Great News: The DREAM Act Is Back!

Editor's note: The following is a press release from the good folks at SEIU:

Today, Senators Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Richard Lugar (R-IN) introduced the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act in the U.S. Senate while Representatives Howard Berman (D-CA) and Lincoln Diaz-Balart (D-FL) introduced it in the House of Representatives. The DREAM Act would correct a flaw in our immigration laws that currently provide no path to legal status for young people who were brought to the U.S. years ago as undocumented immigrant children even if they have spent most of their lives here and have stayed in school and out of trouble.  The DREAM Act would provide such a pathway that would take six years and apply only to those who entered before 2004 at the age of 15 or younger, and only if they graduate from high school and continue on to college or military service.

Change to Win chair and SEIU Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger released the following statement:

“Since the beginning, America has always believed that if you work hard, dedicate yourself and give back to your community, you can achieve just about anything regardless of your family background. From the day our forbearers threw off the yoke of empire, to the dream of building a more perfect union or putting a man on the moon, we would not be the same nation if we had continued to hold people back based on skin color or religion, gender or national origin, or the past actions of their parents.

“Men and women, black and white, Hispanic, Scotch-Irish Jewish, Catholic and every other combination that make this the greatest country in the world have all contributed to our most important achievements. The DREAM Act will contribute to America’s future prosperity by freeing a new generation to build a stronger America.

“We have a choice: free these young people to realize their full potential so that they can contribute all of their talent to the future we will all share, or keep them in a place of uncertainty full of fear and lost opportunities. Among these students are countless future nurses, leaders, teachers, military heroes and inventors of the next great technological or medical breakthrough, people we can’t afford to hold back. SEIU’s 2 million members strongly support this bi-partisan legislation because it reinforces what America has always stood for – if you work hard you can make a difference and make the world a better place.”