Senate Judiciary Committee Approves DREAM Act
Posted Aug 16, 2002

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill on June 20, 2002 known as the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act or DREAM Act. This act, if passed into law, would institute two significant changes affecting students. The first change is a financial one, as it would allow the individual states to determine residency for the purpose of granting in-state tuition rates, notwithstanding immigration status. The second change would allow certain students to apply for permanent resident status, via a special procedure.

In-State Tuition Requirements

The DREAM Act would eliminate a provision of law enacted in 1996 that currently requires lawful immigration status in order to qualify for any postsecondary education benefit based on state residency. That is, foreign nationals who are not in the U.S. lawfully cannot get reduced, in-state tuition rates in their states of residence unless the same benefit is available to any U.S. citizen or permanent resident who is not a state resident. By changing this rule, the DREAM Act would allow states to decide whether to extend in-state tuition rates in these cases. As is well known by anyone who has had to pay tuition in the U.S., there is an enormous difference in fees between in-state and out-of-state tuitions.

Opportunity for Permanent Resident Status

The DREAM Act would also expand eligibility for relief known as Cancellation of Removal and Adjustment of Status. Eligibility is limited to a particular group of younger students and a particular group of college students or recent graduates. The first eligible group is foreign nationals who are at least 12 but under 21 years of age at the time the law is enacted (when and if that occurs). The students would have to meet the following additional requirements: high school diploma or the equivalent, physical presence in the U.S. for at least five years preceding the enactment of the law, and good moral character. The other eligible group is college students or graduates who would have met the requirements at any time during the 4-year period immediately preceding the date of enactment.

Persons who have committed more serious crimes or who are deportable on security / terrorist related grounds are not eligible to apply. Persons who have committed relatively minor crimes may apply, but they must show that they are rehabilitated and that their removal from the U.S. would cause exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to the applicant or their U.S. citizen or permanent resident spouse, parent, or child.

Cancellation of Removal is generally an application made before the Immigration Court when a person is placed in removal proceedings. However, under the DREAM Act, a person who is not in proceedings can apply to INS for cancellation. Eligible persons who are in removal proceedings would also be able to apply for the same relief before the Court.