Unity statement by Chi organizations in press conference vs Dream Act Monday

[Neal...@aol.com]

 

 

In a message dated 8/18/2010 12:37:24 A.M. Central Daylight Time, erend...@yahoo.com writes:

below is the unity statement drafted by the organizations who will participate in the press conference on Monday....

The Dream Act is a proposed piece of legislation that on the surface looks like
an educational bill for the legalization of undocumented youth, but is actually
a recruitment tool to fill the ranks of the military with this same youth. The
Dream Act says that if a young person graduates from a U.S. high school, then
s/he can get on a path towards some type of legalization if: s/he completes at
least 2 years of college towards a degree or does 2 years of military service
(in reality military contracts are 8 years.) Let's analyze the reality.

The overwhelming majority of undocumented people, approximately 70 %, are
Latinos. Out of approximately 12 million undocumented people in the U.S., over 7
million are Mexican and over 1 million are Central American. The sad reality is
that only about ¼ of Latino/as have ever attended college and only 11% of
Latinos/as have a college degree. These are statistics for Latino/a population
not considering immigration status. La Raza Educators has provided more specific
statistics that suggests that only 1 out of 20 undocumented high school seniors
attend college. Since two years of college is needed to fulfill the educational
part of the Dream Act, it is likely that an overwhelming majority of
undocumented youth will be pushed into the military in order to get a
conditional green card. There is a long list of inequalities that make it hard for
immigrant youth to go to college. This bill does not address these inequalities
or the educational needs of undocumented youth but it addresses the needs of the
U.S. military, filling their ranks.

The heavy militarization aspect of the Dream Act became clear when two important
parts of the DREAM Act were removed. In an old version of the Dream Act, 910
hours of community service was one of the options to fulfill the requirement for
“legalization”. This option was taken away, as was the right to pay in-state
tuition.  Because these two options are gone, more youth will see the military
as their only option.

This is exactly what the government is interested in.  Senator Dick Durbin,
sponsor of the DREAM Act, has said: “The DREAM Act would address a very serious
recruitment crisis that faces our military. Under the DREAM Act, tens of
thousands of well-qualified potential recruits would become eligible for
military service for the first time.”  The military needs more recruits.  The
politicians’ solution is to draft the undocumented.

We cannot be willing to sacrifice the lives of so many youth for the benefit of
so few. We should not support legislation that facilitates the recruitment of
youth to go off to war.

CAMI, Comite Anti-Militarizacion, supports higher education for all students
both documented and undocumented, however, we denounce the military component of
the DREAM ACT. Unfortunately, this deadly component is strategically excluded
from the debate by many Democrats and organizations who support the DREAM ACT.

In essence, the DREAM ACT will create a defacto military draft for our
undocumented youth. We say defacto because although students are given a
“choice”, the fact is that the deplorable and inadequate conditions of Latino
schooling will make military enlistment the only “choice” for the overwhelming
majority of our undocumented youth. At the present time, it is against the law
to recruit undocumented youth into the US military, but with the passage of the
DREAM ACT,  the recruiters will then be legally able to recruit our youth.

Historically racism and discrimination at home and in the military have
adversely affected Latino youth who enter the military. During the Vietnam War,
Chicano and other Latino youth were sent to the frontlines in disproportionate
numbers. While Chicanos and Latinos were only 4.5 percent of the U.S.
population, they were 19 percent of the casualties, some 80,000 Latinos served
during the Vietnam War.


With this reality, we pose the question: where will those students end up? Dead
on the battlefield in Iraq or Afghanistan? Will they join the 6,000 troops
currently occupying the U.S./Mexico border? As the US continues to invade and/or
intervene in other countries, will our youth be forced to kill other poor people
in places like Venezuela, Columbia, Iran and Cuba?

We in CAMI do not wish to antagonize or minimize the efforts of the honest youth
and others who advocate for the Dream Act on behalf of undocumented students. We
wish to challenge all organizations that support the DREAM ACT to join us in the
struggle for the legalization of all students and our entire community. We are
all brothers and sisters in this struggle, but we must never negotiate the
future of our youth in exchange for the legalization of a few of our students.

We believe that our students and community deserve full and immediate
legalization without having to serve in the military.