¶ … 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...

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…