The Dream Act and Beyond
March
9
2011
Yves Gomes with the suitcases he was planning to use if deported. Courtesy of Andrea Wenzel.
The immigration issue has largely been a polarizing one, but there is a bipartisan legislative proposal called the DREAM Act (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act). The proposed legislation would provide a path to citizenship for young people brought to the United States as children, who meet education requirements or have served in the military.
Yves Gomes would benefit from the DREAM Act. When Gomes was just over a year old, his parents brought him from India to the United States on a tourist visa. The family later sought asylum but failed and fell out of status. Gomes’ father and mother have already been deported. After graduating from high school in June 2010, Gomes was also facing deportation.
A Senate filibuster blocked a vote on the DREAM Act in December 2010. President Obama alluded to DREAM Act in his 2011 State of the Union speech.
Throughout the discussion we hear from: Demetrios Papademetriou, the president of the Migration Policy Institute, and Sheryl Winarick, a D.C.-based attorney specializing in immigration law.
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