Dream Act topic

America has been struggling with the decision to grant qualified individuals with residency. These individuals are young adults who were brought to the United States illegally as a child. As a result, these children are not granted the equal opportunities they deserve. Most of them spend their entire lives in the United States as illegal immigrants, leaving them with no legal rights. The DREAM Act (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act) is proposal for qualified individuals to be granted residency. This consist of a phase process, meetings will determine if the individual is eligible for permanent or conditional residency. This law was made to protect young immigrants, whom are close to deportation. Every since young undocumented individuals have been called Dreamers. Although multiple versions of the Dream Act has been introduced in Congress since 2001, it was not until 2010 when President Obama was extremely close to making the law permanent. This proposal has been offered to immigrants over the years but still has not became permanent. In 2010 President Obama was able to get the bill passed by the House of Representative, but when it was time for the Senate's to vote they were five votes short. Since then people in the Senate started introducing different proposals such as (RAC) Act, American Hope Act, and (BRIDGE) Act.

I believe passing the Dream Act will have a positive outcome for The Dreamers and America. The Dream Act is important because it gives Dreamers who grew up in the U.S a chance to pursue a higher education, the opportunity to join the army, and an economical increase in America. Although many Americans don’t agree with the Dream Act, these dreamers were children and could not make decisions like this on their own. Deporting them would not make their lives any easier, if these individuals were employed or even attended school, they should be entitled to permanent residency.

Although President Obama and most Democrats agree with the Dream Act, many Republicans are against it. President Trump has been making pushing for the Dream Act to be to a end, as well building a wall around the border just to assure there is no illegal way into a America. Opponents are afraid that the Dream Act would encourage more immigrants to break the law.Republicans refer to the Dream Act as “amnesty for criminals”, they fell that these immigrants should not be rewarded for entering our country illegally. Mainly, the Republicans fear that giving immigrant legal citizenship would lead to budget cuts in education and that will be shortages in social service programs. Even though these immigrants were brought to the United States as infants, deporting them as young adult is inhuman. Young dreamers have spent their childhood in here in the U.S, leaving them with no relation to their home country. Supporters believe these young adults can offer America a better future if given the equal opportunity. As human beings dreamers should be given the chance to make things right while living in American. There’s multiple programs currently in place protecting them from being deported.

The American dream should be to open door for immigrants to have an higher education, in order to be successful in society.

THE ELIGIBILITY PROCESS

In order for immigrants to be eligible for the Dream Act there are multiple requirements that has to be met:

The steps are as followed:

1.Conditional Permanent Resident (Status to 8 years)

· Entered the United States under the age of 18 years old.

· Entered the United States 4 years prior to enactment and has been since continuously present .

· Has not been convicted of a crime that imprisoned the individuals over the year or convicted 3 or more offenses.

· Has been admitted to an institution of higher education, graduated or recieved a GED, currently enrolled in Secondary School/ Program assisting students obtain a diploma or GED.

2. Lawful Permanent Residence

Anyone who obtain conditional permanent residence can obtain permanent status: Green Card.

· Must have a higher education. (complete at least 2 years of education)

· Military Service. (complete at least 2 years of of service without discharge)

· Work :Demonstrate employment for total 3 years.

There is a Hardship waiver for individuals whom don’t meet the requirements.

3. Naturalization

After obtaining a “Green Card” for 5 years the individual can apply for citizenship in the United States. According to the Migration Policy Institute, as many as 3.4 million individual would qualify under the 2017 version of the Dream Act, and over 1.5 million would eventually obtain a green card.( www. American Immigration Council .org )

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) is a another policy that was created to help protect undocumented