Quinn to Sign Illinois DREAM Act into Law Today

AP Photo/Seth Perlman, File

All eyes will be on Pilsen today as Gov. Quinn will sign the Illinois DREAM Act into law at 10 a.m. at Benito Juarez high school. Mayor Emanuel will also be in attendance, according to the public schedule from his press office.

The Illinois DREAM Act would establish a scholarship funded by private dollars to mete out money to undocumented students via a panel, helping them to obtain an education they might not otherwise be able to afford. In order to qualify for the scholarship fund, a student must be between the ages of 18 - 29, have at least one immigrant parent and have attended an Illinois school for at least three years.

The DREAM Act passed the state Senate in May, with 34 Democrats and 11 Republicans supporting the measure. Supporters of the bill say the bill will give undocumented students an opportunity to afford college. Opponents of the bill say it rewards people who violate immigration laws. The decision to have the signing at Juarez, in the predominantly Mexican American Pilsen neighborhood, is a no-brainer decision from a political standpoint.

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By Chuck Sudo in News on August 1, 2011 8:30 AM

Comments [rss]

Robert Salm

The real reason why Quinn thrust this speciously written legislation through the legislature...

Choose one:
a) Re-election campaign photo-op for Governor Quinn.
b) Pandering to non-voting illegals in the hope that legal, law-abiding Hispanic/Latinos will vote for him.
c) A diversion tactic away from all the bad press surrounding the failed "College Illinois" program and the tens of thousands of working families who paid into the fund.

DelawareBob

Amazing! The Federal Government votes the DREAM Act down and some states think they can give illegal aliens the right to use our colleges. How about they go back to their own counrty and go to school there? WHAT A CROCK!

ophmarketing

For most of these students, this IS their "own country." They were brought here as infants or young children through no fault of their own. This is the only country they know.

Mimihaha

Oh noes! Brown people!

BlueFairlane

Damn you, states rights!!! (Which you probably support in most other circumstances.)

Navin_Johnson

Ha, yeah I was going to do the same: "States rights!!".
Never mind that a good portion of kids this would affect had little or no say in the circumstances that have made them undocumented Americans, and that they often have no ties to their birth country. You can have all kinds of views on immigration, but punishing kids like this is something that comes from a purely hateful, punitive mindset.

JayP123

Question: what happens if a citizen or legal immigrant successfully pretends to be illegal in order to get a scholarship? Could the DREAM scholarship committee prosecute fraud, or even stop paying the scholarship, without exposing themselves to civil rights suits claiming preferential treatment is being unconstitutionally granted against Title VII guarantees?

BlueFairlane

I saw this movie once. This sounds like some sort of remake to Soul Man.

It's also a really complicated scenario that I don't see anyone actually trying, as legal citizens have plenty of other routes to college money. And if it were to happen, I don't see how Title VII would have anything to do with fraud, as fraud is fraud.

Now, perhaps you're suggesting there's some conflict between programs offering scholarships specifically to people in certain demographics and Title VII, though plenty of other programs have avoided that conflict just fine. I don't know why this one would be any different.