Immigration-+The+Dream+Act

﻿The Dream Act

= //**Why is this issue important?**// = =**Over three million students graduate from high school worldwide and are able to test their achievements in college as well as in the future. However, their dreams are stalled as they are smeared with the unfortunate title of an illegal immigrant. These youth have been living in the U.S most of their lives and want nothing more than to be recognized as American citizens in order to pursue their dreams. **= = //Who are we talking about when discussing the Dream Act?// =



===We are talking about undocumented students that were brought into the United States unwillingly by their parents who want the opportunity to become a legal U.S citizen. As seen from the following photograph, these undocumented students are fighting===

//**How does the debate over the Dream Act relate to the United States Constitution?**//

 * The issue is associated with the debate: how/what constitutes a legal citizen of the United States? According to the Constituiton, a legal citizen is an individual who was born on United States soil.**

Here's a little table to help inform you of the myths and facts concerning the debate over The Dream Act:

 * =====Myth: America can not afford the DREAM Act. =====

**Fact: America can not afford __not__ to pass the DREAM Act.**
|| =====The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, or CBO, did the analysis and concluded that the DREAM Act would reduce the deficit by $2.2 billion over the next 10 years. =====

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More importantly, the alternative of removing the 700,000 eligible kids would cost taxpayers $16.2 billion dollars over 5 years. =====

//What's stopping the government from passing the Dream Act?//
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 * =====Myth: The DREAM Act would reward illegal behavior. =====

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**Fact: This isn’t amnesty. Eligible youth who had no say in the decision to come to the United States would have to work hard to earn permanent residence, and the earliest they could gain citizenship would be 13 years.** ===== || =====Enabling students to work hard and earn the privilege of citizenship is not “rewarding” illegal behavior. ===== ||
 * =====Myth: Passing the DREAM Act would encourage more illegal immigration. =====

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**Fact: The bill has strict requirements that make only a discrete one-time universe of individuals eligible for relief.** ===== || =====Requirements: =====

These strict requirements will not encourage new illegal immigration
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 * =====<span style="color: #003366; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Myth: The DREAM Act would trigger large-scale “chain migration.” =====

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<span style="color: #003366; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">**Fact: It would be at least 10 years before a DREAM Act beneficiary could sponsor their spouse or child for permanent residence and at least 13 years before they could sponsor their parents or siblings.** ===== || =====<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">And the soonest these youths would be able to sponsor their spouses or minor children to come to the United States would be 10 years after enactment. They could not sponsor their parents or siblings until after they became U.S. citizens, which is a minimum of 13 years after gaining legal status. ===== ||
 * =====<span style="color: #003366; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Myth: We have to secure the border before doing anything else on immigration. =====

<span style="color: #003366; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">**Fact: Our border is more secure than ever.**
|| =====<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">It is more secure than ever in our history. We spend more than $17 billion each year on our immigration enforcement agencies—a 70 percent increase over the last five years. ===== ||
 * =====<span style="color: #003366; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Myth: We can’t bother with issues like the DREAM Act when we have more pressing priorities. =====

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<span style="color: #003366; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">**Fact: It is not an either/or proposition. Congress can address more than one important issue at a time.** ===== || =====<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Dealing with the expiring tax cuts was certainly an important topic for congressional attention. But it should not have been to the exclusion of other critical issues. ===== ||
 * =====<span style="color: #003366; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Myth: We need more time to analyze the DREAM Act. =====

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<span style="color: #003366; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">**Fact: The basic elements of the bill are well understood and have been considered many times over the last nine years.** ===== || =====<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">This is not a new or complicated bill. The basic elements of the DREAM Act are straightforward, well understood, and have been considered numerous times over the last nine years. ===== ||

<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">**Dream Act History:**
=== <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;">The Dream Act was first proposed in 2001 but was ignored by the legislature. It reappeared in 2009 after getting full support from the Pentagon and President Obama. The Dream Act was created to legalize children who came to this country before the age of 16. There are other requirements to become eligible for the Act. These include having a clean record/history and must have caused no illegal actions during his time in the United States, must have legally entered the United States, must have served two years in a University or Military service. === === <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Many who criticize this act claim it is an act of amnesty. Many republicans are against this along with a few democrats. They claim that there is no reliable way of knowing who is or isn’t eligible because there are no accurate documents supports immigrant claims. Scott Wheeler, an investigative journalist, and writer of domestic and international security issues, believes that the Dream Act is just an amnesty program. He points out flaws in the Dream Act in his petition to congress to stop the Dream Act. “The Dream Act,” he states, “does not prevent people with criminal records, including juvenile records, from gaining citizenship, it ignores crucial data that has been gathered that shows the relationship between illegal immigration, drug-related crime, and gang violence, and it also does not any way to screen out the youth that may be susceptible to radicalization and willing to engage in terrorist activities which will be a threat to national security.” University leaders support this act because it will increase the number of enrollment rate of their universities. === Although the Dream Act does not have a direct relationship with the fourteenth amendment,

The arguments for and against the passage of the Dream Act, A student's first hand experience and politician's comments for the Dream Act's failure to pass. media type="youtube" key="bBEZQl4ZU-0" height="349" width="560"

Conlusion: The Dream Act has been rejected by the senate in 2010 with a 55-41 final vote, 4 votes short of passing, after being passed by the House of Representatives. Though most support for the act comes from Democrats, the support for the act is bipartisan. Though the Legislative branch is locked in a stalemate, the executive branch has chosen a side. President Obama said, after the vote, that he would continue pushing for the Dream Act and other steps toward immigration reform. The original Dream Act that was presented in 2001 but lost interest in the Congress now has the full support of the Pentagon. Also university leaders across the country strongly support the Dream Act. This is a good thing for immigrants who are restricted from continuing their education because it was estimated that about 47% of illegal immigrants between 25-64 have less than a high school education. One of the requirements for the citizenship from the Dream Act is two years of a university or military service. In 2008, 36% of students graduated from college in four years and 57% completed their undergraduate requirements in six years. These numbers are relatively low or average; this is also why many university leaders support the Dream Act, so they can enroll more students and have a higher graduation percentage. 

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