Young undocumented immigrants, the DREAMers, are now urging the US Congress to pass immigration reform. The young undocumented immigrants in the United States who were brought to the country as children are known as DREAMers. United States is home for most of them. They now want the country to pass immigration reform and grant them legal status.
The DREAM Act that would grant such DREAMers authorization to apply for US citizenship, failed to pass the US Congress. However, President Obama in 2012, put in place a temporary system known as deferred action and permitted the eligible DREAMers to apply for legal status. This policy implemented by President Obama, temporarily halts the deportation of eligible undocumented youth. 430,236 DREAMers have so far received deferred action status.
To become eligible for this temporary status, applicants will have to establish that they are under age 31. They must have entered into America as non-immigrants or undocumented immigrants before they turned 16. Apart from that, they must hold high school degrees and have no criminal records. All the deferred action applicants will have to pay the required form filing fee along with Form I-821D, Consideration of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.
In the year 2011, several young undocumented immigrants requested President Obama to stop deporting the undocumented youth and grant them US citizenship, under the DREAM Act. Now, the US Senate has approved a more ambitious bill that would offer a path to citizenship for all the undocumented immigrants and not only the DREAMers.
These DREAMers, both who are eligible for deferred action status and who are ineligible for this temporary status, now want the US Congress to pass a law that would legalize them and grant them permanent resident status in the country. These DREAMers were brought up in the United States. They are now a part of the country but they are ineligible for driver’s licenses, financial aid and they also cannot open bank accounts.
In July, 9 DREAMers, known as Dream 9, demonstrated against the US immigration laws. They were arrested when they tried to re-enter the United States from Mexico. They were then released on parole and were permitted to return to their homes in America. All the DREAMers and the country’s undocumented immigrants now want the House to pass the reform bill that has been approved by the US Senate.