Mock Graduation Takes Place on Behalf of DREAM Act

Washington

Several hundred high school and college students, along with young immigrant workers, donned graduation gowns and walked in a procession to “Pomp and Circumstance” today in sight of the U.S. Capitol. They carried signs that said “I graduated. Now what?” and “It’s not my fault my parents brought me here 4 a better future.”

Many of the youths in the mock graduation ceremony—sponsored by the National Council of La Raza—are undocumented, and they traveled here from 16 states to express their hope that Congress will pass the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, or DREAM Act . If enacted, the measure would provide a path to legalization for undocumented youths who graduated from U.S. high schools and attend college or serve in the military for two years.

The proposal, authored by Sen. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., was introduced in the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 26, but lawmakers haven’t moved it along. A similar bill was first introduced in both the House and the Senate in 2001, and such measures have been proposed...