colleges and universities got the funds (other than government funds) to for their institutions. How would an American student feel about attending a class with a fellow undocumented classmate? Would they embrace it and help them be as educated as possible? Or would they favor colleges who would shut down higher education to undocumented students?
Searching for more information I came across an article titled “Can’t Kill This Dream” published by The Center for American Progress in December 7th of 2010. A brief article demonstrating that ever since the last Dream Act bill failed to pass by congress, the DREAM action didn’t flinch or stagnated. Instead they have come with more power than ever. They became bigger, louder and stronger by marching on the lame duck session with a singular purpose. These DREAMers are not letting politicians stump their dreams. The mobilization in support will not stop until the DREAM is reality to hundreds and thousands of people. In the past months they have been stepping out of their boxes and become more public and explicit about who they are and what they are fighting for. From hunger strikes that have generated mass media to galvanizing support from business and religious leaders in states across the U.S marching along with veterans. They have “outed” themselves publicly on national TV risking getting arrested and even deported. Reading this article made me see how strong these people are and how far they are willing to push themselves and do things that are so unthought-of, just so they can make their dreams come true.
Both articles although a bit different all came back to the same issue: the DREAM Act and why many want it to pass. These undocumented immigrant students may never be able to use their degree because of their status. The country wants more jobs to be made. Would the DREAM Act help create more jobs? What position would Americans take a stance on then? If undocumented immigrants were to have a way to become legalized, more lawyers would be needed. More judges and more cases would need to be reviewed which means more personnel would be needed. Also if they were able to do so, would they want to buy homes and cars? Would they send their children off to college and set up new businesses? Ideally this would be the best for the economy, but viewing this from the American standpoint on the conservative side I could argue that this is exactly what conservatives don’t want. I would feel somewhat angry and my first thought would be that the government isn’t setting their priorities straight. The government would seem to be favoring illegals before native born citizens. In no way would it create jobs, it would probably displace many because of competitiveness between legal and undocumented. Also if these dreamers were to benefit from the DREAM Act, they would start overcrowding colleges and universities. If they can get their degrees in the United States, but not work in their countries then that’s when they’d go back to their countries. As a conservative I’d ask: Are we the only ones with universities? Why don’t they study back home? Why does the U.S have to solve the problems these law-breaking individuals face? I would oppose the DREAM Act believing that in my own opinion that there are other important issues the American government needs to address before even considering undocumented immigrants.
Analyzing outside the thinking box, I can start to form a puzzle together. Without knowing many other reasons as to why Americans oppose the issue, I can quickly see the areas where they would backfire. Americans look out for their personal interest first and foremost. In the next blog I will research more about these misconceptions they would use to use as counter arguments.
Works Cited :
Greenblatt, A. (2008, February 1). Immigration debate. CQ Researcher, 18, 97-120.
Works Cited :
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