Most Americans never have the opportunity to meet with a cabinet-rank official of the U.S. Government. Even rarer is the opportunity to meet with two cabinet officers unless you are the U.S. president.
So it was an unusual honor conferred on young activists who urge adoption of amnesty for illegal aliens via the DREAM Act to be able to sit down around a conference table with U.S. Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis, and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan last Thursday (December 15, 2011). And, if news accounts were correct, several of the participants were not even American – and they were not even in the country legally.
Working to Make DREAM a Reality
Students and members of the United States Student Association and United We Dream joined Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Secretary Solis in a lively discussion on the Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors Act, better known as the DREAM, Act and other education-related issues. Thursday’s meeting was part of the U.S. Department of Education’s “Student Conversations” tours to engage youth in hot topics and current events. The students, the majority of whom are DREAMers, spoke candidly about their uncertain futures and the possibility of deportation.