Broken System

I wrote an article about the “Broken System”

enjoy,

Broken System, Broken Dreams
Wednesday 09 December 2009
By Jose Ramon Garcia, Junior State of America

Once again, the misleading phrase America prides itself on ceases to be the phrase America governs by. “We hold these truths to be self evident (…) that all men [as in all humans] are created equal.” This belief, which our Founding Fathers so passionately believed in, has yet again been manipulated, twisted, and manhandled in order for it to mean anything other than its initial connotation. The meaning was altered during the 19th century in order to exclude African Americans, during the early 20th century to exclude women, and today this belief has been warped to exclude undocumented students.

Every year 65,000 undocumented students graduate from high school. Of those students only five-to-ten percent will attend a university, compared to 67 percent for American citizens. These undocumented students have lead a limited life in the United States, such as limited work opportunities and not being eligible financial aid.

There is hope amid all the confusion and fear. The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, sponsored by Sen. Richard (D- Illinois) and Sen. Richard Lugar (R- Indiana) is a proposal to provide undocumented students with road to citizenship if they follow certain guidelines. However, the DREAM Act was proposed in 2001, and has been stalled ever since. According to Janet Napolitano, immigration reform still remains as top priority for President Obama. It is surprising, and quite disheartening to me that an act such as the DREAM Act has taken almost an entire decade to merely be heard by the legislature. Yet the decision to go to war, as demonstrated by the myriad of wars America has fought, only takes a few weeks.

To say that America’s immigration system is broken would be an utter understatement. Something has to be done; the DREAM Act must make progress, because until then 65,000 individuals will not be able to better their lives and that of their families. Most importantly, these 65,000 individuals will be void of the opportunity to seek higher education to better America.