American Dream There are many brilliant minds in the U.S that unfortunately are being wasted. Many of these minds are undocumented immigrant students. The majority of these adolescents were brought as children to the United States by the parents. Therefore, many of these young people, coming to U.S wasn’t by own choice. Unfortunately, these thousands of adolescents are paying for their parents’ mistake; their parents brought them to the United States with the hope for a better future, however at some point a price has to be paid for being in the country illegally. It is unfair for these adolescents to pay for something their parents did. Former Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch has said: "In short, although these children have built their lives here, they have no possibility of achieving and living the American dream. What a tremendous loss for them, and what a tremendous loss to our society"(Hatch). When these adolescents graduate from high school each year, face a roadblock to their dreams: they can't drive, can't work legally, can't further their education, and can't pay taxes to contribute to the economy just because they were brought to this country illegally by their parents or lost legal status along the way. It is a classic case of lost potential and broken dreams, and the permanent underclass of adolescents it creates, is detrimental to our economy. According to the National Council of La Raza “NCLR” (A national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization that works to improve opportunities for Hispanic Americans), every year, U.S. high schools graduate approximately 65,000 undocumented immigrant students.“Like their U.S.-born peers, they dream of pursuing higher education” (NCLR). Therefore, based on the students’ performance and moral conduct they should deserve the same rights and opportunities as the rest of their resident peers.
As part of the solution for this issue there is a federal legislation; The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act “DREAM Act" (NILC). For the last six years, there have been many efforts to pass this federal legislation. The latest version of the DREAM Act was introduced in the Senate on November 30, 2010 by Richard Durbin (D-IL). On December 6, 2010, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) filed a cloture motion on the motion to proceed to the bill presented in the Senate (NILC). This bill would provide certain illegal immigrant students who graduate from US high schools that are of good moral character, arrived in the US before or when they were 15 years old and no older than 30, and have been in the country continuously for at least five years prior to the bill's enactment, the opportunity to earn conditional permanent residency, and provide in-state tuition without regard to immigration status. The students would obtain temporary residency for a six year period. Within the six year period, a qualified student must attend college, and earn a two year degree, or serve in the military for two years in order to earn citizenship after the six year period. If student does not complete with either his/her college requirement or military service requirement, temporary residency will be taken away and student will be subject to deportation.
Unfortunately, without this bill, due to their immigration status thousands of students have to confront the high costs of Out of State Tuition from Colleges and Universities because they are taken as international students and have to pay higher rates for tuition. Also, they can’t get help from the government, in financial aid. According to Department of Higher Education website, in-state tuition and required fees this year for undergraduates at the University of Connecticut add up to $8,362, compared with $25,486 for out of state. Costs vary slightly among state university schools and Community Colleges. Connecticut Community Colleges 2010-11 in-state tuition and fees are $3,406 and $10,178 for out of state (Connecticut). In