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We need to encourage ambitious students and selfless young heroes who volunteer to protect us.  That’s why I was so discouraged by the failure of the Senate to find cloture on the DREAM Act.
 
Children in the U.S. should have the opportunity to fulfill their potential and contribute to the welfare and the security of this country.  It is absurd to punish children for the actions of their parents.  Children born outside the U.S. but raised here feel the same love for our country and optimism towards the future as any other child does.  

The DREAM Act serves both purposes by setting strict, but fair requirements for allowing kids here unlawfully to stay.  A long process of background checks and assurances of good behavior, coupled with requirements to graduate high school and then attend college or enlist in the military are sensible and enforceable.  The DREAM Act would bring children out of the shadows to contribute to the country they c! all home. 

I have an emotional connection to this issue.  My journey to become the first Hispanic president of the American Bar Association began when my family fled from Cuba to the United States.  It was in this country that I discovered what justice is and benefitted from countless opportunities I would never have been able to find elsewhere.  I want children who arrived in this country to experience the "American Dream."

Of course, the DREAM Act is just one step of many and there is no reason that its failure in this Congress should handicap immigration legislation in the next.  It’s estimated that there are 11 million undocumented people in the U.S.  Policymakers will have to make tough, realistic decisions about citizenship, deportation, the need for immigrant labor, and border security less the current systemâ€"which everyone seems to agree is brokenâ€"remains.



When we discuss our  admittedly  flawed system of immigration, we so! metimes talk about the statistics of border crossings, economi! cs, and ICE raids.  We forget that those figures describe human lives.  That is why  the ABA  created a Commission on Hispanic Legal Rights and Responsibilities with honorary co-chair Governor Bill Richardson.  The commission began a listening tour in Illinois to hear the stories of Hispanics in America.  Future hearings in California, New York, and Texas will help the commission get a better idea of what experiences the nation’s fasting growing immigrant population have in our country.  Those testimonials will lend themselves to recommendations the commission will make to policymakers on issues including immigration.     



We can all agree there is a problem.  When that problem is 11 million people big, divided government is no excuse for inaction.



Steven N. Zack is the President of the American Bar Association