Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act of 2010

Floor Speech

Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act of 2010

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Mr. Speaker, the Immigration Subcommittee, which I chair, held 17 hearings in 2007 to examine every aspect of immigration reform, and one of the most memorable in the series of hearings was the hearing on the plight of undocumented young people who have been brought to the United States as children, including Tam Tran, then a Ph.D. candidate at UCLA who tragically later lost her life in an auto accident. They grew up in the United States, attended American high schools, often knowing no other country as home, no language other than English, yet they were faced with a dead end once they graduated from high school. Their immigration status prevented them from working, paying taxes, serving in the military. They could never get right with the law, even though they had done nothing wrong. The only thing they had done was to obey their parents.

The DREAM Act would allow these young people to apply for conditional immigration status with a series of conditions and would allow these young people to step forward, register, pay their taxes, get right with the law, and contribute to this wonderful country.

You know, we hear a lot about the rule of law. I think it is worth remembering that we write the laws in this country, and we need to address this issue. The Congressional Budget Office tells us that this bill, if we pass it, will increase revenues by $1.7 billion.

We will have a $2.2 billion deficit reduction over the next 10 years. So we can do the right policy and also have the right fiscal impact by passing this bill. I recommend that we help these innocent children who did nothing wrong.

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