I began this blog back in August, 2008 with a video about a recent Olympic gold medal winner, the son of undocumented immigrants.

My intent was simple: to demonstrate the potential value of our newest generation of Latino youth, regardless of their parents’ status.

A few months later I wrote about a personal acquaintance, a young Latina student who was excelling at her studies and learning her third language, also the daughter of undocumented parents.

Then in November, 2008 I described the failed attempt to treat these young students  for what they really are — long time residents of North Carolina — and offer them in-state residence tuition privileges when they were ready for junior college or university.

This cause re-entered the federal legislative arena recently when the Dream Act, which would make a minimum of 2 years of college (or military service) a basis for a path to citizenship.  The bill, passed by the house, was 5 votes short, due to Senate rules which require 60 votes for a vote, while requiring only a simple majority to pass.

In other words, there were apparently enough votes to pass the bill, but not enough votes to bring it to a vote.

In this way we, the proud nation of laws failed these young people, whose future hung in the balance.

In his State of the Union address, President Obama acknowledged the plight of these young people.

One last point about education. Today, there are hundreds of thousands of students excelling in our schools who are not American citizens. Some are the children of undocumented workers, who had nothing to do with the actions of their parents. They grew up as Americans and pledge allegiance to our flag, and yet they live every day with the threat of deportation. Others come here from abroad to study in our colleges and universities. But as soon as they obtain advanced degrees, we send them back home to compete against us. It makes no sense.  … let’s stop expelling talented, responsible young people who could be staffing our research labs or starting a new business, who could be further enriching this nation.

These “dreamers” are not an aberration. They exist, and I have met many of them. In many ways, they live in the margins much like our African-American citizenry of previous decades. Until the 13th Amendment of 1865, a black man was counted as three-fifths of a person. Just exactly how long will we regard our “young, brown generation as altogether invisible?’