What is the DREAM Act?

Not just any illegal alien wishing to attend college or join the armed forces could automatically pursue the DREAM of full U.S. citizenship. In order to qualify for the policy's provisions, immigrants would be required to meet the following criteria [source: White House]:

From there, potential DREAM Act recipients, sometimes referred to as DREAMers, would be granted a conditional permanent resident status in the United States, which would serve as an intermediate step on the way toward legal permanent resident status. DREAMers would have a six-year window to either complete two years of post-secondary education or two years of military service. Following that trial period, DREAMers could apply for U.S. citizenship. That way, as the Obama administration has emphasized, the people in this group could become active, tax-paying American citizens who would have a positive impact on the federal economy and national security.

There's disagreement over the possible economic impact of the DREAM Act. On one hand, analysis from the Congressional Budget Office estimated that passing the DREAM Act would result in $2.3 billion in federal revenues over 10 years from the new taxpayers [source: Congressional Budget Office]. But DREAM Act opponents have countered that the legislation would stress an already depressed economy. The Center for Immigration Studies calculated that an influx of 1 million DREAMers into public colleges and universities -- each of whom would receive a $6,000 tuition subsidy annually -- would cost taxpayers more than $6 billion per year, negating any income tax boon the DREAMers might drive in the long term [source: Knickerbocker].

Economics aside, immigration is one of the most polarizing issues in U.S. politics today. By opening up a path toward full citizenship for undocumented people under 35 years old, the DREAM Act has been interpreted as a form of amnesty for illegal immigrants, which many politicians oppose. For that reason, Senator Orin Hatch, a Republican from Illinois who originally co-sponsored the legislation, withdrew his support in 2010 when Senators Harry Reid (D-Nevada) and Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) reintroduced the bill and attempted to fold it in to the defense authorization bill. Instead, Sen. Hatch shifted his immigration focus toward enhancing border security [source: Wong].

The Obama administration has repeatedly underscored the multiple requirements for qualifying for DREAM Act assistance, as outlined above. DREAMers wouldn't be permitted to petition for citizenship for foreign relatives, in which case the legislation could function as a gateway for immigrants to enter the country more easily. In addition, the DREAM Act only allows recipients to qualify for federal student loans that they must repay, rather than free federal money, such as the Pell Grant. And the estimate of 11 million undocumented people living in the United States may imply that, whether the DREAM Act is ever passed or eventually fades away, the reality of undocumented youth in the United States remains.

With an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants residing in the United States, the pool of potential DREAM Act recipients is sizeable. A 2010 study from the Migration Policy Institute estimated that about 2.1 million undocumented youth would be eligible to apply for the citizenship program [source: Batalova and McHugh]. However, barriers to entry including low educational achievement, poor English skills and poverty would slash the number of potential DREAMers down to 825,000 [source: Batalova and McHugh]. For instance, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the Department of Homeland Security would charge DREAM applicants $700 to process and grant their conditional resident status, not to mention the added expense of attending college [source: Congressional Budget Office].

As the DREAM Act cycles through Congress again, some states, including California, New York and Maryland, have introduced their own versions of the DREAM Act to extend in-state tuition to undocumented students. And amid the political debates, a small minority of undocumented immigrants is already attending college. According to data from the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, roughly 3,250 to 6,500 undocumented high schoolers proceed to higher education [source: Miranda]. One such person who graduated from an American college and has emerged as a prominent voice in the DREAM Act debate is Jose Antonio Vargas. In a confessional story in The New York Times magazine, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist described the lies and forged documented that he had to wield in order to move through high school to college and into the working world at the Washington Post and Huffington Post as an undocumented immigrant from the Philippines [source: Vargas].

If the DREAM Act had passed in 2001, Vargas could've attended college with a conditional permanent resident status and by now have applied to become a legal U.S. resident. But the journalist remains undocumented, and the next-best option his immigration lawyers have presented involves returning to the Philippines for 10 years, then coming back to the United States. Armed with a powerful pen and influential friends, Vargas' undocumented existence seems a far cry from thousands of teens who have demonstrated in recent years in favor the passing the legislation -- and have been subsequently arrested and deported as a result. Perhaps this time around, their dream might come true -- if Senators Reid and Durbin can rally the 60 votes necessary to get the bill on President Obama's desk to sign before the 112th Congress adjourns in January 2013. But after 10 years of legislative limbo, the DREAM Act may never become a reality.