GWANGSEOK LEE LA 101H Professor Robin Kramer Yet Unopened Gift Box Lays In Front of Us About three years

ago, I got to stay with a pastors family in Georgia. The pastor had a son, Hyung Joo, who was 23-year-old student and he was temporally taking a break from University of Georgia. Hyung joo was a young individual who was diligent, smart and had never committed a crime in the state but the only problem was his visa was expired while he was waiting for the green card; therefore he was an illegal immigrant. He couldnt drive, didnt have insurance and couldnt go back to South Korea unless he would never want to come back to the United States. He was stuck. Illegal immigrants are the serious problem in the United States. Lacking of proper identification, those immigrants are heavily involved in crimes and they get jobs that business owners could pay less than the minimum wage set by the states that increases the unemployment rate in the United States. According to the statistics, there are roughly 11 million people living in the U.S without authorization, however, 800,000 of them are stuck as Hyung joo was who are blameless for their illegal status and helpless to make it right; they struggle to go to college because they cant apply for any scholarship, and the government threatens them deporting from the country occasionally. Why they are blameless for their illegal status? If then, should we just let it be or do something to change it? Fortunately, the answer for this problem was suggested in the congress before and it is called, The Dream Act The Dream Act (the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act) is the immigration bill that opens a pathway to legalization for undocumented young people in the U.S. As it sounds, the Dream Act bears potential not only to rescue the group of blameless immigrants

from the burdens of undeserving injustice but also to help the U.S. in various aspects, such as tax issues, military issues, and general education issues. At this point, some people may wonder why I tagged the illegal immigrants blameless but it is not hard to see if we go back to the statistics. The 800,000 people out 11 millions are merely 7 percent of the whole illegal immigrant population. Then, how do we define the blameless 7 percent of people from the whole population? The Dream Act sets the boundary for the young people who entered into the United State when they were under 16 years old, proving they have continuously lived in the United States for at least 5 years and graduated from a U.S. high school or obtained a GED, demonstrating their good moral character. This program would not benefit the illegal immigrants who have committed any crime or who did not graduate high school in the U.S. The Dream Act considers those selective kids who were brought into the United State without any sense of legal consequences and deserve to live their lives as American. However, there is one more step for them to go through. To consider the selective group may commit any crimes, the U.S. government will issue a sixyear conditional status for the illegal immigrants so that we can qualify their moral in a longterm period. Then, those qualifiers must have attended college or served n the U.S. military for at least 2 years. Eventually, this is the point in which the U.S. will kick in and take a great advantage of the Dream Act program. First, the Dream Act will contribute to the U.S. military recruitment efforts and readiness. By mandating the military service, Secretary of Defense Gates responded, the U.S. military would receive an opportunity to expand the recruiting pool, to take advantage of military recruiting and readiness. Unlikely to other nations which are in war, the U.S. does not require the military service for every capable man in the nation and this policy limits the size of the pool in which the nation recruits the soldiers. Moreover, the United States do not have a liability to pay

college tuitions for the Dream Act qualifiers after they serve in the military. For this reason, the Dream Act became a part of the Department of Defenses 2010-2012 Strategic Plan to assist the military. Second, the Dream Act will make the U.S. more competitive in the global economy. By considering that the selected people must attend college, the U.S. will give the qualifiers a chance to serve the country with their potential and contribute to the economic growth of the nation. For example, under the law, states must provide a free K-12 education to illegal immigrants, which cost California nearly three billion dollars per year. It is not fair that the taxpayers pay the education cost for those immigrants but get no benefit from educating them. Some say that this is a moral imperative but it is a big loss for the U.S. economy. By allowing those immigrants to step further in their education, the U.S. will certainly get benefits that would overwhelm the input cost. Speaking of a moral imperative, it would make more sense for the qualifiers to serve the U.S. in which they were raised than serve for the country where they were born. Third, The Dream Act will allow the immigration and border security experts to focus on those who commit a serious threat to the national security. Obama administration has been deporting nearly 400,000 people a year. In this rigorous deportation process, there have been many cases that some innocent immigrants were deported or about to be deported because of the scrutinizing process that might not be able to measure the full aspects of those immigrants. Therefore, if the Dream Act gets passed, the immigrant experts would be more effectively operate the deportation process. The Dream Act is just a unopened gift box that lays in front of the United States but there are some people who would not let the nation open that present. However, there are some hardliners, who call the Dream Act youth amnesty, try not to pass the legislation for the Dream Act in the congress. However, according to the rigorous qualification process, it does not seem to

be any closer to amnesty but even a difficult challenge for the illegal immigrants because if they commit any crimes, the U.S. will deport them since the U.S. has their information which the states didnt have before the immigrants apply for the program. In the research, I found out that those hardliners might have a different reason than just blamed the act for being youth amnesty. The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, tried to pass the Dream Act in the congress in September, 2010. However, GOP didnt want to pass this legislation which was originally suggested by the GOP in 2001, another way of saying that it seemed like Harry Reid tried to cooperate with GOP for the idea that GOP suggested but GOP wouldnt want to cooperate. This irony makes sense after you see the interesting strategy that Senator Reid implied in the Dream Act legislation. GOP might have cooperated if Senator Reid tried to pass the Dream Act solely, however, Senator Reid tried to attach it to the defense authorization bill, which included critical spending for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and pay increases for U.S. troops. Even though, the Dream Act was an attractive program for the national benefit, however, GOP couldnt pass the legislation, being afraid of their constituencies. It is a tragedy that the Dream Act has been used for a political strategy and not been passed but it is a reflection that implies how much this act value to the nation in various ways. The United State is undergoing the recession and one of the reason is due to the lack of working population that would fill up the working spot that are available but are not preferable; eventually, the illegal immigrants fills up those spots that would not benefit the country since they do not contribute to the nation, such as, paying tax. It is a national loss for not accepting a Harvard student just because of his immigration status, it is not fair for rejecting a patriotic man from the military because of his immigration status, and it is a time for the citizens to remember how first we came to this country, as immigrants. The United States was built by the immigrants

and is running by the same people, the immigrants. It is not shameful to accept those bright young people as citizen who would do no harm but do something good for the country, since we were one of them back in the time. Then, why dont we accept some immigrants as citizen who would be a great asset for this country? Why dont we face the problem instead of avoid it and keep it quiet? Why dont we embrace them, and step forward together for the brighter future? It is a time for us to open the gift box that lays in front us.

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Reference "Dream Act Could save Immigrant Students from Deportation." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 12 Aug. 2010. Web. 22 Apr. 2012.<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2010/08/11/AR2010081105284.html>. ANDREADIS, CLEOPATRA. "Harvard Sophomore Faces Deportation After Growing up in the U.S." ABC News. ABC News Network, 15 June 2010. Web. 20 Apr. 2012. <http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/harvard-sophomore-facing-deportation-living-us-illegallysixteen/story?id=10910177>. Miranda, Luis. "The White House Blog." Get The Facts On The DREAM Act. Web. 20 Apr. 2012. <http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/12/01/get-facts-dream-act>. "A Path to College." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 17 Nov. 2010. Web. 22 Apr. 2012. <http://articles.latimes.com/2010/nov/17/opinion/la-ed-tuition-20101117>.