The DREAM Act, or Law of the American dream, good might be the first step towards a law of wide migratory reform, to turn in fact the promise of campaign of Obama.

Sofía Carranza did not know that she was an undocumented immigrant until it came to last year of secondary school. He was gliding to study in UCLA when he realized that because of his migratory status it was not eligible for the same scholarships as his partners they were receiving. His hopes to continue his education turned out to be truncated by the need to pay the highest education level without any accessible economic aid for her.

As well as Sofia there are approximately 65.000 young students who graduate of the secondary school every year in the United States without having the necessary funds to continue his studies, simply because his parents brought them to this country without legal documents. His sleep of depositing the university turned into a nightmare. Nevertheless, the call DREAM Act (or law of the American dream) can turn in fact his sleep of a better future.

The law tries to give to undocumented students the opportunity to go to the university paying the state registration, and to allow them to request private scholarships, loans and other helps. Also he proposes that while they remain in the university, or if they decide to bring in the army, a temporary residence to be granted them by a period of six years and permanent citizenship if they complete two years of studies or of service.

The proposal has been re-introduced in the congress with strong two-party support, for senators Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and the representatives Howard Berman, D-Calif., and Lincoln Díaz-Balart, R-Fla.

Many of these immigrant students came to the country like children with his parents and were educated in the school public systems. For some this is the only country that they know like his and now they feel discriminated on having tried to be an integral part of the society. Conferee Díaz-Balart, speaking in favor of the students who potentially might benefit from this law, said: "Our students and brave soldiers must not be punished by a decision that was taken by his parents, and in that they had not anything in common. Unfortunately, once these students graduate of the secondary school, his educational aspirations often turn out to be frustrated”.

Ten states in the country have already adopted local laws similar to the DREAM Act that allow to undocumented immigrants to pay school fees as the legal residents do it in state public universities, including Texas, California, Illinois, New Mexico and New York. In New Jersey, the governor John S. Corzine announced his interest to do the most accessible university for the undocumented students in this state, one of several recommendations pro immigrants presented by a state panel summoned by the governor.

In spite of these state measurements, it has been a struggle costs above treating that the DREAM is approved Act in the congress after several frustrated attempts since it was presented for the first time in 2001. Perhaps this year is different. A tall official of the White House said to The New York Times that the president Barack Obama would like being begun by the discussion of the migratory reform in this May and he hopes that a law project should be presented for the autumn.

The DREAM Act well might be the first step towards a law of wide migratory reform. When he was a senator, the today president, he was one of the principal sponsors of the law in 2005. Putting his political weight in the new law proposal, Obama might be sending a clear message to the immigrants' community of which not only he wants to put to the education like one of his biggest priorities, but also he thinks to fulfill his promise to solve the migratory problem.

Janet Murguía, the president of NCLR is partial to the law and she says that the undocumented students owe to be given by the opportunity to continue his university studies because a polite workforce is one of the best ways so that our nation recovers of the current economic crisis. Thinking that 34 per cent of the Hispanic population are a 18-year-old minor of the age, an investment in his education is a not only one investment in the Latin community but also in the country.

Students as Sofia feel the weight of not being able to reach the American dream for not being able to continue his higher education. Now his future and the future of our country are in the hands and in the votes of what we choose to represent us in the capital of country.


(c) 2008 by Maria Helen Salinas.