Obama Supports "Dream Act" In Miami Dade Commencement
MIAMI (CBSMiami) — President Barack Obama was cheered by the multicultural student body of the nation's largest institution of highest learning when he used Friday's commencement address to promise continued support for the USA Dream Act.
Obama arrived in Miami International Airport just before 6 p.m. to travel to the James L. Knight center where he spoke to the graduation class of the Miami Dade College North and West campuses.
People on the street snapped pictures of the motorcade as it made its way through through downtown Miami. One woman standing on South Miami Avenue was so happy she began to dance when the motorcade passed.
Inside the James L. Knight International Center, the graduates were anxious for the president to arrive.
"It's a life-changing experience," said Charlotte Mitchell, 39, earning an associates degree in radio and television broadcast programming.
"He's an inspiration," said Nelson Lairo, 21.
When the President took the state, students began to cheer his signature slogan, "Yes we can! Yes we can!".
Miami Dade North Campus Student Government Association President Hafeeza Rahman introduced the president.
"Mr. President, we feel that in some mysterious way, you have traveled with us," she said.
In his speech, which lasted just under half an hour, the President spoke of the challenges facing students, many of who came from poor economic backgrounds or other nations, including many students who are in the country illegally.
"I know for many of you, it is an intimidating time to be marching out into the world," he said."Everything I have seen of your generation shows me that you believe, as deeply as any generation, that America can change for the better," he said.
The President said he would continue to work with students who fought for the USA Dream Act, which would have allowed children brought into the country illegally by their parents to remain, finish school, and work toward legal status.
That brought cheers, as many Miami Dade students worked to support classmates who fought unsuccessfully for passage of the act.
He also addressed a subject dear to the heart of many of the students who came to the US from other lands, often without documents.
"I strongly believe we should fix our broken immigration system," the president said.
College President Eduardo Padron presented the President with an honorary Associate in Science degree, and then with the Miami-Dade Presidential Medallion, which he pointed out had been given in the past to deserving world leaders.
The President left to cheers, and was airborne for Washington before 9 PM after a long day that started in Alabama, and made a stop at the Kennedy Space Center.
In Tuscaloosa, Ala., President Obama met with victims of the nightmare storms that killed about 300 people, some two-thirds of them in Alabama. First lady Michelle Obama was at his side as the president offered condolences and whatever help the federal government could provide.
Late Thursday, he declared a major disaster in Alabama and ordered federal aid to assist with recovery efforts.
Obama said he'd "never seen devastation like this." He also promised residents, "We're going to make sure you're not forgotten."
Later in the day, President Obama was set to act cheerleader-in-chief for NASA's second-to-last space shuttle launch and for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' encouraging if gradual recovery after she was shot in the head in an assassination attempt in Tucson, Ariz., in January.
But, the shuttle launch will have to wait after it was scrubbed due to technical problems.
President Obama met with Giffords for about ten minutes before meeting with the entire shuttle crew, including Giffords' husband shuttle commander Mark Kelly.
The shuttle commander greeted Obama in a hallway saying, "I bet you were hoping to see a rocket launch today."
Obama replied, "We were hoping to see you."
The two men shook hands and embraced.
Obama's meeting with Giffords took place in private; she has not appeared in public since her injury and was not expected to do so Friday.
Although the shuttle program was ended by Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, Obama has angered some NASA workers with his own space plans.
He canceled Bush's proposed replacement for the shuttle program — a new mission to the moon — putting in its place vaguer plans for sending astronauts to land on an asteroid and ultimately Mars.
Obama wants private companies to pick up the shuttle's role of delivering payloads to the space station, an approach that is costing thousands of government jobs, including 2,000 contractors to be laid off after the final shuttle flight in June.
More than 500 employees lost their jobs earlier this month.
