VIDEO: The Fate of The Dream 9

Jul 31, 2013
4:06 PM

Today HuffPost Live covered the contentious debate in the immigration community surrounding the #Dream9 and the #BringThemHome action.

bringthemhome

Here is the segment:

Meanwhile, the #Dream9 has gotten the support of 35 Congress members. As the Huffington Post reported yesterday:

A letter signed by 33 Congress members asks President Barack Obama to use his authority to release from detention nine undocumented immigrants who entered the country through a legal port of entry at Nogales, as a form of protest against the administration’s deportation policies.

The letter, released Monday and signed by Reps. Mike Honda (D-Calif.), Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), and Ruben Hinojosa (D-Texas), among others, describes the detained youths — three of whom crossed the border voluntarily to organize the protest — as “courageous.”

“These youth are victims of our broken immigration policy,” the letter reads. [A]nd they deserve to come home to the United States, where they can continue to work towards fulfilling their dreams of higher education. We respectfully request that you exercise your discretion to allow these ‘DREAMers’ to come home.”

Letter to President Obama Re: DREAM 9 by Mike Honda

NBC Latino also published an opinion piece by Stephen Nuño about the debate. Here is an excerpt of the column:

Lost in the discussion over Dreamers, college-bound undocumented immigrants, are the many millions more who shingle our roofs, wash our cars, mow our lawns, and care for our children. They dream too, but you wouldn’t know it by the discussion going on this week.

Once again, the question is not whether one is for or against the mission of the Dreamers. It goes without saying that all undocumented Americans should have the opportunity to be formally integrated into society.

But given the determination of the GOP in the House of Representatives to delay immigration reform, perhaps into next year when it can be used as an issue to mobilize the Republican Party’s core voting bloc, the temptation to settle for a limited immigration package could be too great for enough Democrats who want this fight to go away before next year.

When this new round of debates over immigration got underway, many Dreamers were boastful of their role in coaxing the Democrats into a resurgence of support for reform, but that energy seems to be waning, and perhaps before the will to do anything is gone, these Dreamers wanted to remind Congress to at least not forget about them.

Maybe that is all we can ask of the Democrats, but nine months after yet another election, we not only seem not much closer to reform than we were in 2007, but its clear the that the price tag Republicans are asking is for a steel frontier running across our border.

Maybe some version of the Dream Act always was the best-case scenario. If so, the Dreamers have sure earned it.