Former Navy Commander Against the Dream Act

Reported by: Farrah Fazal
Last Update: 12:00 am

EDINBURG - A former Navy Commander in the Valley believes the Dream Act would take away opportunities for students who are US citizens.

Mike Braun says he's not against the Dream Act in principal but he thinks the version that lawmakers voted for two days ago is broken.

Mike Braun has lived a full life before going back to school. He was a former navy commander, a hospital administrator. Now, he is a student at the University of Texas Pan American. He say any undocumented students that may be in some of his classes don't belong there. It's one of the reasons he doesn't like the Dream Act.

"I have seen students who have applied for classes and they didn't get in because the class got full and now they have to wait for a year before they can apply again," said Braun.

"My priority would be people who have citizenship those people should come first," he added.

The Dream Act would give undocumented students with clean criminal records a path to citizenship if they spend two years in college or two years in the military.

Braun says the bill is poorly written.

"If an individual wants to apply to the military to get citizenship they've been able to do that for years," he said. "This is not new."

Braun believes the race to get into college is already tough and adding the Dream Act would only make it tougher.

"If you look at how students apply for a course, there are only so many slots and the slots are going to get smaller and smaller cause the school has to constrain its expenses," he said.

Braun worked with foreign nationals throughout his career. He thinks students from foreign countries can contribute to the US but he wants them to stay here legally.

http://www.krgv.com/news/local/story/Fo ... IXUQQ.cspx