We should stop visualizing the children of illegal immigrants as human beings. It only confuses us. Particularly when we are talking about children who were not born in this country but who were carried across the border as infants or toddlers and who have grown up as what some have called "non-citizen Americans." If we look at such children as human beings we tend to get all emotional and divide the kids into one of two groups: victims or criminals. I found this out last week after writing a blog for azcentral.com about the DREAM Act, which was introduced last week in Congress. Under this proposal, undocumented immigrant children could obtain citizenship if they came to the U.S. before they turned 16, are younger than 30, have lived in the U.S. for at least five years, have graduated from high school or passed an equivalency exam, have "good moral character" and either attend college or enlist in the military for two years. Among the 100-plus readers to write in response to the blog were many like Margaret9753, who wrote, "Now is no time to start rewarding their parents' criminality." And Maughaum, who added, "Don't want them. Send them back where they come from. Because they are party to a crime they are criminals that need to be prosecuted." Others, like jaeg0618, said things like, "For crying out loud, these 'criminals' are so bad that they taught their kids that going to school is a good thing, and we cringe at that? Are you kidding me? We have to overcome our fear." The DREAM Act, since it was first proposed a few years back, has drawn support from both Democrats and Republicans. But not enough of them. One of the sponsors is the conservative Republican senator from Indiana, Richard Lugar. He said last week, "Undocumented young people usually arrive with their families and have no understanding of their immigration status. They should be encouraged to complete an education and move toward permanent residency." Unfortunately, that kind of argument only humanizes the hardworking, motivated young people that the DREAM Act would help. And doing that confuses us. For instance, it caused the man (or woman) called BorderSanity to tell his local newspaper columnist: "The 'Nightmare' Act will only condone illegal behavior . . . E.J., somebody needs to check your immigration status." GetAclueWillU added, "The real dream act would be you Ed rounding up the illegals and their kids and moving back to Mexico or whatever country they might be from. ... And then write your column from that country." I appreciate the sentiment. The non-citizen children of illegal immigrants have had the benefit of an American education. They're not victims. But unless infants or toddlers are capable of breaking and entering, they're not criminals, either. They're more like investments, like stocks. We've spent an awful lot of money on their education and now they're on the verge of paying dividends (by way of taxes). There are hundreds of thousands of such young people, many willing to earn their citizenship in a way that most native-born kids are not - by going to college or joining the military. Reader azuser4441 put it this way, "Let's provide an opportunity for them to become productive members of society." It's not politics or philosophy. It's economics. We sank a lot of capital into these kids. We should demand a return on our investment.
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