Harlem State Senator Bill Perkins whose district in Manhattan is one of the most ethnically diverse in the City, has taken a bold and correct step in Albany by introducing a bill, the New York Dream Act, which should be approved with speed and clarity.

 Why? 

As the lawmaker quite correctly explained, "We have a moral obligation to empower a population living in the shadows with information that will equip them to live more productively and humanely."

 Brooklyn State Senator, Kevin Parker was equally succinct. He called the proposed measure a "common sense" approach to a thorny immigration problem.

 We couldn't agree more. Under Perkin's bill, young people in the state of New York would gain access to financial aid, scholarships, grants and loans, as they pursue higher education and training. Just as important, it would enable some undocumented immigrants in the state to secure a widely used vital piece of identification, a driver's license, and would open the door to "work opportunities" with the state.

 The Harlem Democrat, who recently won re-election to the upper chamber after a bruising campaign, felt compelled to act after the House of Representatives and the Senate in Washington failed to approve and send to President Barack Obama for his signature the U.S. Dream Act, which contained some of the key provisions in the New York version. Capitol Hill's failure to approve the measure during the lame duck session of the Congress came after the Republicans gained control of the House. It was a tragedy that has compelled millions of young people and others across the country to remain in the shadows.

 "Our youth, especially, deserve a fighting chance to succeed in spite of the circumstances beyond their control that brought them to this country in the first place," Perkins asserted, quiet correctly.

 What he meant was that the children shouldn't be penalized or discriminated against simply because their parents decided to bring them to the United States to maintain family unity and support. That's part of the common sense approach to which Parker referred.

 But that was but a single key reason why the legislature should move aggressively on this measure. Another, as former New York State Supreme Court Justice in Brooklyn, Reynold Mason, who now lives and practices law in Atlanta, asserted, "if the bill makes it through" the legislature and is signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, it would be a "model for sister states to emulate," thus expanding the benefits to immigrants outside of New York.

 A third reason is that it would serve as a living proof that the inscription on the Statue of Liberty, at the mouth of the New York harbor. "Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest lost to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door," is relevant today as when Emma Lazarus first wrote the immortal words more than a century ago.

 To reap benefits from the legislation, an immigrant must have entered the United States before the age of 16 years; be less than 35 years old; and have been in New York for at least two years of a baccalaureate degree. Obviously, immigrants with a criminal history would be barred.

 To secure the bill's approval, Perkins and his colleagues are going to need all of the political support and savvy they can muster. Republicans, who control the State Senate, can be expected to oppose the driver's license plan on national security grounds. But for the old pros in the State Assembly and the Senate, they are not averse to making compromise to succeed with the enactment of important bits of legislation.

 Republicans, many of whom are the sons and daughters of immigrants, seem unwilling or unable to cast their support for any immigrant plan, regardless of its significance. They inveigh against minor changes to the law on the dubious ground that they don't plan to reward illegal immigration. That's a stretch and they know it. What it really needs is understanding the issue. It calls for compassion and the ability to make decisions without first having to see how the wind is blowing.