A bipartisan group of U.S. senators are reintroducing the “Dream Act” to protect millions of younger immigrants from deportation.
Sen. Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, who sponsored the Dream Act 24 years ago, is co-sponsoring the latest version with Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska.
The proposed legislation faces a very challenging road ahead to get the House, Senate and President Trump to approve it.
The bill would create a path to lawful permanent residence for young immigrants who were brought to the United States as children. They have been dubbed “The Dreamers.”
Immigrants in the U.S. would have to meet specific education, military service, or work requirements to earn legal residency.
“These young immigrants [were] brought to the United States as children,” said Durbin in a speech on the Senate floor on Wednesday.
“Like millions of American children… [they] grew up dreaming of getting their first job, passing their driver’s license test, and applying to college. But they had a problem. Under the current law, they were not legal to do those things.
“So the Dream Act gives them a chance, if brought to the United States as children, [to] have a path to citizenship after earning their way in a rather long and rigorous process,” Durbin said.
Durbin and Sens. Alex Padilla, a Democrat from California, and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat from Nevada, held a news conference Thursday in Washington to promote the legislation.
“For decades, gridlock and partisan politics have forced Dreamers to live in limbo. And under the Trump Administration, they now have to fear being swept up in Trump’s cruel mass deportation campaign at any moment,” Padilla told reporters.
Congress and Dream Act
Many of those who would qualify for the Dream Act are part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. It was launched by then President Barack Obama after Congress could not pass the Dream Act. DACA allowed more than 830,000 Dreamers to gain temporary U.S. residency, protecting them from deportation and work authorization.
DACA recipients are permitted to legally work in the U.S. Recipients reapply every two years. Previously if their status was in jeopardy, they would receive a warning and would still have a chance to fight it before immigration officers detained them and began efforts to deport them.
DACA is being challenged in a federal court in Texas and the Trump administration is scrutinizing DACA recipients for possible immigration law violations.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin recently issued a statement saying that people “who claim to be recipients of [DACA] are not automatically protected from deportations. DACA does not confer any form of legal status in this country.”
DACA recipients can lose status “for a number of reasons, including if they’ve committed a crime,” she said.
Support for Dreamers Act
UnidosUS, the largest Hispanic civil rights group, applauded the proposed legislation by Durbin and Murkowski.
“These young people are American in every way except on paper,” said UnidosUS President and CEO Janet Murguía. “They are students, educators, health care workers and essential community members who enrich and contribute to our nation, and who deserve a pathway to citizenship through this proposed bipartisan legislation."
“After years of inaction, we urge Congress to take this opportunity to advance one of the most broadly supported immigration reforms in the country,” she said.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
