Photo by Ruben Hernandez (Creative Commons)

The individuals who would benefit from the measure have been living in the States for years, raised as Americans, and are on their way to becoming productive members of our society through a higher education or serving the military.

Those who oppose this act are, in effect, opposing the concept of rewarding children who have been nothing but positive and hardworking. They are minors, who decided to stay in high school and go to college using their own money, all the while knowing that they cannot serve the country that they love once they try to enter the workforce. 

Critics raise a legitimate point about the issue of illegality. The United States should not publicly support and reward illegal behavior by granting citizenship to those who broke the law. However, the kids who would be impacted by the DREAM Act never broke the law.

Imagine punishing these kids because of something that their parents did, something that they had no control over.

Would we punish a child who happened to be in a grocery store that their parents robbed even if they had no idea what was going on? Even if they were too young to figure out what was going on? No, we wouldn’t because that would be unethical. 

The act under question wouldn’t be granting citizenship to those parents, the ones who knowingly broke the law. Instead, it would be giving a chance for equality those who were oblivious, young, and brought along for the ride. They want to give back to our society, a society that recognized them as human beings and provided them with an education.

Why are we standing in the way of those who simply want to give thanks to what we’ve done for them?

Deporting them isn’t the answer. In fact, its counterproductive because our tax paying money supports a public education for all minors and these undocumented students who would benefit from the DREAM Act have already used up all their free education. So unless these people become United States citizens, they will not have to pay taxes on their income and our investment in them during their early years will just be unreturned. 

Even with the legislature passed, these kids would still remain ineligible for state and federal grants for college, therefore not in competition with legal citizens who are also attending.

Many argue that the DREAM Act would provide incentives for other illegal immigrants to come over at a young age. However, there is nothing to back up such a claim.

From the date of the enactment, in order to qualify, the individual must have already lived in the United States for five or more years. There is a clear and clean cut off line for this program and it does not encourage or worsen the illegal immigration problem.

The high achieving students who are going to college and setting exemplary behavior for the next generation, such as the music major at UCLA and the student body president at Cal State Fresno. Or the brave and disciplined youth who decided to dedicate their service to the military in hope of serving a country they love. These are not criminals. In fact, in order to qualify for the DREAM Act, they must have a clean criminal record.

These individuals are people who got caught in the midst of it all and are suffering from the actions of those who were supposed to parent them.

In the wise words of Walt Disney, “All our dreams could come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.”

Let the dreams of hardworking students come true. They are nothing if not courageous.