The DREAM Act would enable students who immigrated to the U.S. as children to further their education, get better jobs, and, as a result, pay more in taxes, contributing more to the economic prosperity necessary to sustain a strong middle class. Fulfilling their potential, they may be the nation’s future innovators and entrepreneurs and will make up part of the educated workforce needed to help the U.S. compete in the global economy. The DREAM Act allows undocumented immigrants who entered the United States as children under the age of 15, who have lived in the U.S. continuously for five years and graduated from high school, and who have been law-abiding and generally of “good moral character,” to apply to the Department of Homeland Security for conditional legal status. If they attend college or serve honorably in the U.S. military for at least two years, these young people would become eligible for legal permanent residency and ultimately citizenship. An estimated 65,000 undocumented students graduate from high school each year and would potentially be eligible for an adjustment of status under the Act. The legislation also repeals a requirement that states providing in-state tuition to undocumented immigrant students provide the same benefits to out-of-state students.

H.R. 1751 is the House version of this legislation.