If you are like me, you probably have never heard of the DREAM Act, reintroduced in Congress March 2009.
It was only through reading about immigration reform that I stumbled upon this legislation. My intent through this article is not to voice my opinion for either side, but rather to bring out an awareness of this legislation and what its purpose is and why it was introduced.
The DREAM Act is an acronym for the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors and the legislation was first introduced in 2001. The legislation’s intent is to address the situation that is faced by young people who came to the United States years ago with undocumented parents, but have since grown up here, gone to school here and stayed out of trouble.
Currently, these youth have curtailed, basic civil rights; they cannot obtain a driver’s license, cannot work, cannot serve in the military and have no affordable access to higher education.
Every year about 65,000 immigrant students graduate from high school, but because of their immigrant status, have no opportunity to apply for state and federal grants for a college education or to be able to legally work their way through college.-in essence cut-off from pursuing the American dream.
The DREAM Act legislation, introduced by bipartisan members, such as Senators Durbin, Lugar, Lieberman and Kennedy, is meant to provide certain undocumented youth conditional legal status and eventual citizenship, if they attend college or join the military and also to provide immigrant students access to higher education.
Currently the DREAM Act legislation has strong backing from the Senate and House leadership as well as President Obama, an original sponsor of the first legislation when he was a Senate member.
In addition the bipartisan Council on Foreign Relations Task Force, launched last June and co-chaired by former Florida governor Jeb Bush and former White House chief of staff Mack McLarty, in July 2009 recommended this earned legalization and moving forward with the DREAM Act legislation. As this legislation moves through Congress, I will continue to update its status.