Immigration Matters: America Needs the Dream Act for Undocumented Students

Children of undocumented immigrants are in the crosshairs of anti-immigrant advocates’ attacks on new Americans. Across the country, efforts are under way to strip these students of the ability to go to college. If they succeed, this will be a tragedy for all Americans, not only for youth relegated to a permanent underclass.

Fortunately for all of us, immigrant youth and their allies will not take this lying down. Young immigrants actively campaigned to re-introduce the DREAM Act in the Senate last November. The DREAM Act (S. 2075) would remove barriers to obtaining higher education for undocumented children who graduate from American high schools. It would also provide these immigrant youth, who in most cases have never known another home outside America, a path to obtaining legal status.

Access to education is a fundamental American value. United States law guarantees access to primary and secondary education to all children regardless of immigration status. The Supreme Court affirmed this right in 1981. Immigration is a fundamentally American experience. Families come to this country every day – legally and illegally – to escape poverty, oppression and danger and to find opportunity, freedom and safety. Denying innocent young people the opportunity to advance with their peers violates these values.

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