Speaker Ryan, do your job!

Sixteen years ago, in the weeks before 9/11, the Dream Act was introduced to give immigrant youth who had grown up in the US the opportunities to pursue higher education and military service without fear of deportation.  From its conception the Dream Act was a bipartisan bill with both Democratic and Republican support.

Why hasn’t Congress passed it? Why isn’t it a law yet? Why are we relying on Donald Trump to renew an executive order by Barack Obama to create the DACA policy in the absence of any activity by Congress on this subject?

Our youth have been held hostage by politics. Nativist senators filibustered, frightened by the possibility that opponents to their right would mount primary challenges, accusing them of giving “amnesty” to “illegals.”* Also, President Obama’s existence on this earth led Republican leadership to follow a policy of opposing everything he favored, often hesitating to express opinions on new issues until he had taken a stand they could disagree with!

Now President Trump is on the verge of setting a six-month deadline for dismantling DACA. This would throw the question of immigrant youth back into Congress where it has always belonged. Speaker Ryan is begging him not to do it.  It would force Speaker Ryan to actually do his job and entertain bipartisan debate on a critical issue of public policy.

I believe the votes exist to pass the Dream Act.  I believe our immigrant youth deserve the opportunity to live their lives in public — outside the shadows — and to contribute to the wellbeing of all of us. I believe our youth shouldn’t have to worry that their careers are dependent on the next shift in the political winds. I believe Congress should do its job and legislate.

Speaker Ryan! Senator McConnell! You wanted the title of leader? Do your jobs and lead.  Stop equivocating about what the president should or should not do. Pass the Dream Act. 

*(The coinage “illegal” as a noun to describe a person has been a particularly effective way to demonize and criminalize immigrants, including those with green cards. But I don’t get how “amnesty,” which was one of the cornerstones of Ronald Reagan’s immigration reform, became such a scary word. Don’t public libraries offer amnesties?)