The DREAM Act is a federal bill in both the House of Representatives (H.R. 1751) and the Senate (S. 729) that
would grant certain undocumented students temporary legal residency and would allow them to work towards permanent legal residency.
Passage of policies such as those contained in the DREAM Act is a logical next step for students, given passage of HB 1079 in 2003, which allows undocumented students to pay in-state tuition at our state colleges and universities. The problem remains, however, even with college degrees, the valuable contributions that these high achieving students will make cannot fully be realized until they're granted legal residency.
LEAP encourages and will continuously work for the United States Congress to approve policies similar to the DREAM Act.
To learn more about the DREAM Act, please visit the links below:
How to Support the DREAM Act in 20 Minutes
Build Institutional Support for the DREAM Act
FAQs about the DREAM Act
Organizations and Individuals who Support the DREAM Act
News Editorials about the DREAM Act
Updates as of July 13th, 2009:
- HR 1751 was referred to the House Judiciary and Education and Labor Committee on 3/26/09; referred to Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law on 4/27/09. Referred to the Subcommittee on Higher Education, Lifelong Learning, and Competitiveness on 5/14/09. There are no schedule hearings in either committee.
- There are 84 cosponsors of HR 1751 as of 7/13/09, Jim McDermott, Rick Larsen, and Adam Smith are the only cosponsor from Washington State.
- SB 729 was referred to Senate Judiciary Committee on 3/26/09. There is no schedule hearing in this committee.
- There are 23 cosponsor of SB 729 as of 7/13/09; both Washington state Senators are cosponsors.
