Sandip Roy: Harry Potter is a DREAM Act Kid

Maybe the country's hottest new movie can teach a lesson on immigration reform.

By Jamilah King Nov 22, 2010

Over at [New America Media, Sandip Roy](http://newamericamedia.org/2010/11/harry-potter-is-a-dream-act-kid-on-the-run-in-america.php) writes that Harry Potter isn’t just a 17-year-old fictional hero topping America’s movie charts. He’s also a DREAMer, on the run in America: > J.K. Rowling’s vision of darkness feels oddly familiar. It is as if in contemporary times, our imagination of evil is still imprisoned in the memories of World War II. We relive the Nazis over and over again. They are the eternal bogeymen. As Voldemort’s minions take over the Ministry of Magic, it feels like we are in Poland once more. London is pallid, and evil looms gray on the horizon like a winter sky > > [snip] > > When it comes to immigration, there is no shortage of Dark Lords. Voldemort’s American soul is split into thousands of horcruxes, hidden in every corner of the country. We give them banal names like SB1070 in Arizona. In other states, they lie hidden in plain sight, exerting their dangerous power in city council meetings in small towns with pretty names like Hazelton. Nativism and fascism in America can look quite affable, even democratic. No dark arts are needed, no hissing serpents named Nagini, just ballot measures, fanned into wildfires by bombastic radio hosts. > > In the Deathly Hallows, the Death Eaters have infiltrated Hogwarts and taken charge of the Ministry of Magic. In post-midterm America, their power has grown as well. In Rowling’s world, they have names like Alecto and Amycus Carrow. In America, their names are less exotic–for example, Steve King (R-Iowa) and Lamar Smith (R-Texas), congressmen who want to strip away the protection of the 14th Amendment from the children of undocumented immigrants. And then there are the shape shifters like John McCain–once a maverick, now more of an Alastar Moody, of ambiguous, uncertain loyalty. > > But will Sen. Harry Reid, bruised and battered from his last electoral campaign, really find it in himself to be Dumbledore? Because these DREAM-ers, these Yves Gomes and Harry Potters, brave as they are, ultimately have no special powers. [Julianne Hing reported last week](http://colorlines.com/archives/2010/11/white_house_backs_dream_act_for_lame_duck_passage.html) that Speaker Nancy Pelosi has tentatively set November 29 as the date to bring up the DREAM Act for a vote.