Since its first introduction to the Senate floor, the Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors Act, also called the DREAM Act, has often been associated with the Latino immigrant community of the United States. Fortunately, the bill would conditionally apply to all immigrants in the country. According to the DREAM Act website, the purpose of the Act “is to help those individuals who meet certain requirements, have an opportunity to enlist in the military or go to college and have a path to citizenship which they otherwise would not have without this legislation” (dreamact.info/student). The eligibility requirements target immigrants who have been living in the United States for five consecutive years, traveled here before the age of sixteen, and have received or are in the process of receiving an educational degree. The DREAM Act wants to keep those immigrants that have truly started to better their lives through the pursuit of higher education in the country. These men and women have created friendships, contributed to organizations, and participated in everyday life as an American. America is their home and they are on the track to enrich the workforce and give back to the economy. The DREAM Act would ensure that these immigrants have a place in the American tapestry.
The DREAM Act is a piece of bi-partisan legislation pioneered by Senator Orin Hatch (R) and Senator Richard Durbin (D). Legislation similar to the bill has been introduced to Congress since 2001 and reintroduced in various other immigration bills. However, it was first introduced as the DREAM Act in 2007 by Senator Durbin. After failing to garner the necessary votes to pass, it was re-introduced in 2009, and most recently in May 2011. Each time, it failed to pass.
Students all across the country have rallied around the Act since its inception. America is known as a land for immigrants to fulfill and accomplish their goals and dreams. The DREAM Act would ensure that young men and women who have lived here most of their lives and perceive themselves as American, can be legally deemed so. Again, the DREAM Act would apply to all illegal immigrants who satisfy the initial requirements. Students like Mandeep Chahal would not have had to face the anxiety and painful ambiguity about the future of her life and her residency in America.
Mandeep is a third year UC Davis student who intends to go to medical school. After eight years of failed appeals to stay in the country, Mandeep and her mother were scheduled for deportation to their home country India on Tuesday, June 21. When friends and classmates of Mandeep first heard about the situation, they started a campaign to stop the deportation. The campaign rallied the support of the South Asian community as well as , an organization dedicated to comprehensive immigration reform. Their website launched a petition for Mandeep. Thousands of letters were sent in from across the country to stop the deportation and to have Mandeep stay at home in California. She and her mother have been granted a year long stay in the United States, a small victory in a battle that plagues many students just like Mandeep.
The DREAM Act would ensure that illegal immigrants who are viable contributors to academia and the workforce are allowed to stay at home in America and to actually utilize the talents and skills they have learned as American students. There are hundreds of cases like Mandeep Chahal’s in every immigrant community in the United States that need legislation like the DREAM Act to ensure that they can pursue their dreams.
Though the bill has not been passed several times, Senator Durbin still has hope. “We”re not quittin. I have not given up on you and you shouldn”t give up on me” (HuffingtonPost). I couldn’t have articulated the need for continued support of this act any better.
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Jasleen K Singh
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