Dear editor,

Imagine that you are a small child, and that your parents love you very much.

Imagine that they would do anything to be sure that you had more opportunities, a better education, a better life than they had growing up.

Imagine that they wanted to improve your opportunities, imagine they saw the future in you.

Imagine that they looked for new jobs, or moved, or both, so that you could attend a better school.

Let us imagine that they moved, and you had to leave old friends and family behind at a very young age. Imagine you had to live in a new house, a new neighborhood, a new community.

Imagine, then, that your parents got jobs in a new school district, paid taxes in this school district, enrolled you in sports at the local rec center and bought uniforms and equipment locally. Imagine that as you grew up they took you to the local mall for clothes, that you and your family ate at local restaurants, bought a car from a local dealer, paid rent to a local landlord.

Imagine you are about to graduate from this great high school in the community your parents moved to so that you would have a better life. Imagine you are excited to choose a college, start a career, serve in the military, be the best at what you love to do in this community.

Can you imagine all that? I bet it isn’t too hard, if you think about how many kids go to schools in different counties around here, or maybe move a few blocks to attend a particular school in a large district like Atlanta. Reasonable enough, isn’t it? Parents wanting the best for their children, making decisions that will affect them for life.

Now, imagine that you discover that you cannot enroll in college because you don’t have the right papers, and the people in the community you live in, this place, the only place you’ve ever called home, your neighbors consider you a law-breaker. Call you illegal. And want to send you back to the country of your birth, where you know no one and no longer understand the language.

Does that sound reasonable to you?

Please call your representatives in Congress and ask them to pass a clean version of the DREAM Act this month. A clean piece of legislation would provide solely for the safety of these young people, with no special interest amendments and no new extraordinary conditions added before voting.

These young DACA applicants, children who were brought here before they could decide for themselves and trusted their new home with their lives, deserve a chance to safely take the steps to become official American citizens, to match what is in their hearts.

Brenda Doss

Tifton