Fantasy world of DREAMland

I thought the reason undocumented young people were called DREAMers was because they would have benefitted from passage of the DREAM Act.

That legislation, which offered legal status for attending college or military service, was scuttled in late 2010 when five Senate Democrats voted against cloture and spared their party the fate of being called soft on illegal immigration.

But now I know the real reason these folks are called DREAMers. It’s because many of them, and many of their supporters, live in a “dream world.”

It’s a world where Democrats actually look out for immigrants, where those who support immigration reform don’t need Republican votes to pass it, where every American agrees that young people brought here by their parents should get legal status, where there is no blowback to using radical and confrontational tactics, where  wanting something is the same as earning it, and where anyone who dares to challenge DREAMers is a cold and heartless brute who probably also has it in for puppy dogs and unicorns.

According to my critics, that’s me. I recently noted that some DREAMers – not all, but some – are exhibiting the narcissism and sense of entitlement that we see with other young people in America who are in their teens and 20s. This stands to reason given that DREAMers are Americans in every way except legal status and they’ve been marinating in those juices for years. I insisted that their in-your-face, no-apologies, no-humility style of politics risked turning off supporters.

I got a lot of angry blowback. And I understand why. The politics of the immigration debate are confusing and deceptive. DREAMers are not only aligned with Democrats who killed the DREAM Act but also support a president who has deported a record 1.5 million illegal immigrants in four years. (In an attempt to appear more compassionate, the White House last summer announced a policy change that lets young people avoid deportation and apply for two-year work permits. More recently, the administration said it would also ease visa requirements to make it easier for the undocumented to stay in the United States as they seek permanent residency instead of returning home.) Amid all the head spinning, it’s easier to think in terms of saints and sinners. In this paradigm, the DREAMers were cast as the former and I was the latter.

Still, some critics made my point. One reader, a DREAMer who says that he has lived in the United States for 11 years, insisted that he and his cohort weren’t making demands. Then, a few sentences later, he added: “Speaking for myself . . .  at this point I am done asking. I demand to be fully incorporated into this society!”

Someone needs a reality check. Those who don’t have the legal right to be here shouldn’t be demanding anything.

I’m not the only one who thinks that some DREAMers need to get over themselves.

Stephen Nuno, associate professor at Northern Arizona University, has argued that the self-absorption of DREAMers could hurt the cause of immigration reform.

“DREAMers think they are special,” Nuno wrote in an online column. “They feel entitled. They’re cute. They’re smart. They make people cry because of their compelling stories. . . .  (But) DREAMers aren’t special. They don’t suffer disproportionately for being undocumented. Besides the individual-level storytelling, they have not moved the debate except to focus much of the debate on them.”

These are tense times in DREAMland. The movement is split between those who are advised by Washington, D.C.-based immigrant advocacy groups to hold out for comprehensive immigration reform and those who would settle for a new DREAM Act a la carte because they sense that broader legislation won’t happen.

Let me be clear: I still admire many of the DREAMers as individuals and support their cause, but I’m getting fed up with some aspects of the DREAMer movement that operates in their name.

I’m especially bothered by the fact that DREAMers compare themselves to Martin Luther King Jr. or Cesar Chavez. Americans – including many African-Americans and U.S.-born Latinos – will not accept such a comparison. King and Chavez were U.S. citizens who were demanding rights from their own country. Undocumented immigrants need to tread more lightly.

You can’t say these things. The DREAMers are considered untouchable and infallible. They’re encouraged to express themselves even if their tactics derail the larger movement.

Why? Because they – and their supporters – are cute? Take it from someone who has seen their fangs, they’re anything but.

Ruben Navarrette is a columnist for U-T San Diego. Reach him at ruben@rubennavarrette.com.