Dream Act of 2021
Priority Bill Spotlight

The need for a solution is more urgent than ever

Congress has been debating variations of the Dream Act for nearly 20 years.¹ While Americans of all political parties overwhelmingly support these policies, Congress has failed to pass a bill and Dreamers have remained stuck in limbo, significantly limiting their ability to attend school, work, and build their lives in the only country they’ve known as home.

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a program that provides many Dreamers work authorization and protection from deportation, has been a remarkable success, but it is limited, temporary, and under immediate legal threat. Despite the Supreme Court’s deeming DACA legal and ordering that the program be reopened, the Attorney General of Texas is leading yet another legal challenge to strip hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients of their permission to work and their protection from deportation.

And that still leaves hundreds of thousands of Dreamers who were unable to enroll in DACA, including nearly 100,000 Dreamers who graduate from U.S. high schools each year, without protection and at risk of deportation.

Dreamers are deeply integrated in the U.S.

Dreamers have grown up in America, have formed deep ties in their communities, and contribute tremendously in every state across the country. Many Dreamers have been able to earn an education and contribute to the workforce thanks to DACA; this program and its success help provide insight to the experiences of Dreamers as a whole.

On average, DACA-recipients arrived in the U.S. when they were seven years old and have lived here for more than 20 years. About a third of DACA recipients are enrolled in school, while hundreds of thousands more have graduated and are now working in every industry of the economy, including as nurses, teachers, and first responders.

For many Dreamers, America is home to family, including their U.S. citizen children, siblings and extended family. An estimated 1.5 million Americans live with a DACA-recipient, including 250,000 U.S. citizen children who have at least one parent protected by DACA; expanded to the larger Dreamer population, the numbers are likely much larger.

Dreamers also contribute significantly to the U.S. economy, paying an estimated $1.7 billion in state and local taxes each year and contributing $42 billion to GDP annually. Allowing Dreamers to adjust to legal status would increase these contributions significantly.

An estimated 1 million Dreamers are essential workers, almost half of the total Dreamer population. They play a particularly important role in COVID-19 response and recovery, especially in industries like healthcare, food services and production, and housing and facilities.

A pathway to citizenship for Dreamers remains an overwhelmingly popular bipartisan policy. Polling from late January 2021 shows that 83% of Americans, including 66% of Republicans, support a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers.

Eligible Dreamers could apply for conditional permanent status

The Dream Act of 2021 would establish a process for Dreamers to apply for conditional status and ultimately become citizens.

To qualify for the Dream Act, eligible individuals must generally be considered “inadmissible” or “deportable” under immigration law, or be in temporary protected status. Applicants must have arrived in the U.S. before they were 18 years old and have lived in the U.S. continuously since arriving, at least four years prior to the date of enactment of the legislation. They must also meet an educational requirement by having been admitted to an institution of higher education, or by having earned or be pursuing a high school diploma or equivalent.²

If approved, applicants would be granted conditional permanent resident (CPR) status, valid for eight years and subject to revocation if the individual no longer meets the requirements.³ Those individuals who have been granted and are still eligible for DACA and would automatically qualify for CPR status.

Individuals could apply to have conditions removed after graduating from or completing two years in a postsecondary education program, serving honorably in the military for two years, or working for three years. Many DACA recipients will likely have satisfied these requirements by the time of the bill’s enactment and be eligible to immediately remove conditions.