It is estimated that there are close to 23,000 illegal immigrants attending Dallas ISD schools, costing taxpayers more than $200 million per year. These numbers are based on the number of DISD enrolled students who do not have Social Security Numbers (SSNs) and might be a little high if you factor in the possibility that there are some number of citizens who do not, for whatever reason, apply for SSNs for their children. (Due to a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, public schools must accept all students who apply and may not inquire about their citizenship status.)
In an opinion piece published in Thursday's (12/2/10) Dallas Morning News, Dallas immigration attorney Liz Cedillo-Pereira urged Texas Senators John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison to support the new revision of the "DREAM Act" (the Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors Act) that is currently being debated in the media and simultaneously in the halls of Congress (Senate bill S. 729 and House bill H.R. 1751).
While many opponents of this legislation are blasting it as a form of amnesty (an act of forgiveness for past offenses), Ms. Pereira correctly points out that those (thousands) who would benefit from the Dream Act have committed no offenses that would require amnesty. These illegals (a term that Ms. Pereira rales against) were all brought here as children and children have few options.
If the DREAM Act comes to Dallas ...
If the current version of the DREAM Act is signed into law, illegal immigrants in Dallas schools who qualify may apply to be part of the program. To qualify, a student must have been in this country for at least 5 consecutive years prior to the Act's enactment and must have entered the U.S. when they were younger than age 16. They must, at the time of application, be between the ages of 12 and 35. They must have graduated from a U.S. high school or have obtained a GED or must have been accepted in a college or university and must have a clean criminal record.
Considering the criteria, obviously far fewer than the estimated 23,000 DISD enrolled students will be eligible to apply for admission in the DREAM Act program but those who do qualify, if they continue toward higher education and stay out of legal trouble, will be people who will make the kind of young citizens Dallas (and the country) needs. They will have shown their intelligence, their determination and their character. In short, these are the best and the brightest, the ones who's eventual citizenship will benefit Dallas, Texas and the U.S. as much as it benefits them.
Today's version of the DREAM Act, while it does help a select number of young illegals, does not even begin to, or pretend to, address the larger problem of illegal immigration. This is not immigration legislation, it is legislation that is intended to make the best of a bad situation for some blameless individuals whose are on the wrong side of the law because of illegal acts committed by their parents.
References:
DMN Opinion: Liz Cedillo-Pereira: Why the Dream Act would benefit our state and nation
KVUE.com: DREAM Act supporters rally in Austin
Basic Information about the DREAM Act Legislation
Comments
In support of DREAM bill, the writer says "..In short, these are the best and the brightest...".
I do not believe 2 years of college makes someone "the brightest". Its too low of a bar and DREAM is nothing but AMNESTY.
You must be wondering why do I say that?
If the argument in favor of DREAM act is that these kids can contribute by of their college education, there is already a LEGAL way to get your green card - Employment based immigration.
If these kids are so qualified by way of their education why dont they get in line with other folks (who btw need to have a min. of 4 years of college..Masters in most cases and not just 2 years of college). These folks have been waiting in the LEGAL queue for years now.
I am one of those who did my masters in US, my wife is a pharmacist, both well employed BUT we are waiting in the the US green card queue for the past 5 years. We arrived here and have lived here LEGALLY. We never depended on US public funds for our education (high school, college) so "why should we (6 years college) get a RAW deal over an ILLEGAL with a 2 college degree"?
Why should someone having lived here LEGALLY, not used any PUBLIC funds for education and with 6 years in college have to wait 5 years while someone with 2 years college who used public funds for their school education, gets a shortcut???
Is it fair? Reform the LEGAL process first and have these kids get in the line well...
NO to DREAM bill !!
Without having to borrow a Trillion from China, and since we all know that Obama says that our current immigration laws are unenforceable, it's time that the people assist our LOCAL governments in cleaning up this mess.
There is no free lunch anymore. Read it, Sign it, Pass it on to everyone you know.
gopetition.com/petition/40860.html
Incidentally, Las Lomas de Zacatecas Restaurant on Harry Hines is one of the biggest employers of ILLEGAL ALIENS in this area. Call Brenda and ask her why she thinks it's ok to take advantage of her own people.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/02/AR201009...
How illegal immigrants are helping Social Security
By Edward Schumacher-Matos
Friday, September 3, 2010;
The contributions by unauthorized immigrants to Social Security — essentially, to the retirement income of everyday Americans — are much larger than previously known, raising questions about the efforts in many states and among Republicans in Congress to force these workers out.
In response to a research inquiry for a book I am writing on the economics of immigration, Stephen C. Goss, the chief actuary of the Social Security Administration and someone who enjoys bipartisan support for his straightforwardness, said that by 2007, the Social Security trust fund had received a net benefit of somewhere between $120 billion and $240 billion from unauthorized immigrants.
That represented an astounding 5.4 percent to 10.7 percent of the trust fund’s total assets of $2.24 trillion that year. The cumulative contribution is surely higher now. Unauthorized immigrants paid a net contribution of $12 billion in 2007 alone, Goss said.
Previous estimates circulating publicly and in Congress had placed the annual contributions at roughly half of Goss’s 2007 figure and listed the cumulative benefit on the order of $50 billion.
The Social Security trust fund faces a solvency crisis that would be even more pressing were it not for these payments.
“If for example we had not had other-than-legal immigrants in the country over the past,” Goss e-mailed me, “then these numbers suggest that we would have entered persistent shortfall of tax revenue to cover starting 2009, or six years earlier than estimated under the 2010 Trustees Report.”
Americans are faced with the difficult choice of cutting pensions, delaying the retirement age or raising taxes if we want to maintain the solvency of what has been the centerpiece of social welfare for ordinary Americans since the 1930s.
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