[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 161 (Wednesday, December 8, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H8094]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             THE DREAM ACT

  (Ms. CLARKE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. CLARKE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in full support of the DREAM 
Act.
  The immigrant children and young adults that are affected by our 
broken immigration laws are as diverse as this country. My district, 
the 11th Congressional district of New York, is home to a significant 
and diverse immigrant population. According to the Census Bureau, 47 
percent of the immigrant population that settled in my district between 
1980 and 2008 has yet to obtain naturalized citizenship. Many of those 
individuals are documented legal residents and some are not.
  With such a large population, my office has been inundated with 
instances of young people who are either facing the threat of 
deportation to a country they have never known or had no choice in 
leaving, or they are forced into an immigration purgatory whereby the 
opportunities to obtain higher education and gainful employment are 
curtailed by the immigrant status. Many of these young people have 
considered themselves Americans, having never truly known their land of 
birth.
  We cannot delay passing the DREAM Act any longer. We cannot continue 
to punish a community of young people that came to this country at no 
fault of their own. Many communities across this Nation have nurtured 
these young people.
  I support the DREAM Act, and urge my colleagues to do the same.

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