Florida Paper Calls for the DREAM Act

Editorial from the Palm Beach Post: This Illegal Should Be Legal

Immigration law might not let Fredy Avellaneda stay in the United States. A judge will determine that. But immigration law ought to give people like him a chance to stay.

As John Lantigua reported last week in The Post, Mr. Avellaneda was detained July 16 by Customs and Border Protection agents who stopped the van in which he was riding to work. Mr. Avellaneda, 27, came to this country illegally with his parents when he was 10. He graduated from Pahokee High School and has worked in construction, agriculture and landscaping. According to his mother, his status kept him from attending college. He has not been in trouble with police.

The government should find ways to keep people like him, not deport them.

Despite loud demands, the country can’t deport all illegal immigrants. Even if physically possible, it would cost too much and require unprecedented police and judicial resources. Immigration reform, though, could provide a path for those who have shown that they can be good citizens to become legal citizens.

Mr. Avellaneda was a child when he arrived and did not choose to come to this country illegally. The Rev. John Mericantante, pastor of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Pahokee, has known Mr. Avellaneda since he was a boy and says that he “speaks English better than he speaks Spanish.” In essence, Mr. Avellaneda has grown up as an American.

Susana Barciela, policy director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, says that cases such as Mr. Avellaneda’s – and there are tens of thousands of them – argue for the Dream Act, proposed legislation that would provide a path to legalization by allowing them to attend college or serve in the military.

A poster child for the Dream Act, Ms. Barciela said, is Juan Gomez, who came to Florida illegally with his family when he was 2. Though his parents and grandmother were deported after 17 years, Mr. Gomez had done so well in school and in life that he was allowed to enroll at Georgetown University. But that resulted from a private bill supported by Miami-area lawmakers. Click here for the rest of the story.

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