A DREAM Deployed: Deployed to Iraq or Deported to Mexico

The "Latino Instigators" at Cuentame are asking us to stop and think hard about, "what does the military path mean for Latina/os?"

In the clip below we get a rare glimpse of the double standards that our community is constantly facing. Deploy our young brave youth to the middle east as good old american soldiers but the families left back home are threatened with deportation to Latin America because they are not "American enough"

Fighting Two Wars (Video from Cuentame)

These double standards are everywhere a Latino or migrant of color looks. When it's time to pay taxes your status doesn't matter. You can pay taxes under any social you choose to use and Uncle Sam will gladly take your cash. However, when you fill out an application for financial aid to go to college, your status becomes an issue for Tio Samuel.

When you are asked to sign up for the selective service so that you can be drafted to fight in a war your status is no problem. But when you want a license or the right to work then your status is a big problem.

This constant double standard of brown bodies always being just good enough for the battle field but not quite good enough for much else is alive and back again in Washington D.C.

This time our DREAM Act is adopting the double standard. In its first version, the DREAM Act was a real DREAM come true. It involved financial aid in order to help our struggling families send their youth to college. It involved a community service path to legalization for migrant youth who may not be able to access college or want to be involved in military actions. But those Dream supporting options were deferred and deported from the final language of the DREAM Act. A military option as a path to legalize was then deployed by the Senators who marked up the original DREAM document with nightmarish options.

This Cuentame video ends with a moving story of triumph. A Family that joined hands with allies and stood up to the double standard. There is no better time to learn from this experience and join hands and stand up to the double standards that have been written into our beloved DREAM Act.

Without a fight, without us lifting our voices up to demand more. To demand a community service path to legalization, to demand financial aid including pell grants. Without a struggle to demand what we deserve, we will see many dreams deferred, many dreams deployed and many dreams deported.