DREAM Act Reintroduced

Yesterday, Today, the DREAM Act (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act) was re-introduced. This bipartisan legislation addresses the situation faced by young people who were brought to the United States years ago as undocumented immigrant children, and who have since grown up here but are being denied the ability to fully contribute to society.

The DREAM Act would provide certain undocumented youth conditional legal status and eventual citizenship, if they attend college or join the military. It would also allow immigrant students access to higher education by returning to states the authority to determine who qualifies for in-state tuition.

For the first time since it was first introduced in 2001, the DREAM Act enjoys strong backing of House and Senate leadership, all of the relevant committee chairs and President Obama, who was an original sponsor of the legislation when he was in the Senate.

According to the National Immigration Law Center press release, the bill has strong sponsorship among both Democrats and Republicans:

Senators
Russell Feingold (D-WI)
Edward Kennedy (D-MA)
Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
Joe Lieberman (I- CT)
Mel Martinez (R-FL)
Harry Reid (D-NV)

House of Representatives
Joseph Cao (R-LA)
John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI)
Devin Nunez (R-CA),
Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL)
Zoe Lofgren (D-CA)
Jared Polis (D-CO)
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL)

But three states currently would not be able to benefit from the legislation due to their state laws- Colorado is one of them.