Winston-Salem Journal (Editorial): We don't agree with Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry on a lot of things, but his support of equal higher-education opportunities for the children of illegal immigrants brought to this country is right and moral.
One need only see the faces and learn the names of some of these bright young people to understand that they yearn for higher education so they can become productive citizens of the only country they've ever known.
Journal reporter Bertrand Gutierrez introduced us on Sunday to one. Moises Serrano, 21, spoke at Gallaway Memorial Episcopal Church in Elkin as part of the national campaign called DREAM Sabbath 2011, organized to raise awareness of the DREAM Act, federal legislation that would provide students like Serrano a path to legal status.
"My best friend was going to go off to college to be somebody, and I was going to stay here and be nobody," Serrano told the congregation.
Rick Perry's support of Texas legislation that allows students like Serrano who live in Texas to attend a state university and pay in-state tuition brought him boos at last week's Republican debate and probably contributed to the GOP frontrunner's poor showing in the Florida Republican presidential straw poll two days later. It could cost him the Republican nomination.
But Perry is in good Republican company when it comes to his moderate stance on illegal immigration. Ronald Reagan supported amnesty for illegal immigrants, a word so despised by the right today that no one dare utter it. In a debate with rival Walter Mondale in 1984, Reagan said, "I believe in the idea of amnesty for those who have put down roots and lived here, even though sometime back they may have entered illegally." You have to believe Reagan would have wholeheartedly endorsed the DREAM Act. And George W. Bush proposed reasonable and compassionate immigration reform.
Perry has argued that the Texas in-state tuition policy is compassionate and practical, and that to deprive children of illegal immigrants an education increases the likelihood that they will become a burden on society. Qualified illegal immigrants are allowed at public community colleges and universities in North Carolina but pay out-of-state fees, which is reasonable.
"All we want to do is get an education and give back. I want to own a house," Serrano said. "I want to settle down." He said he told his mother, who blamed herself for bringing him to the United States, that all the people he loves are here. "This is my country," he said.
Let's support the DREAM Act and not deny these young people a bright future.
One need only see the faces and learn the names of some of these bright young people to understand that they yearn for higher education so they can become productive citizens of the only country they've ever known.
Journal reporter Bertrand Gutierrez introduced us on Sunday to one. Moises Serrano, 21, spoke at Gallaway Memorial Episcopal Church in Elkin as part of the national campaign called DREAM Sabbath 2011, organized to raise awareness of the DREAM Act, federal legislation that would provide students like Serrano a path to legal status.
"My best friend was going to go off to college to be somebody, and I was going to stay here and be nobody," Serrano told the congregation.
Rick Perry's support of Texas legislation that allows students like Serrano who live in Texas to attend a state university and pay in-state tuition brought him boos at last week's Republican debate and probably contributed to the GOP frontrunner's poor showing in the Florida Republican presidential straw poll two days later. It could cost him the Republican nomination.
But Perry is in good Republican company when it comes to his moderate stance on illegal immigration. Ronald Reagan supported amnesty for illegal immigrants, a word so despised by the right today that no one dare utter it. In a debate with rival Walter Mondale in 1984, Reagan said, "I believe in the idea of amnesty for those who have put down roots and lived here, even though sometime back they may have entered illegally." You have to believe Reagan would have wholeheartedly endorsed the DREAM Act. And George W. Bush proposed reasonable and compassionate immigration reform.
Perry has argued that the Texas in-state tuition policy is compassionate and practical, and that to deprive children of illegal immigrants an education increases the likelihood that they will become a burden on society. Qualified illegal immigrants are allowed at public community colleges and universities in North Carolina but pay out-of-state fees, which is reasonable.
"All we want to do is get an education and give back. I want to own a house," Serrano said. "I want to settle down." He said he told his mother, who blamed herself for bringing him to the United States, that all the people he loves are here. "This is my country," he said.
Let's support the DREAM Act and not deny these young people a bright future.
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