Immigration Voice, a national grassroots organization of over 130,000 tax-paying and law-abiding high-skilled immigrants who live and work in the United States, would like to issue the following statement on today’s introduction of the DREAM Act in the Senate:
Immigration Voice applauds Senator Dick Durbin and Senator Graham for their efforts to draft bipartisan legislation to address the plight of the Dreamers. We would note, however, that over 1 million immigrants are permanently banned from obtaining the same Green Cards that will be provided under the Dream Act, solely on the basis of discriminatory per-country limits that were placed into the immigration code many decades ago when there were still segregated public accommodations.
These same lawfully present immigrants who are working in medicine, engineering, research, and technology have children in the United States currently in legal status who will fall into illegal status through no fault of their own, and who will not be protected by the DREAM Act. The fix for this problem, the Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants Act, passed the Senate and the House last year, and Senator Durbin has actually drafted language that, if included to the DREAM Act, will actually strengthen bipartisan support for passing the DREAM Act. We call on all Senators to insist that the Durbin-Lee version of the Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants Act be added to the DREAM Act either in the Judiciary Committee or on the floor if there is to be consideration of the Dream Act in the Senate. It would be patently unjust to only address one aspect of the immigration system when people who are entirely banned from the immigration system altogether on the basis of their race, face the same exact deprivation. These problems must be solved together.
