Madam President. I came to the floor to talk about the earlier vote on the DREAM Act. I have heard some of my colleagues define it in ways that make me believe the future of any other form of immigration reform is going to be incredibly difficult. We did not get to cloture and cannot move to have a full debate on the bill and a vote to move in a direction in which we could give young people in this countrywho did not choose to come to this country themselves. as they were brought here by their parents at a young age. and who in many cases could achieve great success for the Nationan opportunity to earn their way to a process of legalization. To see that those hopes have been snuffed out by the votes that were taken here leads me to believe the future of any other form of immigration reform is going to be incredibly difficult. It was not the decision of these children to come to the United States. Its hard to make a decision about where you are moving to when you are in a stroller. If we cannot give hope to children. if we are going to insist that the children be responsible for the sins of their parents. in making the decision they did to come in an undocumented fashion to the United States. then this is not the America I know. If. by no choice of your own. you came to this country and have now grown upfor many of those children I have met across the landscape of the country have grown up as Americans. and thought of themselves as Americansand then came a point in time in which they wanted to go to college or enlist in the Armed Forces. they found their status was not that of an American. They wanted badly to either serve or to be able to fulfill their Godgiven abilities by achieving a college education.
Keywords matched
immigration undocumented