USA IMMIGRATION NEWS

Pushing the DREAM Forward for US immigration Reform

Monday, 5 October 2009

The United We DREAM Coalition helped to organize a day of action with more than 125 events in 26 states in support of the DREAM Act.

Students around the nation recently held rallies, news conferences and letter-writing campaigns to raise awareness about the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act or DREAM Act and declared September 23, 2009, a national day of action in support of the DREAM Act.

The DREAM Act is a long anticipated Immigration Bill which was reintroduced in the US Congress (both Senate and House) on March 26, 2009. Groups that favor stricter controls on immigration have opposed the act and helped lobby for its defeat in the Senate in 2007.

The DREAM Act is a proposed federal legislation that addresses the issue many young people face that were brought to the United States years ago as undocumented immigrant children and who have since grown up here, stayed in school, and steered clear of the law.

Every year, U.S. high schools graduate approximately 65,000 immigrant students who would qualify for the DREAM Act's benefits. Despite having grown up in American schools, due to their immigration status, they are barred from in-state tuition rates, state and federal grants and loans, most private scholarships and the ability to legally work their way through college, making a college education unaffordable and thus virtually impossible. If passed, the DREAM Act would restore a states' right to offer in-state tuition to immigrant students residing in their state, which would facilitate access to college for immigrant students in the U.S.

Furthermore, the DREAM Act would also provide a path to citizenship by allowing certain immigrant students to adjust their status to that of a legal permanent resident on a conditional basis for six years based on the following requirements:

• Immigrant students must have entered the U.S. before age 16;
• Students must have been accepted for admission into a two or four-year institution of higher education or have earned a high school diploma or a general educational development (GED) certificate at the time of application for relief;
• Students must reside in the U.S. when the law is enacted. Additionally, those eligible must have lived in the U.S. for at least five years preceding the date of enactment of the Act; and
• Immigrant students must demonstrate good moral character.

The conditional basis upon which legal permanent residence is granted will be removed and become permanent if the student fulfills at least one of the following within six years:

• Earned a degree from an institution of higher education (two- or four-year institution), or maintained good standing, for at least two years, at an institution of higher education while working toward a bachelor's degree or higher;
• Served in the U.S. Armed Forces for at least two years and, if discharged, received an honorable discharge.

If the student does not comply with either the college or military service requirement, temporary residency would be taken away and the student would be subject to deportation.

Ultimately, current immigration law punishes children for a decision they were not capable of making as these individuals were brought to the U.S. as very young children and thus unable to answer for their lack of documentation. These individuals face unique barriers to higher education; an inability to work legally in the U.S.; often live in constant fear of detection by immigration authorities and that they will be removed from their homes to countries they barely know, despite having lived the majority of their lives in the U.S. Presently, U.S. immigration law has no mechanism to consider the special equities and circumstances of such students. The DREAM Act would effectively dispose of this glaring defect.

Currently the DREAM Act legislation has strong backing from the Senate and House leadership as well as President Obama, who was an original sponsor of the first legislation when he was a Senate member. Consequently, many observers feel that the DREAM Act has never had as great a chance of succeeding as it does at this moment in time, given that Democrats generally support this type of legislation.

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