We urge the U.S. Senate to pass the DREAM Act
Communiqué by the Guatemala Peace and Development Network
We, members of the Guatemala Peace and Development Network (GPDN/RPDG, Red por la Paz y el Desarrollo de Guatemala), have seen the news that the DREAM Act is up for a vote this week. As the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) writes, “After years of pushing, advocates…have pressed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to bring the DREAM Act to a vote this week…The DREAM Act would allow youth who were brought to the U.S. as children, and who have remained in school, a pathway to citizenship if they go to college or serve in the military. It will also make it clear that each state has the authority to grant all of its students, regardless of immigration status, access to in-state tuition at public universities.”
We firmly believe that the DREAM Act is an act of justice toward a sector of the U.S. youth, as well as an act of recognition regarding the contributions of undocumented workers to this country. Most of these people have been providing hands, arms, legs and brains for the engine of development in the United States, and as such they deserve a chance at both the opportunities in this country and eventual citizenship. The DREAM Act is a significant first step, which then should be followed by an in-depth, just, fair and humanitarian reform of the US Immigration Law. We believe that the Executive Power is willing to fully support the measures to be adopted by Congress, including the DREAM Act and eventually the entire immigration reform. We look forward to policies and strategies fit for the “global village” of the twenty-first century.
As Guatemalans, we also ask President Obama and Secretary of Homeland Security Napolitano to exercise their Executive Power prerogatives and send a clear signal to all those interested in immigration issues by responding positively to the Guatemala government’s request for Temporary Protective Status (TPS) made on June 4, 2010, almost a hundred days ago. After a series of successive calamities back home, the best possible news for Guatemalan immigrants and their families in our country would be to receive TPS. Please keep hope alive for hard-working Guatemalans!
New York, September 20, 2010
Executive Committee of the Guatemala Peace and Development Network