DREAM Act fails to pass in Senate; students stay supportive

America is known as the land of opportunity. However, the opportunities and dreams of many students were crushed Dec. 18 when the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act bill failed in the U.S. Senate by five votes.

“We know the bill failed because Republicans requested a two-thirds vote versus a majority,” sophomore Omar Gama said. “There was a majority and it would have passed otherwise.”

The DREAM Act would have provided certain illegal and deportable alien students the opportunity to earn conditional permanent residency if they met specific requirements.

Under the bill’s provisions, students must be U.S. high school graduates and of “good moral character,” a specific legal term which excludes anyone who has committed any of a number of crimes which range from murder to being a habitual drunkard and practicing polygamy.

The students must also have arrived in the U.S. illegally as minors and must have been in the country continuously and illegally for at least five years prior to the bill’s enactment.

Eligible candidates must then either complete two years in the military or two years at a four-year institution of higher learning.

Students would obtain temporary residency for six years and in that time a student must have either completed two years of an undergraduate degree and be in good standing at an institution of higher education or have served in a branch of the military for at least two years, receiving an honorable discharge if discharged.

However, many students are unaware of what the DREAM Act entails.

“We hardly hear anything at the law school of the DREAM Act,” said Elizabeth Ferrufino, a second-year graduate student in the Maurer School of Law. “I think because of that those who are not directly affected by it are unaware.”

When it comes to immigration, many students, both legal and illegal, have passionate
opinions.

“The big issue here is immigration,” Ferrufino said, “and for many, it’s about illegal
immigration.”

It’s very hard for students who didn’t make the decision to grow up here in the United States, Ferrufino said. They are just as American as legal residents because this is their home and this is all they have known, Ferrufino said.

“People are going to be a little ignorant and see it as these illegal immigrants are taking the seats of legal students,” Ferrufino said.

People like Gama and his group DREAM IU are out to change and educate students about the DREAM Act. Gama is no stranger to gaining support and awareness of this issue.

In December he and a few friends participated in a hunger strike to support students in Texas who were trying to get support from their state representative to pass the
DREAM Act.

Although the act didn’t pass, Gama and his group are still fighting hard on the IU campus to gain support.

“We are trying to co-sponsor with many other organizations,” Gama said. “We are creating events and fighting really hard now.”

For many people who come to this country it is the land of opportunity. They want their children to have a better life and a better future than they had, Gama said.

“If they’ve been here for a while, why not grant students opportunity?” senior Nadia
Deeb said.

The DREAM Act will return to the House of Representatives, but with a highly conservative majority it might take at least two years for the bill to pass,
Gama said.

“Law is a big mess, but when it comes to immigration, it’s not black and white,” Ferrufino said.