On the recordJuly 20, 2010
There are hundreds of thousands of children in our country, cheerleaders on a high school cheerleading squad, members of the high school football team, students who work hard and play by the rules, get ready for college, and yet they are unable to ever enter the workforce legally or go to college. Why? Because their parents violated the law and brought them here when they were 1 or 2 or 3 years old. The DREAM Act will address and help these hundreds of thousands of de facto Americans who in most cases don't even have a memory of another country, and frequently don't even speak any other language other than English fluently. Regardless of where one is on the larger issue of immigration reform, surely we should not visit the sins of the parents upon the children. In no other area of law do we do this, nor should we with regard to immigration. The bipartisan DREAM Act would recognize the hundreds of thousands of de facto Americans as actual Americans. It catches up with where people already are and helps our Nation be able to benefit from the hard work and study of these wonderful Americans. I call upon my colleagues to pass the DREAM Act.
