Senator Feinstein to Co-Sponsor DREAM Act

Sen. Feinstein co-sponsored the bill last year, when it claimed support from a bipartisan majority of senators but failed to come up for a vote in Congress.

“The DREAM Act does not offer amnesty, nor is it an entitlement,” Senator Feinstein said. “I believe we should give these talented students a chance to succeed.”

According to the National Immigration Law Center, 65,000 U.S.-raised undocumented students graduate from high school each year. Without legal documents, they are not eligible for state or federal financial aid, private scholarships, or in-state tuition rates. They are also unable work legally in the United States.

The DREAM Act would grant conditional permanent resident status to students who have lived in the United States for at least five years, were under the age of 16 when they arrived, have graduated from high school or been accepted to college, have good moral character and have not committed a deportable offense. Students could then gain legal permanent residency when they graduate from a junior college or trade school; complete at least two years of a bachelor's or graduate program; join the Armed Forces; or participate in USA Freedom Corps or another federally funded community service program.

Sen. Feinstein has not yet seen a guest worker program in Congress that she would support, and sees reform bills that call for undocumented residents to return to their countries of origin as unrealistic, according to spokesperson Howard Gantman. She declined to endorse the Kennedy-McCain bill, he said, because she sees the guest worker program as a magnet for illegal immigration.

The DREAM Act is sponsored by Senators Richard Durbin (D-IL) Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and Richard Lugar (R-Ind.). It continues to claim a large number of bipartisan supporters in Congress, although fewer than last year, according to Gantman.

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