Sixteen years ago I tried to find a way to give young people brought
into the United States, who grew up here in this country but did not
have legal status, a chance--just a chance--to earn their way to legal
status, to earn their way to citizenship. We set a number of hurdles in
their path. We made it clear that they had to complete their education. We made it clear that they had to pass a serious criminal background
check. We gave a timetable when they would be able to reach legal
status and not fear deportation. That was 16 years ago, and it still is not the law of the land. Unfortunately, there are hundreds of thousands of young people who fit
the description that I have just given.
Keywords matched
deportation