The Hill News

On Independence Day, as we celebrate our freedom, we recall the three rights our Founding Fathers held sacred: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

That was their goal for their new nation. Yet in a recent study of hundreds of young children I followed from birth to age three, I found that more than four million children in our country today are not free to access learning opportunities that would allow them to pursue life, liberty and happiness as adults.

Who are these children? They are citizen children of undocumented immigrants, parents without papers. Until now, there has been no clear evidence that having a parent without papers or rights can hurt your ability to learn and develop the skills to pursue the American Dream as described in the Declaration of Independence, even if you are a U.S. citizen. Now we know it can. And that all too often, it does.

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