Thread: Immigration panel debates DREAM Act

(quote)

Kris Kobach highlighted the legalities of the DREAM Act.

Theresa Torres, Mary Lou Jaramillo, Kris Kobach, Gilbert Guerrero and Janell Avila discussed immigration issues Oct. 9.
Immigration panel debates DREAM Act

By: megan henderson
Posted: 10/15/07

The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act is central to tension in the U.S. between moral standards and legality.
Five members from the local community came together Oct. 9 in the University Center to debate the DREAM Act and what it could mean for, Missouri.

The panel included Theresa Torres, assistant professor of sociology; Mary Lou Jaramillo, president and CEO of El Centro; Kris Kobach, professor in the School of Law; Gilbert Guerrero, superintendent of Alta Vista Charter High School; and Janell Avila, an immigration lawyer.

Uzziel Pecina, assistant professor in the School of Education, moderated the discussion.

Torres, Jaramillo, Guerrero and Avila advocated for the DREAM Act and focused their discussion on the act's moral implications. Kobach, the sole opponent, discussed the act's legal implications.

"This bill addresses the hopes of many young people I have known through the years and it gives the potential for a real future for them," Torres said. "… [W]e're seeing the highest suicide rate among young Latinos in this country, in a rate that we have never seen before, largely due to the lack of hope and direction and future."

Jaramillo discussed how the DREAM Act, already in place in Kansas, works.

The act requires students to attend a Kansas high school for three years and obtain a diploma or GED, she said. Then, those qualified to attend Kansas universities pay in-state tuition.

"Because eligibility under these provisions is based on high school attendance rather than residency, they do not, as some might claim, violate applicable federal law," Jaramillo said.

Kobach disagreed. He said he believes the 10 states currently enforcing the DREAM Act violate federal law.

"The Act is not a dream from the perspective of everyone concerned, as it might seem," Kobach said.

The DREAM Act is a great deal for illegal immigrants, according to Kobach, because those students qualify for in-state tuition, have access to federal student loans and work-study programs and qualify for amnesty that eventually could lead to citizenship.

But the DREAM Act harms some Kobach said.

"If you are a U.S. citizen who is of limited economic means and, statistically, quite often that may be a person who's Hispanic or African American - or there are lots of people who are white that fall into that category - but proportionally, you are probably not better off…" he said. "If you are an alien who is lawfully present in the United States, and you're studying, you're here on a student visa and you're trying to follow the law, it's a bad deal for you, too. If you're a U.S. taxpayer, it's also a bad deal."

Kobach conceded following the law is expensive, time consuming, frustrating and does not always get you where you want to go.

Avila echoed Kobach.

"It's just not an easy process … and it's not guaranteed," Avila said. "Families are split … because it's impossible for some of them to get status ever."

Guerrero discussed the importance of the DREAM Act from the perspective of an educator of Hispanic youth.

"As an educator it's frustrating sometimes when you see a kid come in as a freshman and he's doing really well and then, are you lying to them by saying 'go to college'?" Guerrero said. "Our kids last year went to Hispanic Legislative day in Jeff City and they heard the governor say 'I don't need you here, I don't want you here.' They cried, but they came back and they said we're going to fight. All of them could have dropped out, but they're going to fight. America has a history of morally correcting itself."

Kobach cited many statistics during the discussion.

He said the federal government reported in 2004, illegal immigrants contributed $16 billion in Social Security receipts and tax receipts, but illegal immigrants cost the government $26 billion that year.

Guerrero argued statistics can easily be skewed.

"The bottom line for statistics, for every study he finds, I can find one that says the opposite," Guerrero said.

Torres, Jaramillo, Guerrero and Avila agreed the growing population of Hispanic youth are, and will continue to be, important to the growth of the U.S.

"It's a terrible thing to let a mind go to waste. The young people are the fabric of our future," Torres said. "Economically, investing in their lives also invests in our own global community."

For the DREAM Act to be a reality in Missouri it would take a large grassroots movement and new elected officials, Jaramillo said.

Kobach said one of the ideals of the U.S. is law, but Jaramillo asserted there are other American ideals.

"We can talk about our being a country of laws," she said. "But I also think we are a country of high moral standards, and maybe moral standards trump laws."

mhenderson@unews.com

(quote)

http://media.www.unews.com/media/storag ... 3393.shtml


Psalm 139:14

Moral standards trumps laws ???

So we don't have to obey our laws if our moral compass says they don't have to be obeyed ??

GIVE ME A BREAK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is strange how it seems that only illegal hispanics are going to contribute to this country and the only people who have great minds. Americans, whether they are black, white. hispanic, asian. etc., have beautiful minds to contribute greatly to our country. It wouldn't be so bad if we didn't have to give their extended family pathway to citizenship also. It is a amnesty that keeps giving and giving and giving. This is not a one time amnesty. It will be for illegals now and in the future, unless we can curb the illegal immigration and also legal immigration.

I am sick of hearing about our global economy, These people are destroying the American Dream.

Did anybody see Hannity tonight and the cost of illegals on our Health care system? Colmes is such and idiot, he tried to say illegals make up for it because they pay taxes, this is the kind of man thats bleeding heart is destroying this country also. No back bone and so full of lies!




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