On July 26, 2017, the House introduced The Dream Act of 2017, which provides a road to US citizenship for young people who entered U.S as children. We briefly describe the Act below.
Eligibility criteria: Young people are eligible under the Act who are 17 years old or younger on initial date of entry, are undocumented, currently maintain DACA or temporary protected status, graduated from US High Schools and are in the workforce or are admitted to higher education.
Conditional Permanent Resident Status: The Secretary may cancel the removal and provide conditional Permanent Resident status to the eligible young persons under the Act and such conditional status is valid for 8 years. Prior to the conditional resident status, a person is required to undergo medical examination and pay the required fees. But upon the approval of the conditional resident status period, if the person is convicted of any federal or state offense punishable by a term of more than 1 year, or 3 or more federal or state offenses, for which person was convicted on different dates and imprisoned for aggregate of 90 days or more, the Secretary may terminate person’s conditional permanent resident status and revert to the status previously held by the person.
Removal of conditional basis: The Secretary shall remove the conditional basis of the permanent resident status if the person has no criminal convictions, not abandoned permanent residence in the US, has acquired degree from the US institution or higher education or has been employed for periods of time totaling at least three years and at least 75% of the time the person has had an employment authorization to work in the US. Once the conditions are removed, the person will obtain the status of Lawful Permanent Resident status, which the person will maintain for 5 years and then apply for naturalization.
The Dream Act, 2017 appears to be a strong legislative solution that would allow young people to continue to live to path to permanent residency and eventually citizenship. But presently we hope to protect some 800,000 people living under Deferred Actions for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and safeguard their future and the country’s economic health as well.
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