Democrats Delivering for Nevada: The DREAM Act

This week the Nevada State Democratic Party released the first in a series of testimonial videos featuring real Nevadans who have benefited from the funding, policies and programs in place thanks to the hard work of Sen. Reid, Congresswomen Dina Titus and Shelley Berkley and other Nevada Democrats.

Today’s video features Paulina Olivares, a high school student from Las Vegas, talking about her support for the DREAM Act, a piece of immigration reform legislation supported by Sen. Harry Reid.

The DREAM Act would create a pathway to citizenship for 65,000 students who graduate from high school each year with the inherited status of illegal immigrant, despite having grown up all their lives in America. Under the DREAM Act, highly-motivated but undocumented young people could be eligible for a conditional path to citizenship in exchange for completion of a college degree or two years of military service. They must also demonstrate good moral character to be eligible for and stay in conditional residency. At the end of the process, the young person can finally become an American citizen.
 
“It’s definitely is a reward, especially for students that have worked hard for it,” Olivares said. “There are a lot of students who… strive to do their best, to live to the fullest because their parents have come here with an expectation to better their lives.

“They’ve been living here for so long. They don’t see this as a stranger’s company. They see this as their home.”

Olivares, whose mother became a citizen while she was in high school and who is herself already a citizen, said she believes students who have worked hard and been involved in their community should have the same opportunities that she does. And she said she’s thankful Democrats are championing this legislation, which rewards that hard work.

“It’s amazing feeling to know that there are democrats like Sen. Harry Reid out their supporting it,” she said. “It’s an inspiration for a lot of us students. It’s a motivation.”

NSDP will launch more testimonial videos in coming weeks. Visit us at www.nvdems.com to view more videos in the series, which will highlight how in 2009 – despite Republican obstructionism and the GOP’s mantra of “no” – Democrats:

•    Passed a stimulus package, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, that created and saved jobs and extended unemployment benefits.
•    Passed legislation ensuring equal pay for women.
•    Championed economic policies that reversed the previous 8 years of failed leadership.

While Republicans offered a year of the same old failed Bush-Cheney policies, tired rhetoric and no new ideas, Nevada’s Democratic delegation here and in Washington worked to change the lives of ordinary Nevadans.