The DREAM Act

Playing dominoes in Little Havana

The DREAM Act passed the House of Representatives yesterday, with eight Republicans voting yes. An interesting lot of Republicans, those who voted in the affirmative. The three Cuban-born House members from South Florida, Charles Djou from Hawaii, and Anh “Joseph” Cao from Louisiana. Djou’s parents immigrated from China and Thailand, and Cao came to the United States from Saigon as a young boy. And did I forget to mention that both Djou and Cao lost their election bids to their Democratic opponents last month? Imagine. Republican seats that turned Democratic in 2010…. I digress.

The DREAM Act is short for the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act. If passed, The DREAM Act would give undocumented children who were brought here at a young age a path to permanent legal resident status, if certain requirements are met. Along the way, they would be given the opportunity to work legally. As requirements they would need to show they came here before their 16th birthday, lived here for at least five consecutive years prior to the bill’s enactment, graduated from high school, and completed at least two years of college or military service.

It’s a no brainer that Cuban-American House members would support passage. After all, we have lived the DREAM Act. Thanks to the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, Cubans who make it to the United States are put on an automatic path to citizenship. I was born here shortly after my parents arrived from Havana and no adult members of my family ever had to worry that they could not work here legally. Or go to college. Or serve their country by joining the military. No worries about being undocumented.

Miriam Zoila Pérez writes articulately about this in ColorLines:

U.S. immigration policy toward Cubans has been an extremely good thing for the Cuban-American community and should be a model for immigration policy toward other immigrant groups as well. Statistics show what a boon this special status has been for Cubans in the U.S. The fourth largest Latino group in the U.S., we outperform all other Latino groups in basically every category linked to economic status, according to data from the Pew Hispanic Center. Cubans are almost twice as likely as other Latinos to have a college degree (25 percent as opposed to 12.9 percent). Cubans have a median income that is $5,000 higher than other Latino groups. Only 13.2 percent of Cubans are living in poverty, as opposed to 20.7 percent of other Latinos. The list goes on. Based on 2008 census data, in homeownership, employment rates, number of insured, across the board Cuban Americans do better than all other Latino groups.

She continues:

Whatever drove the policy in Washington, what’s significant is its outcome. Whereas immigrants today are faced with countless roadblocks to success even when they are documented, Cubans have been given every type of assistance necessary to guarantee our success. And it’s worked.

Congress now has an opportunity to grant these same rights to another immigrant group—the DREAMers, young people raised in the U.S. without documents. If the DREAM Act is passed, these young people will have to jump through hoops that the Cubans never did, but they’ll also reap the benefits of joining the ranks of documented immigrants. Even conservatives should agree that having an immigrant population in the U.S. that is out of poverty and into the workforce is a key driver toward economic success for the entire nation.

I have high hopes that these “DREAMers” will be given every opportunity I was afforded as the daughter of Cuban immigrants in the 1960’s. It's good for all of us. It's good for the country.  And it shows the rest of the world what we are really all about.

Now on to the Senate.