The battle for the Dream Act begins
Yesterday, the House of Representatives narrowly passed the Dream Act, which would allow certain illegal immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as minors a chance to become U.S. citizens, if they enter college or military service. Those eligible are people who were brought into the U.S. before they were 16, have been living here for at least five years, and have earned a high school diploma. In order to gain citizenship, they would have to join the military for two years, or attend a four year college for two years.
Like most issues, this one also has Republicans and Democrats split. Democrats are strongly pushing for it to pass, while Republicans are likely to vote against it. With the Latino vote becoming more and more important in national elections, how would voting against this bill affect Republicans in 2012?
To help us answer that is Jorge Ramos, anchor for the Spanish language television network Univision, and author of A Country for All: An Immigrant Manifesto.
The story you just read is available to read for free because thousands of listeners and readers like you generously support our nonprofit newsroom. Every day, the reporters and producers at The World are hard at work bringing you human-centered news from across the globe. But we can’t do it without you: We need your support to ensure we can continue this work for another year.
When you make a gift of $10 or more a month, we’ll invite you to a virtual behind-the-scenes tour of our newsroom to thank you for being with The World.