The American Dream.

The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,With conquering limbs astride from land to land;Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall standA mighty woman with a torch, whose flameIs the imprisoned lightning, and her nameMother of Exiles. From her beacon-handGlows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes commandThe air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame."Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries sheWith silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Emma Lazarus, 1883

My Grandfather once told me,”Michael this is the greatest country in the world, look at me, I came from nothing and this country gave me everything I ever wanted. You can be anything you want in America.” Even to this day I can hear him saying it, although I doubt he would recognize the country he worked so hard to be a part of. It used to be different. Back in the 50’s and 60’s immigrants would have to do many of the same “jobs that Americans didn’t want to do”, the only difference was that hard work usually transitioned into assimilation and acceptance. Those immigrants where given an unspoken promise, that if they toiled, worked 18-20 hours a day, with 3 different jobs, that their children and grandchildren would be accepted as Americans. Now for a man like my grandfather who cleaned toilets, washed dishes, turned screws in factories, and painted glow in the dark lines on alarm clock arms, the promise of his children having better lives in exchange for his labor was a small price to pay. In fact my father who was 12 when he arrived in America, was immediately admitted into public school and started his education. This is not to say that there wasn’t bigotry, hatred and discrimination back then, but what it shows was even though my father wasn’t born here and my grandparents where poor working 6 jobs, he was given an education, and an opportunity. He was so in love with his new home that right after high school, he joined the army, before he got his citizenship. Unfortunately this is 2008 and attitudes have changed, in this short cut society. Instead of send these “homeless, tempest-tost to me” there should be added,“as long as they don’t stay for too long and expect anything.” Now we expect immigrants to do the same pain staking labor with out any rewards for themselves or their children. In the advent of post 9/11 legislation, non-citizens are no longer protected by our constitution, and what little rights they still posses are being eroded by fear mongering and out right lies. This turning of difference into otherness and the slow dehumanization of human beings are truly un-American and go against everything the founders intended for this country.

The Urban Institute in their January 12, 2004 report titled Undocumented Immigrants: Facts and Figures shows a startling statistic,” About 1.6 million children under 18 in the United States are themselves undocumented immigrants. Another 3 million children with undocumented parents are U.S. citizens because they were born here. Current proposals that would require workers to return to their sending countries after six years would thus affect both undocumented and U.S. citizen children.” [1]. These undocumented alien children, by and large, didn’t really have any choice but to accompany their parents to the United States. When you look at the abject poverty, lack of work, and access to education in most Latin American countries, (not to mention our disastrous foreign policy) you cannot blame these Immigrants for bringing their children to the United States. All these hard working people want are what my grandparents wanted, some thing better for their children and grand children. Fortunately for these children, most public schools (grades K-12) don’t require immigration papers for students to sign up and attend. In a separate report from the Urban Institute, Dr. Jeffrey S. Passel in his October 21, 2003 report titled Further Demographic Information Relating to the DREAM Act, states ”The new data available from the March 2000, 2001, and 2002 CPSs (consistent with Census 2000) and again supplemented with Urban Institute research on the immigration status of respondents places the number of undocumented alien children who have lived in the United States for 5 years or longer reaching age 18 each year at the top of the range previously estimated, or about 80,000. Still, about one-sixth to one-fifth of each cohort fails to complete high school, leaving roughly 65,000 undocumented immigrants who have lived in the United States five years or longer who graduate from high school each year—” [2]. These children upon graduation are by and large assimilated into American culture, learning our history, language, and customs. In fact these children having been raised and educated here, consider the United States their home, with their homelands in some cases just a distant memory. My Father told me when he returned to Russia in 1968, he returned to Russia and not home. He never stopped loving the country and the people of where he was born, but he knew he was an American now. Since my Dad had a green card, or was a resident alien, he easily joined the U.S. Army, got a middleclass job and then became a citizen before marring my Mom. For undocumented alien children, with United States high school diplomas, pursuing college and middle class careers is quite the challenge if not impossible. Most colleges in the U.S. do not offer financial aid, loans, grants, and in state tuition to undocumented aliens. As the law stands now undocumented aliens can only join the armed forces of the United States if we are at war. The Immigration and Nationality Act States, “Any person who, while an alien or a non-citizen national of the United States, has served honorably as a member of the Selected Reserve of the Ready Reserve or 1/ in an active-duty status in the military, air, or naval forces of the United States during either World War I or during a period beginning September 1, 1939, and ending December 31, 1946, or during a period beginning June 25, 1950, and ending July 1, 1955, or during a period beginning February 28, 1961, and ending on a date designated by the President by Executive order as the date of termination of the Vietnam hostilities, or thereafter during any other period which the President by Executive order shall designate as a period in which Armed Forces of the United States are or were engaged in military operations involving armed conflict with a hostile foreign force, and who, if separated from such service, was separated under honorable conditions, may be naturalized..”[3]. Subsequently President Bush via Executive Order 13269 in 2002 extended this provision in the Immigration and Nationality Act “to provide expedited naturalization for aliens and non-citizen nationals serving in an active-duty status in the Armed Forces of the United States during the period of the war against terrorists of global reach”[4]. So if you are an undocumented alien child you really only have a few choices when it comes time for graduation. You can pray for a war, then hope you don’t get killed or you can do the same backbreaking work your parents did. The way the system is set up now, it creates a permanent underclass of below minimum wage labor, and the only difference is that you don‘t have to teach this next generation English. If this next generation becomes angry and demands equality, you can either send them to die or deport them. But maybe there is hope for them.

The American Dream Act in its most recent incarnation, H.R. 1275, is the kind of hope these young people need. The main text of this bill has been introduced in a number of ways; sometimes stand alone, sometimes as a rider, but to no avail. Although this bill is far from perfect, it begins to address the needs of children and young adults who really had no choice but to relocate in the United States. The bill states, ”IN GENERAL-Notwithstanding any other provision of law and except as otherwise provided in this Act, the Secretary of Homeland Security may cancel removal of, and adjust to the status of an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence, subject to the conditional basis described in section 5, an alien who is inadmissible or deportable from the United States, if the alien demonstrates that (A) the alien has been physically present in the United States for a continuous period of not less than 5 years immediately preceding the date of enactment of this Act, and had not yet reached the age of 16 years at the time of initial entry;(B) the alien has been a person of good moral character since the time of application;(C) the alien--(i) is not inadmissible under paragraph (2), (3), or (6)(E) of section 212(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)); and(ii) is not deportable under paragraph (1)(E), (2), or (4) of section 237(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1227(a)); and(D) the alien, at the time of application, has been admitted to an institution of higher education in the United States, or has earned a high school diploma or obtained a general education development certificate in the United States.” [5]. The bill looks to change the status of aliens, to conditional permanent residents. In order to do this, they had to have been under 16 years of age upon their arrival in the U.S., provide proof of residence (for example public school records) in the United States for at least five consecutive years since their date of arrival. The candidates also have to be of good moral character, are not inadmissible or deportable under the Immigration and Nationality Act at the time of application, and have been either admitted to college, or has earned a high school or equivalent diploma. Once the person attains the conditional status they have 6 years to complete the following tasks and file a petition to have the conditional tag removed. As stated,”(1) CONTENTS OF PETITION- Each petition for an alien under subsection (c)(1) shall contain information to permit the Secretary of Homeland Security to determine whether each of the following requirements is met:(A) The alien has demonstrated good moral character during the entire period the alien has been a conditional permanent resident.(B) The alien is in compliance with section 4(a)(1)(C).(C) The alien has not abandoned the alien's residence in the United States. The Secretary shall presume that the alien has abandoned such residence if the alien is absent from the United States for more than 365 days, in the aggregate, during the period of conditional residence, unless the alien demonstrates that alien has not abandoned the alien's residence. An alien who is absent from the United States due to active service in the uniformed services shall not be considered to have abandoned the alien's residence in the United States during the period of such service.(D) The alien has completed at least 1 of the following:(i) The alien has acquired a degree from an institution of higher education in the United States or has completed at least 2 years, in good standing, in a program for a bachelor's degree or higher degree in the United States.(ii) The alien has served in the uniformed services for at least 2 years and, if discharged, has received an honorable discharge.(E) The alien has provided a list of all of the secondary educational institutions that the alien attended in the United States. [6]. Once our conditional permanent resident acquires a college degree, completes 2 years of good standing in a bachelors degree program, or serves for 2 years honorably in the armed forces, they are eligible to become permanent residents. The next step is that they need to petition, the Secretary of Home Land Security, to have the conditional tag removed. Upon removal of the conditional tag, they are officially permanent residents. Once they are permanent residents they can apply for full citizenship. What is most important is that during the conditional phase, these previously undocumented resident aliens with high school diplomas can now apply for federal financial aid, loans, grants, and can now qualify for in state tuition. The present status and last action taken on H.R. 1275 was on,”6/5/2007 Referred to House subcommittee. Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on Higher Education, Lifelong Learning, and Competitiveness.” [7]. Witch means in all likely hood the bill has stalled in the first part of the legislative process.

When I think about what my Father, Uncle, Grandparents and family friends had to do in order for my relatives and I to become citizens of this country; it makes me both proud and angry. My Aunt (really close family friend) was a doctor in the Soviet Union, and when she came to the United States, her degree didn’t mean anything here. The fact that she didn’t speak English, and had little to no social resources, made it impossible with a husband and 2 children in 1949, for her to go back to medical school. Not to mention the gender discrimination and social norms of the time. This brilliant woman spent the rest of her working life being an orderly, cleaning bedpans and mopping floors. But you would never hear her complain about it, always smiling, dancing at parties, and making some of the best piroshki I have even eaten. She smiled because she knew that her children where reaping the benefits of living, being educated, and serving this Country. I’m sure that when they where over heard speaking Russian in public, people looked at them like they where the “bad guy”. I heard people calling the hard working people that I love with all my heart, “commies” under their breath, or some other off color remark. They just kept on smiling, loving life and they knew that our lives would be better than theirs and that is all that mattered to them. I am glad most of them didn’t live to see what has happened to the country they loved so much. The way that the United States have set up a permanent self perpetuating underclass, by denying opportunities to children who had no choice but to accompany their parents here, is barbaric. It was bad enough that these hard working people have to do some of the hardest, most tedious work for a fraction of minimum wage with no real protections under the law, only to “reward” them with having their children move into their old jobs, with no hope of upward mobility, is truly appalling. These children, most with high school diplomas, are so far divorced from their native countries that going back to them are no longer an option and staying here, just means a life of below minimum wage servitude. H.R. 1275 The American Dream Act is a good first step in rewarding hard working Immigrants by putting into law that their children will have the potential for a better life than them. Most importantly it does not punish a child for a decision that he/she could not have possibly made, namely immigrating to the United States. It gives these high school diploma holding young people an option apart from having to serve in the armed forces during a time of war. H.R. 1275 opens undocumented alien children up to higher education as well as the armed forces during both war and peace. Hopefully with enough grassroots pressure and persistence, this common sense bill will eventually make its way back to the floor for consideration and eventually made law. That or we will be perpetuating a modern form of economic slavery.

References
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1. Passel, Capps, Fix, Undocumented Immigrants: Facts and Figures, http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/1000587_undoc_immigrants_facts.pdf (last updated Jan. 12, 2004).

2. Jeffrey S. Passel Ph.D., Further Demographic Information Relating to the DREAM Act, http://nilc.org/immlawpolicy/DREAM/DREAM_Demographics.pdf (last updated October 21, 2003).

3. 8 U.S.C. § 1440

4. Exec. Or. 13269, 3 C.F.R. (2002), http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/07/20020703-24.html (last updated July 3, 2002).

5. H.R. 1275, 110th Cong. § 4 (March 1, 2007),
http://rs9.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:H.R.1275: (last updated March 1, 2007).

6. H.R. 1275, 110th Cong. § 5 (March 1, 2007),
http://rs9.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:H.R.1275: (last updated March 1, 2007).

7. THOMAS (Library of Congress), Status of H.R. 1275,
http://rs9.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:HR01275:@@@D&summ2=m& (last
updated June 5, 2007).