Blog Topic

What is the Dream Act?
Posted by: Wiley & Jobson
August 25, 2010

An ongoing concern with our current immigration system is the fact that each year, up to 65,000 youth who are brought to the U.S. as children graduate from U.S. high schools with the stigma of being an undocumented immigrant, and without the necessary lawful status to pursue higher educaton.  The Dream Act is a bipartisan legislation introduced by Senator Orin Hatch (R-Utah) and Richard Durbin (D-Illinois) that would provide qualifying youth a rigorous six year path to permanent legal status.  As it is currently written, the proposed legislation requires that an applicant enter the U.S. before the age of 16, be in the U.S. at least 5 years prior to the enactment of the bill, be less than 35 years old at the time of applying, have graduated from a U.S. high school, or obtained a GED or been accepted into a college or university, and be a person of good moral character.  The proposed legislation further states that after an applicant is granted conditional residency, the applicant must attend a college or university for at least 2 years, or enter the U.S. military. After 5 1/2 years, and after completing at least 2 years of college or military service, the applicant can then request permanent residency.

The Dream Act has not passed.  You cannot apply for any benefit under this legislation at this time.  However, there is a lot of momentum behind this bill at the present time.  We are hopeful that we will see future developments that will benefit our many deserving clients who could benefit from this law.

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