Dream Act: The Development, Relief and Education

¶ … DREAM Act: The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act is a proposal for a bipartisan regulation that deals with the tragedy that young people brought up in America have experienced with regards to the current immigration laws. While initial attempts to introduce this legislation can be traced back to as early as 2001, recent attempts have been fueled by President Obama's announcement of certain directives.

In June 2012, President Obama stated that the Department of Homeland Security would commence the use of executive discretion in preventing the extradition of young unregistered immigrants who grew up in the country as children. In addition, many of these young migrants will be permitted to apply for a conditional type of legitimate residency. Even though the pronouncement attracted considerable support from immigrant advocacy organizations, it has been criticized by opponents as an improper way of granting amnesty.

The aftermath of the announcement includes considerations by the Congress to enact the DREAM Act as comprehensive approach in reforming immigration laws. The potential impact and benefits of the DREAM Act to determine its enactment or not can be understood through examining the legislation based on its provisions, merit, and demerits. Purpose and Provisions of the DREAM Act: The DREAM Act has been considered as an alternative immigration reform approach following the elusiveness of a comprehensive measure of revamping the current immigration laws (Glover, p.1).

President Obama's recent directive has acted as a catalyst for developing and enacting this legislation because it's considered as a mini-DREAM initiative. This is primarily because the president's announcement is relatively similar to the objectives of the legislation and provided a formalized approach for dealing with issues in current immigration laws. However, developing and enacting the legislation as an all-rounded approach is a major struggle.

Notably, the purpose of the DREAM Act is to provide young people who grew up in United States with an opportunity to acquire legal immigration status, though they entered the country illegitimately as children. As a result, the legislation would help save more than 2 million young people who graduate from America high schools with limited alternatives to join college or acquire legal status because they entered the country illegally.

The need to help these people is attributed to the fact that they never had the opportunity to enter America legitimately since the decision to migrate to the country was made by their parents or guardians ("Understanding the DREAM Act," p.1). Therefore, the legislation would provide a relief to these young people who have experienced difficult times because of decisions they never made in the first place. The legislation seeks to accomplish this goal through provisions whose objectives are similar to the President Obama's directive.

One of the provisions is that the DREAM Act would remove a federal regulation that punishes states that offer in-state tuition with disregard to the student's immigration status ("DREAM Act: Summary," par, 4). Secondly, it contains qualifications for conditional permanent residency status to young people aged 15 and below who have grown up in the country and maintained good moral character. The status would only be granted after the individual has been accepted into college upon graduating from a U.S. high school.

Third, the conditional permanent residency would be provided for a limited period of time i.e. 6 years rather than for an indefinite duration. This will be followed by the provision of an unlimited legitimate permanent residency if the person meets the criteria at the end of the conditional duration. Support for the Legislation: Based on an analysis of the arguments raised regarding the legislation, I support the DREAM Act because its merits far outweigh its demerits.

Actually, the regulation has some significant potential benefits in transforming the current immigration laws in the United States. Opponents of this Act have argued that it will grant amnesty to these immigrants and its likelihood to encourage increased illegal immigration in the future. The Act has also been criticized for its probability to increase unemployment in a struggling American economy through providing educational opportunities to unregistered immigrant children.

While some of the concerns and arguments raised by critics of the legislation are true, the DREAM Act should be enacted because its advantages outweigh disadvantages. First, it personalizes the people it would impact, a reality that even critics find very persuasive (Gomez, par, 9). Secondly, it provides a huge relief to these young people since they will find it easier to enroll, pay for, and graduate from college.

Third, the DREAM Act would provide increased economic benefits by providing the young people with an opportunity to access higher education levels and employment opportunities. Actually, some of the proponents of the law have argued that the United States needs the undocumented.