American Dream with Age Discrimination

President Obama announced last Friday that illegal immigrants who have resided in the country for more than five years and are between the ages of 16 and 30 will be permitted to apply for work permits and to stay in the U.S. without having to fear deportation. Since this is an executive order rather than a congressional legislation, it will go into effect immediately and up to 800,000 [illegal immigrants] will benefit.

Republican presidential candidate Romney charged that Obama is courting voters with the hope of receiving more support in states with higher populations of Hispanic voters and a tense election atmosphere. Romney believed that it is crucial for such an important change of policy to be legislated through Congress and that an executive order alone is apparently political manipulation.

The United States is a nation of immigrants. Even though laws such as the Chinese Exclusion Act and laws which restrict Asian immigrants were adopted in the past, the U.S. basically welcomes legal immigrants to pursue their American Dream. In the past 20 years, however, due to the quota and restrictions that apply to legal immigrants, the number of illegal immigrants far exceeds that of the legal ones. Currently, there are approximately more than 10 million (according to nongovernmental estimates, up to 20 million) illegal immigrants in the U.S. and at least half of them are from Mexico. Although the U.S. has stepped up border patrols and arrests at the more than 18,000 mile-long US-Mexican border and has deported more than 300,000 people every year, there continues to be illegal immigrants crossing the border and entering the U.S.

If there were no demand for cheap labor, there might not be this many illegal immigrants. But when such demand exists, attempts to prevent immigrants from crossing the border become arduous. With the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, the U.S. came to deal with the issue of illegal immigration by penalizing employers who knowingly hired illegal labors with the hope of reducing their incentive to do so. Nevertheless, at the same time, amnesty was granted to those who illegally entered the U.S. before 1982. Not only does this indirectly encourage the illegal act, but it also resulted in 280 million people becoming legal residents overnight. In the next quarter of a century, there continues to be steady influx of illegal immigrants into the country. They believe that as long as they hide long enough, they will be granted amnesty in the end. After all, America has given amnesty on numerous occasions. Thus, they feel that they might be fortunate enough to benefit from this provision.

It is not that the U.S. Congress does not want to deal with the issue of illegal immigration, it is just that the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (also known as the DREAM Act) —proposed in 2001 by Obama’s best friend, Democratic Senator Dick Durbin from Illinois, and Republican Senator Orrin Hatch from Utah— has lain dormant in the Congress for more than 10 years. It is no wonder that Obama simply shifts to executive order.

Basically, individuals who meet these requirements under the DREAM Act can avoid being deported: arrive in the U.S. prior to 16 years of age, live in the country continuously for at least five years, graduate from U.S. high schools, register in the military service, be of good moral standing and have no criminal record. In addition, they can also apply for students loans, acquire degrees from institutions of higher education, obtain driver’s licenses, apply for work permits and maybe even qualify for legal residency. In contrast to what the U.S. Congress has not been able to accomplish, Obama has, by virtue of executive order, given a ray of hope to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants’ children.

This seemingly humane executive order has too many political elements to it. Obama hopes that Latino votes in such states as Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Florida can be his key to winning; his political calculations are inevitable. However, this order can only be applied to young people who can contribute to the country’s manpower, have a certain level of education, can enter workforce and are able to make tax contributions, and not to their parents who have traveled thousands of miles, enduring countless hardships, to bring them to this country to pursue their American Dream. This is clearly utilitarianism with age discrimination. How can the Democratic Party, which represents the voice of the underprivileged and the vulnerable, go against its own ideals?