PD Editorial: A New Year’s resolution for Congress: Pass the DREAM Act in 2021

In a year in which good news has been scarce, the story of Santiago Potes became something that all Americans could celebrate this month. Potes won a prestigious Rhodes scholarship to study at Oxford University in the United Kingdom. What makes it special is that he is the first Latino “Dreamer” to win the scholarship.

Dreamers are young people who were brought to America as children without going through legal immigration. They have legal status and protection from deportation thanks to the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Not every Dreamer is a ridiculously high achiever like Potes. Only a handful of top American college graduates win a Rhodes scholarship each year. But most Dreamers are productive Americans who go to school and get jobs. They might serve in the military. They pay their taxes. They do what every other American does.

Potes plans to study international relations while at Oxford with the hope of serving his country when he returns. "I want to be a national security expert working at the Department of State or working as a counselor to a senator," he told National Public Radio. "I want to use my academic research to help the United States, ultimately."

Potes did not choose to move here. His parents fled Colombia with him and reached Miami when he was 4 years old. He’s made the most of his opportunity, graduating from Columbia University and now heading to Oxford. America is lucky to have him.

Yet as the nation saw these past four years, Potes and other Dreamers are in a precarious position. The Trump administration worked hard to end DACA. The Supreme Court stopped the administration, but the ruling narrowly focused on procedure, not the merits. A future president who follows the rules better could undo the program as easily as President Barack Obama created it. As long as it exists only by executive fiat, it remains vulnerable.

Indeed, the first Dreamer to become a Rhodes scholar was a South Korean man brought to the United State when he was 7. In 2019, he was unsure whether he’d be able to return if he went to Oxford.

It’s long past time that Congress end the uncertainty by codifying the program into law.

DACA recipients are called Dreamers in reference to congressional legislation called the DREAM Act. It never passed, a victim to partisan fighting. Next year, with a new president, might be the perfect time to dust off the bill.

Ideally, Congress would develop a bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform package, but these are not bipartisan times. Absent a Democratic sweep in two upcoming Georgia Senate runoffs and ending the Senate filibuster, generational immigration reform is improbable.

Something smaller, something DACA-like, however, ought to be possible. Three-quarters of Americans support the Dreamers. They recognize that young people who have made the most of their unchosen arrival in the United States should be embraced as legal residents and even citizens, not left to live in fear of whether the next president will repeal DACA and deport them to a country they might not even remember. Everyone in a post-Trump Washington should be able to support that.

You can send letters to the editor to letters@pressdemocrat.com.