The push for President Obama to grant administrative relief to DREAM Act students is still strong. Yesterday, an excellent article by Huffington Post’s Elise Foley highlighted the plight of undocumented youth who constantly face the threat of deportation.
Earlier last month, Foley sent out a request, via twitter, calling for stories of immigrants currently in deportation proceedings. Yesterday, her article told the story of two DREAMers, Dolon and Erick, who both await deferred action. The article is on point, and notes that these poster-children for the DREAM Act movement – the sort of people who aren’t “enforcement priorities” – have to “jump through hoops to stay in the United States.” And that’s not the end of their worries:
Even if undocumented young people are eventually granted deferred action and allowed to stay in the United States, the process costs thousands of dollars in legal fees and years of their lives– partially because Congress has failed to enact the DREAM Act or comprehensive immigration reform.
Late last year, Congress failed to pass the DREAM Act, though it received majority votes in both the House and Senate. In the Senate, only three Republicans supported the legislation while five Democrats stingily opposed it. The bill fell five votes short of the 60-vote threshhold
While President Obama consistently argues that he can’t just bypass Congress to change the laws, that’s just not true. President Obama does have the executive power to end the pain of all DREAMers in America.
