DREAM Act Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors Act

Background The purpose of the Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors Act, also called the Dream Act, is to help those individuals who meet certain requirements, have an opportunity to enlist in the military or go to college and have a path to legalization which they otherwise wouldn’t have. It would give undocumented immigrant students who have been living in the U.S. since they were young, a chance to contribute back to the country that has given so much to them and a chance to utilize their hard earned education and talent

If Passed Qualified immigrants will be granted temporary residency for a period of six years Immigrants must earn an (AA), or serve at least two years in the military in order to obtain permanent residency If conditions are met within the allotted six years, immigrants will be granted permanent residency, which will eventually lead to U.S. Citizenship.

Qualifications Must have entered the United States below the age of 16 Must have lived here continuously for five years Must graduate from a U.S. high school, or obtain a GED Must either attend college, or enlist in the U.S. Military for a minimum period of 2 yrs

Disqualifiers If the student does not comply with either the college requirement or military service requirement, the temporary residency will be taken away and student will be subject to deportation. If an immigrant is convicted of a major crime, or drug-related infraction, he or she would automatically lose the six year temporary residence status and be immediately subject to deportation.

Costs! The estimated cost of the act would be $6.2 billion a year for each year these students are enrolled. Estimated number of students: 1.038 million (per year) An estimate by the liberal Center for American Progress says that it would cost $48.6 billion to deport more than 2 million illegal immigrants who were raised in the U.S

Impacts UCLA estimates total earnings for beneficiaries to be between $1.4 trillion and $3.6 trillion over 40 years According to the Congressional Budget Office the passage of this act would reduce national deficit by about 2.2 billion from 2011-2020 Ex: A 30 year old Mexican immigrant woman with a college degree will pay $5,300 more in taxes and $3900 less in government expenses each year compared to a HS dropout

Costs of deportation The U.S. government has spent more than $51 million over the past four summers flying nearly 64,000 illegal immigrants back to the Mexican interior after they were caught crossing the border. Estimated cost to deport 12 million illegal immigrants: $94 billion

Comparison Rather than spend $94 billion to deport 12 million illegal immigrants, we can spend $6.2 billion per year for 15.2 years, which allows a little over 15 million immigrants to go to college.

Cost of war http://costofwar.com/en/