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The Issue

  About the Issue of Access to Higher Education and Permanent Residency for Immigrant Students
   
 

Each year 65,000 talented immigrant students graduate from American high schools aspiring to continue their education and to contribute fully to our society. Unfortunately, these students face serious limitations to realizing their dreams.

Under our broken immigration system, immigrant students that were brought to the United States by parents lacking immigration status have little means to adjust their own legal status. Without legal status, doors to higher education, the workforce, and, ultimately, a full, productive future are closed to these students, even though they have lived most of their lives in the United States and have excelled at the same academic requirements as their classmates.

Fortunately, there is bipartisan support in Congress for addressing the dire situation faced by immigrant students. In the 108th Congress, Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Richard Durbin (D-IL) introduced the “Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors” (DREAM) Act, S. 1545, legislation that would remove the federal barriers keeping immigrant students from pursuing their dreams of higher education and work. Also, in the 108th Congress, Representatives Chris Cannon (R-UT), Howard Berman (D-CA), and Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) submitted similar legislation called the “Student Adjustment” Act, HR. 1684 in the House. These bipartisan bills aimed to do two things:

   
Pave a road to legalization for immigrant students that meet certain requirements, and
   
Return to states the right to extend in-state tuition relief to immigrant students regardless of their immigration status.
   
  For more information:
   
  Contact Maricela Donahue
Center for Community Change
(202) 339-9313 or mdonahue@communitychange.org

 

 
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