NY Dream Act: Working-class youth deserve the whole world

NEW YORK CITY, February 20—Eighteen years after the bill was first dreamt up in 2001, New York State just approved its own version of the Dream Act, giving a select few undocumented college students access to financial aid. The Dream Act is a win for the liberal bosses, represented mainly by the Democratic Party, who aim to exploit undocumented youth as a chess piece in their games of war and fascism.
A living nightmare
The DREAM Act (acronym for Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act) was a path to conditional permanent residency for undocumented youth who demonstrate “good moral character” and either serve two years in the military or college without aid.
This state-level Dream Act can neither stop deportation nor grant any legal rights to stay in the United States. Instead, it promises young people eligibility for state aid for college. “The Immigration Policy Center estimates that because of financial constrains, only 5 to 10 percent of the 4,500 undocumented students who graduate from New York high schools each year go on to pursue college degrees” (NY Times, 1/23). New York will now be one of the seven states that have passed similar legislation. When I broke the news to my undocumented family member, she cried then sighed, “better than nothing.”
While the anti-Trump liberal movement is hailing this as a victory, it’s actually a slap in the face. Much like our Black and Latin brothers and sisters (citizen or not), undocumented families live under the threat of state terror. Some state financial aid is helpful, for those who can afford to go to college in the first place. Our class deserves more than crumbs for the select few who keep their head down and don’t question. The liberal rulers are winning Black, Latin, and Asian youth to a degree of cynicism that strangles potential for rebellion in the cradle. Of course, no one sees this NY Dream Act as the end of a fightback. Rather, it’s the beginning. The question is, who will lead it—the working class under communist influence or the ruling class for their imperialist empire?
Liberal bosses play undocumented kids
The passing of this pathetic Dream Act reflects how the U.S. ruling class will be using the fight against deportations as a way to buy votes and allegiance to their imperialist war agenda. When workers ally with our class enemies, we are being won over to a key element of fascism: all-class unity.
“The Dream Act’s passage reflected the Democratic Party’s turn to the left on immigration, an issue party leaders once handled gingerly out of fear of angering some white voters…The party’s 2020 presidential hopefuls — including some who once held more hawkish views on immigration, like Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York — are already moving to reassure liberal activists on the issue in an effort to protect themselves in the 2020 campaign” (NY Times, 1/23). Let’s not mistaken these politicians’ opportunism for actual support for immigrant families.
After all, this is the same party that deported 3 million people under liberal Barack Obama’s presidency. “As of 2016…the number of people living in the United States without documents decreased to 10.7 million from a peak of 12.2 million in 2007. The sharp decline came largely during the Obama administration and in the wake of the Great Recession. Deportations also sharply rose during that time” (NY Times, 11/27). Where was the liberal cry for humanity then?
Driving a wedge between students and workers
The consequences of the Dream Act is much more insidious in that the legislation not only disciplines working-class youth for nationalism, but it also pits students against workers. NYC Department of Education Chancellor Richard Carranza called these students “‘the best of New York City and America…They have gone to school, gotten great grades, and in many cases served our communities and country…’”(Chalk Beat, 1/10). By limiting the fight to just “good children,” this elitist reform criminalizes parents and adults whose only “crime” was crossing an artificial border.
Nothing but desperation and love for one’s children will cause a parent to make the perilous journey across a desert, only to risk living in concentration camps or living under the threat of being snatched up like prey. These are the choices under capitalism. This reform reaffirms the myth of pulling yourself up by the bootstraps. In that sense, the blame goes back on the undocumented families for being undocumented, while the system gets away scot-free. The working class did not fail; the system set us up for failure.
We must refuse the bosses’ attempt to divide us by “good” and “bad” immigrants. We must see through the liberal wing’s posturing. We must organize all those around us to invoke love of our class across borders by fighting for a world where we are defined, not by the pieces of papers we hold, but by our labor, creativity, and contribution to communism.