|
|
 |
Interpreting 'Dreams': Green Card Bill Would Hurt Latinos
Immigrant advocates are strongly supporting the DREAM Act, but the
author says the bill, while holding up the promise of permanent U.S.
residency, pushes the undocumented toward military service
By Jorge Mariscal, Pacific News Service
Oct. 5, 2004 - The Development, Relief and Education
for Alien Minors Act, known as the DREAM Act, has received strong
support from Latino activists across the country. What advocates and the
media have ignored are the potential consequences of the military
service component of the proposed legislation.
According to the latest version of the bill sponsored by Sens. Orrin
Hatch (R-Utah) and Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), immigrants who entered the
country five years or more before the bill's enactment and before they
were 16 years old would receive provisional U.S. residency.
Permanent residency would be granted if, within six years of obtaining
conditional residency, the immigrant graduates from a two-year college,
completes two years in a bachelor's degree program, performs 910 hours
of volunteer community service, or serves in the U.S. armed forces for
two years.
So how real is the college option?
The National Center for Education reports that of those Latinos who
successfully graduate from high school, only 42 percent continue on to
college. According to the September 2002 "Interim Report of the
President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic
Americans," only about 25 percent of non-citizen Latino immigrants
complete college. Even among Mexican Americans (U.S. citizens) only 7
percent over the age of 25 hold an Associate (two-year) degree.
Connect this situation to the rising cost of a college education (even
at the community college level), the fact that immigrant students often
are reluctant to take out loans, artificially stringent admissions
criteria, and the elimination of affirmative action, and the outlook for
getting large numbers of undocumented Latinos into college is far from
positive.
Because most undocumented students need to work to help support their
families, few if any have extended periods of time to devote to
community service.
The reality of coming decades is that for many young and undocumented
Latinas and Latinos, the DREAM Act's option of obtaining a green card in
exchange for military service may be the only viable one.
Military recruiters can be expected to exploit this situation whenever
possible. The Pentagon has stated publicly its goal of doubling the
number of Latinos and Latinas in the armed forces by 2007. The Army's
most recent "School Recruiting Program Handbook," issued by the U.S.
Army Recruiting Command, outlines how recruiters can achieve "school
ownership" and "total market penetration" by insinuating themselves into
the social and cultural fabric of public schools and colleges, where
undocumented students will be especially vulnerable to the recruiters'
sales pitches.
While the educational and community service provisions of the DREAM Act
may merit our support, the military service provision poses a number of
political and moral dilemmas. Does our desire to protect undocumented
children by securing their legal residency override the likelihood that
many of these children will fill the lowest ranks of the U.S. military?
Is getting a green card worth the risk of young Latinos and Latinas
losing their lives on foreign soil?
As the DREAM Act legislation moves forward, it is important that we
carefully consider the consequences that all of its provisions may have
for our children's future. Activists and Latino advocacy organizations
should fight for a version of the DREAM Act that eliminates the military
service option.
Mariscal, the grandson of Mexican immigrants,
served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam in 1969. He is a member of the San
Diego-based counter-recruitment organizations Project YANO and the
Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft.
|
