GOP right wing wants to keep Dreamers in shadows
A particularly cruel fate awaits the so-called Dreamers, undocumented immigrants who were brought to this country as children. They grow up knowing no other country, and may even think they are American citizens, but one day they learn they are not — and that they are vulnerable to deportation.
They must live forever in the shadows.
And that’s exactly where a lot of Americans — including the dominant right wing of the Republican Party — want to keep them.
Witness the repugnant move by Missouri’s Republican-controlled legislature calculated to force certain Dreamers to drop out of college. These academically qualified, fee-paying students are allowed to attend state colleges without fear of deportation thanks to President Barack Obama’s 2012 executive order. They had been able to attend public colleges in Missouri at in-state rates — until legislators tucked some extortionary language into the preamble of the higher-education appropriations bill. Any institution that didn’t charge Dreamers foreign-student tuition rates risks having funds yanked.
Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, signed the bill but maintains that the language isn’t binding because it didn’t go through the legislative process and is not in the bill’s text. Unfortunately, Missouri universities are complying. Returning students face a doubling or tripling of their tuition costs (depending on where they attend) as they enroll this fall.
A Facebook page and a GoFundMe account have been set up. Some students are being advised that they may need to transfer to state schools in Kansas because outof-state rates there may still be cheaper than foreign-student tuition rates in Missouri.
In fact, Kansas — renowned as ground zero of right-wing insanity — is one of about 20 states that charges in-state tuition for such students residing there. The Kansas Board of Regents has been among many strong voices protecting those students from similarly misguided attacks that pop up annually in Kansas.
There is little doubt that this sneak attack will be repeated in other states. After all, the Republican Party is locked in a death grip with anti-immigrant demagogues.
That’s a pity, because Republicans were once among these students’ greatest advocates. Sen. John McCain, of Arizona, was an early and prominent backer of the federal Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act.
But after Obama became president, erstwhile Republican supporters found reasons to withdraw their assent.
Disgusted with Congress’ stalling, Obama acted in 2012. About 665,000 immigrants (4,885 in Missouri ) have qualified so far for the temporary, renewable reprieve from the fear of deportation. The immigrants have gone through checks to certify their character, met education requirements, been fingerprinted and photographed and paid fees.
That rankles the anti-immigrant firebrands of the GOP. So they lash out at a blameless, vulnerable class of immigrants.
But these young Dreamers, by virtue of what they have already overcome, are twice the men and women that the legislators who attack them can ever dream of becoming. And whatever the other obstacles thrown in their path, they will overcome.