Sep 21 2010
Military Recruitment in DREAM Act Turns Off Some Progressives
Nevada Senator Harry Reid has amended the Defense Authorization Bill to include the DREAM Act – a bill that would offer children of immigrants a path to citizenship through higher education or military enrollment. The bill is set for a procedural vote in the Senate today and while it has re-energized many immigrants rights groups that have been working on it for a decade, its passage is still very questionable. The Defense authorization bill also includes repealing the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy. Despite having enjoyed bi-partisan support in the past, Republicans have vowed to oppose the DREAM Act even thought it is attached to the Defense bill, and one-time Republican supporters like Senator John McCain have reversed their position. Many are accusing the Democrats of using the DREAM Act as a cynical ploy to win Latino votes in the mid-term elections. Still, the bill has high-profile support. President Barack Obama last week addressed the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and supported Senator’s Reid’s efforts in revitalizing the DREAM Act. And, in an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, former Secretary of State Colin Powell chastised fellow Republicans for opposing it. Meanwhile, some progressives have now split off from supporting the DREAM Act claiming that it is being used as a military recruitment tool. At this very moment, activists dressed in their caps and gowns here in Los Angeles that do support the DREAM Act are dropping banners off the 101 freeway.
GUEST: Paul Ortiz, Award-winning author and oral historian, activist and labor organizer, Director of the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program, and associate professor in the Department of History at the University of Florida
7 Responses to “Military Recruitment in DREAM Act Turns Off Some Progressives”
The DREAM must die. This is just another form of amnesty, another perk for illegal aliens. Deport them !
Pass the Dream Act!!!!!
yes, deport those children who don’t have the faintest memory of their country of origin since they came to this country at such a young age. Hmm yes, let’s deport all those young people eager to attend college and get an education. Yes, that seems like the way to go.
Uh, the military has been taking illegal aliens since 9/11 and offering the exactly what this bill offers: a track to citizenship, with an immediate, special visa as soon as they sign the papers. I don’t know this by watching FOX news or reading blogs; I know this because I went to the Army recruiting station in Eureka, California, and was given this information by a friendly recruiting staff. So, Deborah: put on a bit of wisdom with your pointed hat.
I think our friend Paul was right to say “i speak from my experience”. His experience is tied to his place in our society. Paul is an academic and very close to young undocumented college students who he interacts with on a daily basis. I on the other hand am a community organizer who works with young people of color in public high schools. I also look undocumented kids in the eye on a daily basis. But the kids we look at are different. The youth he talks to and organizes with are in college and were tracked to the possibility of college from an early age. The undocumented youth i talk to and organize with on a daily basis are overwhelmingly not on track to go to four year universities, over 40% are not going ot make it through high school and those who do are tracked as early as kindergarden and middle school into ELL and other programs that don’t leave them in a position to go to college by senior year. They often have real life issues that prevent them from furtheriong their education. The reality is less than 1 in 20 undocumented youth will go to college. If this is the reality the question becomes who are we listening to in the DREAM Act debate the majority of the most affected youth or a tiny slice that is in a position of privilege relative to those not tracked for college. I think the national dialogue about undocumented youth and their dreams needs to put non-college tracked youth at the center because they happen to be the majority. At this point the current language of the DREAM act for them offers 2 “options”: Join the military or make peace with being labeled and targeted as an “illegal” for the rest of your life. Those choices for any human being can only be called forced military recruitment, aka a DRAFT. A bill that offers the majority a DRAFT and the minority a path to legalization is a bill that in it’s current form sells out the majority for the interest of the minority. Sounds like politics as usual to me. It’s time to lift the voices of undocumented youth and not just a slice of that community that has a compelling story for american audiences. No human is illegal and none deserves to be drafted for the benefit of their strait A having cousin.
[…] Listen to Paul Ortiz’s interview here: http://uprisingradio.org/home/?p=15977 […]
Dear Pablo, Did you miss the part where DREAM activists are at the forefront of ensuring that MORE of our young people gain the skills and self confidence to finish high school and attend college? Did you miss the part where some of our best young labor activists in the Unions are DREAM’istas? Did you miss the fact that the most militant anti-war activists in our communities are DREAM activists? Your argument that we should not support the DREAM act because 1 in 20 undocumented youth will go to college is WEAK brother. If you were involved with undocumented youth you would know that DREAM’ers are heavily involved in after-school education programs working directly with Black, Brown, Asian, Native and working class white youths in cities such as Sacramento, Richmond, Compton, San Diego, etc. Will you stand by while these activists are DEPORTED and repressed in so many ways? Or, will you join the struggle?