I’m here at the September MSCSA Governing Council watching the Platform Committee discuss what to do about the Minnesota DREAM Act. From my region, there are only two people, myself and the Platform Representative. The rep is in favor of putting language in MSCSA’s platform that supports the DREAM Act, I am on the fence and leaning towards the other direction.
The DREAM Act itself I’m not opposed to entirely, I think it’s a pretty good thing. However, it’s a pretty divisive issue and while it has parts in education, it mainly is about the legal status of the children of (generally) illegal immigrants. This I believe steps outside the boundaries MSCSA advocates for, and will also needlessly alienate allies and potential allies. Remember the question is not whether the DREAM Act is a good, but whether or not MSCSA should support it as an organization.
The reason I believe this steps outside the bounds of MSCSA is that we’re an organization about students and the issues they face. The DREAM Act is about providing a path for residence (or citizenship) of [illegal] immigrants. While this path includes education as a stipulation for potentially being a resident and potentially citizenship, it is not exclusive to this path as they may choose military duty instead.
