Yesterday Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the Democrats  introduced the fifth different version of the  DREAM Act this year. This revision of the controversial legislation would offer legalized citizenship to immigrants who were brought to this country before the age of 16, who go college or serve in the United States military for at least two years.

My neighbor, a principal at a NYC public high school, feels passionately about The DREAM Act. She sent me this letter the last time the DREAM Act was voted on in the Senate.

As you know, I feel very passionately about improving the lives of immigrant students through education. It is possible that after years of stalling, the Dream Act, which would open a pathway to citizenship for undocumented students who graduate from college.

Please make it possible for students like Angel, who was brought to the US at age ten by his parents, to live up to their potential and contribute to our society.  In bald terms, taxpayers spent close to 100K on his education and society is not reaping his potential.  In human terms, Angel’s story is a painful reminder of what can happen to undocumented students. Angel graduated from Brooklyn International High School a number of years ago, scraped together the means to attend and graduate from Hunter College. This in and of itself is an extraordinary accomplishment given the statistic that fewer than five out of one hundred Latinos graduate from college.  Angel was offered a position at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on the strength of his work as an intern there, which he could not accept, because he was undocumented.  Angel now sells flowers by day in midtown Manhattan and delivers take-out Chinese dinners in Park Slope by night.

When Angel came to me years ago to say he didn’t think going to college would be worth it, I told him about the Dream Act. I told him it would be a gamble, but if it never got passed, noone could ever take his education away from him and he would serve as a powerful example to his community and future children.

Let’s just say, my heart breaks every time I bump into Angel on his delivery bike.  Please, for his sake, and for the sake of all the Angels out there all over the US, please take a moment out of your busy lives to insure that we tap into the potential and hold out hope for the students who really do believe in and work for the promise of the American Dream with an ardent fervor even as many of our children, who have the birthright of American citizenship purely by chance, take for granted.