DREAM Act 2021

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Everything about the DREAM Act

There are thousand to Millions of undocumented youth/children living in the United States without legal immigration status is known as dreamers. In order to provide them the legal permanent status and eventually citizenship, the proposed law was passed called as DREAM Act. From the year 2001, the DREAM Act was passed but never become law.

However, recently, the House of Representatives approved the DREAM Act on March 18, 2021, and it is yet to be voted by the senate. To get more information about the DREAM Act, this article is for you.

What is DREAM Act?

The Development Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, commonly known as the DREAM Act, is defined as the United States legislative proposal to provide temporary permanent residency with the right to work mainly to the undocumented immigrant who entered the United States as children. This allows them to stay and work in the United States. If they meet future qualifications, they might also get permanent residency.

These bills develop a pathway to US citizenship. If you apply for the DREAM Act green card, it might also allow you to get citizenship, but you will require completing the broader process for obtaining that. The first thing you will require to do is to obtain conditional permanent residency. Then, after holding the permanent residency continuously for five years, you can apply for the US citizen without any exception.

This law grants the government to provide green cards to the people who meet some basic requirements.

If you are applying for the marriage-based green card you will require to submit all your Documents for Marriage Green Card USCIS in English language.

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DREAM Act Requirements

Some of the dreams met requirements are given below:

  • You should be less than 18 years of age, the moment you entered the United States.
  • You should hold a high school diploma, several types of awards or a GED.
  • You should also need to meet some additional educational requirements.
  • You should obtain the degree from the recognized institution of higher education
  • You must have completed a minimum of two years of the program in the US for a bachelor’s degree or any of the degree or some other type of recognized credential or should have also given the service in the US armed forces for two years.
  • You should have on the income for the period of three years and should have at least given 75% of their time in the valid work authorization.
  • You should be physically present on the day when your application is getting submitted.
  • You must be physically present in the United States since 1 January 2021 and continue to be in the United States with some exceptions by the time of approval.

All the above-given requirements are subjected to some of the other exceptions. So if you didn’t make one or the other requirement, it doesn’t mean that you did not qualify.

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Who Are The Dreamers?

Dreamers are defined as the young undocumented immigrants who arrive in the United States as a child but were born in some other abroad countries. Like when a child takes birth in the United States, the next moment he or she becomes a US citizen is also called “U.S. birthright citizenship.”

But, on the other hand, if the child takes birth anywhere in the world other than the United States, they will not be liable to obtain United States birthright citizenship. Likewise, suppose the parents immigrate to the United States without any lawful status and also bring the children along with them. In that case, the child grows up in the United States without any legal status or US citizenship.

Here the story of the dreamer begins. There are several thousand and millions of young children who arrive in the United States with their parents, but they do not hold any kind of legal status that their friends and neighborhood hold who are born in America.

Till the year 2012, undocumented youth/children do not get eligible to receive higher education because they are not qualified for the in-state institution or financial aid, which includes work-study and federal student loans. Moreover, undocumented Youth/children are also not allowed to work legally in the United States because they do not hold any work authorization eligibility.

But in the year 2012, the Obama government introduced a deferred action for the childhood arrivals program or DACA. This program grants the dreamer to get a renewable two years work permit and get eligible for federal student loans.

To request the DACA, dreamers are required to meet certain eligibility criteria along with presenting some proof like a high school diploma, proof of military service if applicable. The DACA program has welcomed more than 700,000 undocumented young immigrants to live and get employed lawfully in the United States without fear of getting dismissed.

Court challenges to the DACA program

Later in the year 2017, the Trump government ordered the Department of Homeland security to take down the DACA program. But favorably in the year 2020, the Supreme Court refused the order of the Trump government to take down the DACA program because the Trump government was using an irregular manner to end the DACA program, which has provided much relief for the dreamers.

However, the Supreme Court did not mention that government doesn’t have the authority to cancel the DACA program. Nor they said that DACA is legally valid. So, in simple words, The Supreme Court denied answering the question that President Obama did the right thing to introduce DACA.

As of now, in the federal court in Texas, a hearing is still pending if the DACA is valid or not. However, several groups of lawyers from Texas and several other states are willing to end DACA. They are mentioning that the DACA program should be ended, as they also mentioned that President Obama did not have the right authority to introduce the DACA program.

In comparison, the lawyer from New Jersey and several other DACA beneficiaries say that the DACA program is legal and should not be ended. Also, President Obama had the right authority to introduce the DACA program.

Though, a federal court has still not made the final decision. In case the federal court agrees with the allegations put by the Texas lawyer general, then they might order the government to stop accepting DACA applications and end the DACA program. This case will be carried forward to the Supreme Court.

What is the history of the DREAM Act?

Let’s look at the history of the DREAM Act; congress introduces the dream several times in the past two decades. This act was first-time proposed to come into effect was in 2001. But later, it was proposed in March 2021. Today also, the DREAM Act has not turned into a law.

Original Proposal

The very first time when the DREAM Act proposed by congress was in the year 2001. Senators Dick Durbin of Illinois and Orrin Hatch of Utah launched the bill known as Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act. Congress also called it a DREAM Act. This name, DREAM Act came with the term dreamers. Durbin-Hatch bills provide legal status to the dreamers who entered in America before 16 years of age, need to undergo criminal background checks, and require a high school degree.

This will allow the dreamer to qualify to apply for the conditional residency status grant to live and work in the United States for a minimum of six years. Then, after the period of six-year years comes to an end, then they’ll get eligible to apply for the lawful permanent residents or a green card.

But, unfortunately, even after getting so much support from Democrats and Republicans, this will still not turn into law because this bill could not get that much support in the Senate.

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Successive Legislative Failures

From the year 2001, the DREAM Act bill was launched in congress a total of 10 times. Still, this bill did not pass. In the years 2003 and 2005, the DREAM Act was its bill. Where sometimes, the DREAM Act was proposed to be part of some others bills.

For example, the DREAM Act bill was planned to associate with the defense authorization bill in July 2007 by some legislators. However, this effort also failed when Congress turned down the authorization bill because of the problems due to the Iraq war timetable.

In the year 2010, another DREAM Act Bill was passed in the House of Representatives, but it also failed in the Senate due to a lack of five votes.

What is the future of the DREAM Act?

No one can determine what is the future of the DREAM Act or if the dreamer will be able to become US citizens or not.

Recent Proposals

The latest bill that was introduced of the DREAM Act in Congress was in March 2021. This bill is also known as the American dream and promise act of 2021. This was passed to the House of Representatives, but it does not go for the Senate vote. The motive of this bill is to develop a three-step US citizenship for dreamers.

The first way of US citizenship for dreamers is to apply for conditional permanent residency. This status will allow dreamers to get work authorization and also prevent them from deportation. The second way, any dreamer having already applied for me conditional permanent residents can now apply for the green card. So now the third and last pathway to citizenship for dreamers is that the dreamers that hold green cards for at least five years can get eligible to apply for US citizenship by naturalization.

Though, the DREAM Act is not yet become a law, so you cannot file the application for the DREAM Act. Rather than a qualified dreamer can apply for DACA or renew their DACA status to get relieved from the fear of deportation.

What has President Biden promised?

In the year 2012, Joe Biden was a vice president at the time when Obama introduced the DACA program. During his presidential campaign, Joe Biden committed number of times to protect the dreamers and DACA.

On the launch day of the DACA program, Vice President Joe Biden signed an executive order to completely launch the DACA program. Moreover, he also showed his support towards the legalization that offers a route to US citizenship for the DACA applicants and temporary protected status (TPS) for several other undocumented immigrants. Vice President also committed to sign the DREAM Act to make it a law if Congress makes the final decision to approve it.

What Congress members have said related to the act?

Prior to President Biden signs the DREAM Act to turn it into law, it will first need to approve by the House of Representatives, and then it will pass onto the senate of congress for further approval.

Though, some United States legislators are not in support of the immigration reform. Several Democrats are united and are in support of the DREAM Act. Democratic members of congress and democratic leadership supported the DREAM Act. At the same time, Republicans were having issues with the bill. The Republican leaders were not in support of most of the immigration law. One of those is DREAM Act. Also, some Republican senators voted in support of the DREAM Act.

At present, the DREAM Act 2021 has carried forward to the House of Representatives, where the majority of the hold is in the hand of the democrats. Whereas the senate where it has the combination of Democrats and Republicans who has still not voted on the act.

In order to turn the DREAM Act into law, it is essential to get support from both parties in congress. There is no exact date when it will happen.

Conclusion

The DREAM Act will become the law or not, it’s all up to the decision of congress. But, at the same time, dreamers don’t have to worry as they have the option to stay and work in the United States by applying for DACA to get a two-year renewable work permit. Moreover, after being a green card holder if you wish to go for a abroad trip then you should apply for the re-entry permit before going for trip. To get further details about the re-entry permit refer to the Complete Guide Re-Entry Permit Process.

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FAQs

How is the DREAM Act different from DACA?

DACA is defined as a protection to the undocumented youth from getting dismissed from the United States, whereas Congress has introduced a new immigration bill DREAM Act to offer additional protection to the dreamers. So both DACA program and DREAM Act has the same motive as they both are protecting dreamer from deportation, but they are different from each other in the extent of protection.

The motive of introducing the DREAM Act is to provide permanent legal status and US citizenship to the dreamers. Whereas DACA only provides deferred action, which every candidate has to renew after every two years.

The deferred action program is not lawful but rather it is introduced by the government to prevent deportation against people. DACA is a historical program with a great history in the United States immigration law protecting immigrants on humanitarian grounds. DACA matches with its history as it protects undocumented young children and workers who have been deported out of the country once they grow up. DACA applicants are either granted or denied from the USCIS service Centre that is processing the application.

Whereas the DREAM Act allows the dreamer to request the lawful permanent resident status like a green card, which they will require to renew each year. If dreamers hold the green card, then with the green card, they will also be able to apply for the lawful permanent residents and their family member who holds undocumented or temporary nonimmigrant visa. However, the dream also allows the dreamer to apply for US citizenship, which protects them from deportation forever.

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Can DACA get a green card?

DACA candidates who are immediate relatives are United States citizens eligible for sponsorship to apply for the green card. In case the applying candidate of the DACA parent or spouse is already a green card holder, then they might also get eligible for getting sponsored for a green card.

Who are considered dreamers?

Dreamers have got their name from the DREAM Act. It is defined as a bill that allows a young immigrant to get the legal status to the young immigrants who are unlawfully residing in the United States brought in by their parents.

Do dreamers pay taxes?

Yes, dreamer has to pay all the US taxes. Any person who gets registered in the DACA is required to pay the taxes. The only difference is that DACA allows the young and undocumented immigrants to stay and work in United States, whereas temporary social security numbers, this means that the immigrants are the one responsible for the federal, state and local taxes same as US citizens’ pays.

Can I apply for DREAM Act 2021?

Yes, DREAM Act 2021 provides a process to the dreamers to first request for conditional resident status and become US citizens. To get eligible for the DREAM Act, the individuals need to be considered inadmissible or deportable under the immigration law or in any of the temporary protected status(TPS).

Who is eligible for the DREAM Act 2021?

Durbin-Hatch bill provided a lawful status mainly to the dreamers who arrived in the United States before the age of 16, they will require passing the criminal background checks, and either graduated high school or earned a GED gets eligible for the DREAM Act. The dreamers are eligible to apply for the DREAM Act 2021.

Is the DREAM Act still in effect?

Two categories of dreaming are still active: the DREAM Act 2021 (S. 264) and the second category of a DREAM Act that turned into a bigger bill called as dream and promise act of 2021 (H.R. 6).

How much money does the DREAM Act give?

Cal Grants are the free money for the college that they do not need to be pay back. You will need to fill the CA DREAM Act application and then submit your school-verified GPA by March 2. It depends on your school choice. After that, you get qualified for the $12,630 every year for four years of college.

Do dreamers go to college for free?

Since dreamers do not receive free tuition, several states grant undocumented young children or individuals holding the DACA status get eligible to apply for the scholarship, financial aid, or pay off just in-state tuition rates in order to remove the financial stress of visiting the college.

What colleges accept undocumented immigrants?

Several colleges accept and document the migrants are mentioned below:

  • Private Colleges that Accept Undocumented Students as Domestic Students
  • Pomona College (Claremont, Calif.)
  • Oberlin College (Oberlin, Ohio)
  • Tufts University (Medford, Mass.)
  • Emory University (Atlanta)
  • Swarthmore College (Swarthmore, Pa.)

What is the HR 6?

HR 6 grants the foreign workers who meet the eligibility criteria to apply for the US lawful permanent resident status.

Can DACA get citizenship?

DACA applicant doesn’t get US citizenship at it only provides the two-year renewal permit to the undocumented immigrants to stay and work in the United States.

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