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The Daily Tar Heel

DREAM Act to be voted on this week
Would give undocumented students path to citizenship

A 9-year-old piece of legislation will get another chance to pass in Congress this week, giving undocumented immigrant students a conditional path to citizenship if approved.

The Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors Act gives undocumented immigrants less than 16 years old, who have lived in the country for more than five years, a chance to earn American citizenship.

People who meet these requirements will have to complete two years of military service or earn a college degree in exchange for their green card.

“We are thrilled about this,” said Ron Bilbao, president of the Coalition for College Access at UNC. “This should have been voted on a long time ago. People should have been in school and not suffering during the past few years,” Bilbao said.

Coalition for College Access has been urging people to call on members of Congress to vote in support of the DREAM Act, Bilbao said.

The Senate is expected to vote Wednesday on the act, which is being proposed as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., sent out a release last week urging senators to vote for the National Defense Authorization Act and each of its amendments.

“The DREAM Act amendment will ensure that millions of children who grow up as Americans will be able to get the education they need to contribute to our economy,” Reid said in the release.

The focus of the bill is military investment. If passed, the government will spend a record $726 billion on strengthening counterterrorism efforts, missile defense and nuclear nonproliferation. A portion of the budget will be used to buy new equipment and uniforms for the military.

“It is a dirty political trick to stick the DREAM Act in an unrelated bill as an amendment,” said William Gheen, leader of Americans for Legal Immigration.

“This organization has helped defeat the DREAM Act before, and we are hopeful we can do it again. The nightmare act amnesty will only attract more illegal immigrants who will eventually become voters,” he said.

Gheen also said that Democrats will lose more seats in the November election if they vote for this bill.

Democrats are hoping to do the opposite. They want to win over the Latino vote in the upcoming election by showing their support for the bill.

But some Democrats might not approve the bill because they are still hoping to vote on comprehensive immigration reform, not just one piece of it.

“The DREAM Act should be considered in the context of comprehensive immigration reform,” said Jack Pfeiffer, press secretary for Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C. He said that the U.S. should take necessary steps to handle the way illegal immigration is handled.

But Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., sees the act as a way of rewarding undocumented immigrants at the expense of those who have followed the rules, said David Ward, press secretary for Burr.

“The DREAM Act would allow those who have entered into our country illegally to receive tuition benefits and to short cut the immigration process,” Ward said.

The DREAM Act was first introduced in 2001. For the first time since then, the act might have the support it needs from Senate and House leadership, the relevant committee chairs and President Barack Obama, according to an article written by Sejal Zota of UNC’s School of Government.

The DREAM Act will affect as many as 65,000 students living in the United States. The DREAM Act Portal, an online community of undocumented youth, estimates 213 legislators support the bill, 107 oppose it and 220 are undecided.

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