When she became an accomplished pianist and was accepted
at some of the best musical schools in the Nation, she started to apply
but didn't know what to put down in terms of her citizenship. She
called and asked, and it turned out that her mom and dad had never
filed the papers that would have allowed her to become a citizen of the
United States. She was undocumented. Through no fault of her own--
brought to the United States--her papers weren't filed. She grew up in Chicago, went to school, and did well, despite having
a family of modest means. As I said, she developed a skill as a pianist
and now had an opportunity of a lifetime and wanted to know what her
legal status was. We checked the law, and it was pretty clear. She was
undocumented, and the laws of America said you have to leave for 10
years, go outside of the United States, and petition to come back. It didn't seem fair or reasonable that a child, an infant of 2, would
be held responsible for mistakes made by their parents, so I introduced
the DREAM Act. The DREAM Act said that if you are one of those kids and
you finish school and you don't have a serious criminal record, we will
give you a chance--a chance to become legal in America, a chance to
become a citizen.
Keywords matched
undocumented