DREAM Act Failure and Nativist Response in Oregon

Published on Mar 14, 2011

Originally posted on 3/14/2011

The DREAM (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors) Act, which would have allowed students who entered the United States before age 16 and who have lived in the country for at least 5 years and eared a G.E.D, High School diploma, or who had been admitted to an institution of higher learning to stay in the United States legally as conditional permanent residents, failed in the Senate on Dec.18, 2010.

The failure of the DREAM Act as a federal bill highlights a significant and disturbingly successful trend of the mainstreaming of white nationalism and Nativism, and the very real consequences thereof. This is not a new trend, but one that has evolved over time, rooted in and linked to such white supremacist groups as the Aryan Nations and the KKK. (Leonard Zeskind, “The New Nativism,” 2005.)