FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SEPTEMBER 18, 2007
12:00 PM
CONTACT: AFL-CIO
Lauren Mendoza
(202) 637-5018
Statement of AFL-CIO President John Sweeney in Support of the DREAM Act
September 18 - Every year, thousands of our nation’s brightest and best students graduating from high school find that the path to decent jobs and the doors of higher education and the military are essentially shut tight against them for one reason alone: They lack legal immigration status because as young children, they were brought to this country by their parents.
Today, Senator Richard Durbin is offering the bipartisan DREAM Act, co-sponsored by Senators Chuck Hagel and Richard Lugar, as an amendment to the defense authorization bill. It will go a long in way in remedying the injustices that these hard-working and law-abiding children face. We strongly support passage of the DREAM Act and congratulate Senator Durbin for his leadership in protecting the interests of our children, our communities and our future workforce.
Students who qualify for the DREAM Act are graduating at the top of their class: they are honor roll students, star athletes and valedictorians. They have lived in the United States most of their lives; this is the only country they know. These children are as committed to their communities and to this country as their American-born classmates. Yet, because they lack legal status, they do not have the same opportunities to education or to a decent job.
Instead of being allowed to continue to excel in college as they have in high school, these promising children will be forced into a job where they will either have to lie about their status, or work off the books. Neither outcome is just, nor is it good for our society.
The DREAM Act will provide these hard-working immigrant students the chance to obtain conditional legal status, along with an opportunity to go to college, serve in our military, and become the productive, tax-paying citizens they have worked so hard to become.
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