Overview and Analysis of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act (Dream Act) 'What Was Not But Could Be'

By 2006, there were more than eleven million undocumented immigrants living in different cities within the United States. This figure includes an estimated 1.7 million children under the age of eighteen. Each year, nearly 80,000 of these undocumented children turn eighteen, and about 65,000 of them are expected to graduate from high school. This note intends to make an overview and analysis of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (Dream Act), which was rejected and could be reintroduced in the Senate in the near future. Part II will provide background of the bill as well as case law, and the arguments for the rejection of the bill. Part III will address the importance and the possible impact of the bill. Finally, part VI will summarise the benefits that a bill with the similarities of the Dream Act could bring to young undocumented immigrants and the United States as a whole.