What is the Dream Act?

"Purpose: the purpose of the Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors Act, also called the DREAM Act, is to help those individuals who meet certain requirements, have an opportunity to enlist in the military or go to college and have a path to citizenship which they otherwise would not have without this legislation. Supporters of the DREAM Act believe it is vital not only to the people who would benefit from it, but also the United States as a whole. It would give an opportunity to undocumented immigrant students who have been living in the U.S. since they were young, a chance to contribute back to the country that has given so much to them and a chance to utilize their hard earned education and talents." (Full article can be found here.)

Basically this law would allow illegal immigrants an opportunity to get on a path of legalization on the conditions that they either get a college education, or serve our country in the military. This law has caused an abundance of controversy because of the the seven letter word prescribed to these immigrants: illegal. This single word has kindled heat for the debate of both reasons concerning the law as power and the law as meaning. What I mean by this is that the word illegal connotes an act that is "contrary to or forbidden by the law," but does the power of this law, justify its meaning? We have seen (more often than not), in cases all throughout history, faults concerning the justification of the law (Plessy v. Ferguson, Brown University v. the United States, to name a couple), that called for reinterpretation of the law, because that's what law heavily entails on, interpretation. The division here is created since every interpretation is individualistic and monitored by distinct values, morals, and beliefs.

Now, with this established, we can refer back to dissecting the word "illegal." The law would infer that these illegal immigrants are here contrary to to or forbidden by the law, however... it does not establish a common ground for everything that is illegal: desecrating a fast is not the same sin as having a snack. Due to special types of circumstances like these, it is important to have interpretative flexibility, which parallels the idea of treating illegal immigrants with interpretive flexibility. Why?

Similar to how I provided the example of the major difference between desecrating a fast, and snacking during one, I provide here the vast difference there is between smuggling oneself with tons of drugs, and smuggling oneself with tons of dreams pertaining a better future. But of course, there is much more to it than that; a multiplicity of issues concerning politics, the economy, foreign policy for the branch of immigration, civil rights, education, and the list goes on...

In the follow up of this blog, I will make sure to address each and one of these issues, along with opinions from both sides, in order to have a clearcut understanding about the importance of this law, the weight it carries, and the profound ability that it carries to change the lives of thousands of intellectual and talented souls (living in the shadows) that could potentially increase the value of our nation.