THE PROPOSED Dream (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors) Act is a significant part of US President Barack Obama’s ambitious and controversial plan to reform America’s immigration system.
Under the Dream
Act, illegal immigrants under the age of 30 who entered the United States
before the age of 16 and have lived there for five straight years, with good
moral character, and graduated from an American high school, may, at the end of
a 6-year period and after meeting certain other requirements, be granted
permanent residency and possibly US citizenship. Obama has been backing the
Dream Act and cited its passage among his campaign promises for his first term.
Obama’s efforts
to fix the “broken” US immigration system have raised high hopes among
Filipinos and other minorities in America. It’s a well-worn story: Filipino
children are brought by their parents or other relatives to the United States,
and there raised as Americans minus legal documents. They are the new
generation of the “TNT (tago nang tago),”
many of them unknowing of their shadowy background until they make the shocking
discovery. The case of Philippine-born journalist Jose Antonio Vargas can very
well speak for thousands, even millions.
Vargas, who was
part of The Washington Post team that received the Pulitzer Prize for the
coverage of the shooting at Virginia Tech University, has been living illegally
in the United States since he was 12. He made public his true immigration
status in an essay run by the New York Times Magazine in 2011. With his
disclosure, he was thrown in jail despite being recognized as one of the best
journalists in that country, and released soon after. Now living in America on
borrowed time, Vargas continues to marshal support for the passage of the Dream
Act though, at 31, he is one year too old to be covered by it.
In his over a
decade of pushing the Dream Act as coauthor, Assistant Senate Majority Leader
Richard Durbin has used the example of another Filipino, Jose Librojo, as a
reason for its passage. Librojo entered the United States at 15, when his
parents applied for political asylum. His parents’ application was rejected and
they eventually returned home, but Librojo, who had a valid visa then, stayed.
After graduating, Librojo worked as a dental assistant. But he was ordered to
leave in 2011 when his appeal to be legalized was denied. Citing what he called
“broken immigration laws,” Durbin said Librojo, “who’s done such a good job his
employer wants to have him here permanently, is now facing the prospect of
being deported to a country he cannot even remember.”
Vargas and
Librojo have worked for an honest living in their adopted country, but are
legally considered outsiders. The deportation of people like them, along with
other professionals with advanced degrees and high skills who have no criminal
record, strikes at the very heart of Obama’s campaign promise to legalize the
stay of those who deserve it and to preserve their families.
Late last year,
Obama announced his new immigration policy, called the “Deferred Action for
Childhood Arrivals.” This policy gives possible deportees a 2-year reprieve and
the chance to acquire work permits. It has effectively halted the deportation of
an estimated 800,000 immigrants, including thousands of children of Filipino
origin illegally brought to the United States.
“They pledge allegiance to our flag. They are
Americans in their hearts, in their minds, in every single way but one: on
paper,” Obama said. Last week, Obama announced more immigration reforms, giving
renewed hope to the 11 million members of the so-called “shadow population.”
Vargas was present at the event held in Las Vegas; he later posted on his
Facebook page: “This is the year, this is the moment, this is history.”
It’s going to
be a long haul, of course. Indeed, the International Herald Tribune said in an
editorial: “There is the real possibility that this road to [immigration]
reform will be illusory, stacked with obstacles, dead ends and quick exits.”
But Arturo P. Garcia, a Filipino-American immigrant rights activist, said: “We
welcome this positive development that brings hope to the more than one million
undocumented Filipinos in the US.” Everyone deserves the chance to make real
their dream of living a life without fear in a place they truly consider their
home. – Inquirer
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