preview

DREAM Act

Decent Essays

Senate Bill 1291, The Development, Relief & Education for Alien Minors Act or DREAM Act, was originally introduced on August 1, 2001, by Senator Orrin Hatch [R-UT] and Richard Durbin [D-IL]. Senator Hatch explained that the purpose of the bill was to “allow children who have been brought to the United States through no volition of their own the opportunity to fulfill their dreams, to secure a college degree and legal status” (Cong. Rec. S8581).
The sixteen-year history of the DREAM Act has been futile — despite various sponsors and versions and dozens of votes, the bill has failed again and again. In June 2012, President Barack Obama issued the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Act, or DACA (Alcindor and Gay Stolberg), with the hope that eventually Congress would pass the DREAM Act. The executive action would “lift the shadow of deportation from these young people”, a generation of people known as DREAMers who were brought to the United States illegally as children, and grant work-authorization papers (Friedersdorf). Note that this action does not grant legal status. On September 5, 2017, the Trump administration rescinded the order leaving the more than 800,000 DREAMers unprotected, unable to attend higher education and unable to work legally. With six months until the rescission is fully active, Congress will be forced to decide on the DREAM Act …show more content…

Steven Camarota at the Center for Immigration Studies writes that illegal immigrants who attend public institutions will receive tuition subsidies costing the taxpayer over $6.2 billion a year. The Center for Immigration Studies estimated that around 1.03 million illegal immigrants will enroll in public institutions, enabled by means of the DREAM Act. Each of these will receive a tuition subsidy from taxpayers of nearly $6,000 for each year he or she attends

Get Access