Town hall meeting pushes for passage of DREAM Act

Some Long Island immigrants are renewing their call for Gov. Andrew Cuomo to approve the DREAM Act.

News 12 Staff

Dec 19, 2018, 3:14 AM

Updated 1,961 days ago

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Some Long Island immigrants are renewing their call for Gov. Andrew Cuomo to approve the DREAM Act.
Marcy Suarez, 23, came to the U.S. from Honduras in 2003 with her 4-year-old sister and never looked back.
"It was a very scary experience," she says. "The education over there is so faulty, I had no understanding of how big the world was. Coming to this country was a big shock."
Now, Suarez is a youth organizer for Make the Road NY and is one of the so-called "Dreamers" who helped organize Tuesday's town hall meeting to once again push for the DREAM Act to get passed.
Assemblyman Phil Ramos was part of the panel.
"No matter what anybody feels about a person who decided to cross a border without documents, the child did not take part in that decision," he says. "Under what precedent, under what morality, do we justify punishing a child for something that their parent did?"
Gov. Cuomo said Monday that "we must finally pass the DREAM Act to open the door of education to all our 'Dreamers.'"
Suarez says she may be undocumented, but she can't dream of going back. She says America is her home.
The DREAM Act was first introduced into Congress nearly 18 years ago. Several versions have been introduced over the years, but none have been passed.
U.S. Rep. Peter King says he would oppose the state DREAM Act until there is federal legislation regularizing the status of "Dreamers."


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