Defining American: The Dream Act, Immigration Reform and Citizenship

Although giving credit to the DREAM movement for a remarkable transformation of American attitudes on the question of whether undocumented youth should be granted citizenship, the author of this article worries that the narrative of "blamelessness" and "worthiness" may be "raising the bar" for other groups seeking to acquire or retain citizenship rights. Dreamers are often depicted as innocent, hard-working, well-educated, law-abiding and patriotic, but this portrayal "exposes a discourse of undesirability and unworthiness that is already vividly alive not just within immigration reform debates and citizenship law, but also in such civil rights issues as felon disenfranchisement and voter identification laws, both of which affect those who already have citizenship."

The author traces the development of the illegality frame from the 19th century, "when it was all but impossible to immigrate illegally, to the relentless focus on illegality" today. Recent milestones include the 1996 immigration laws, which made almost all interactions with the criminal justice system grounds for deportation, and the attack on birthright citizenship, which seeks to penalize the parents of so-called "anchor babies." Even the parents of the virtuous dreamers are tainted with this frame ("the blameless child is contrasted to the ‘wrong-doing' parent"), as are those without the time and resources to learn English and pay stiff fines, two requirements for permanent residence under various immigration reform proposals.

The author challenges the argument that progress for the Dreamers would create "a positive policy feedback loop." Evidence from recent history shows, in fact, just the opposite. She also warns of the dangers of "fluid conceptions of citizenship," which might "undo or limit the open clarity of our jus soli citizenship law that has been a laudable exception to the overall history of excluding people from citizenship by race." (Abstract courtesy Nick Montalto, PhD.)

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