Giving Compass' Take:

· Julia Gelatt at the Migration Policy Institute discusses The American Dream and Promise Act of 2019 and the purpose its introduction serves, regardless if it is passed or not.

· How will the introduction of this act build momentum in the U.S. government and public? How can donors support current DREAMers and immigrants? 

· Check out this article about the struggles undocumented students face when fighting to go to college. 

The American Dream and Promise Act of 2019—the first bill introduced in the 116th Congress that would offer a path to legal status for DREAMers—is an expansive proposal, going beyond DREAM Act bills that have been pending in Congress in one form or another since 2001. While it has almost no chance of enactment, the legislation is intended to serve a pair of purposes: Set a Democratic marker for future immigration negotiations and represent a commitment that House Democrats will prioritize action on behalf of DREAMers and other unauthorized immigrants with longstanding U.S. ties.

Beyond DREAMers (the term used for unauthorized immigrants brought to the United States as children), the bill would offer legal status to two other groups: Noncitizens who have been eligible for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) because of difficult conditions in their countries and a smaller group of Liberians who have benefited from Deferred Enforced Departure (DED). Both TPS and DED offer protection from deportation and work authorization.

Drawing from an innovative Migration Policy Institute (MPI) methodology that assigns legal status in U.S. Census Bureau data, MPI estimates that 2.3 million DREAMers would be eligible for conditional legal status under the bill, and 429,000 TPS and DED holders could apply immediately for legal permanent residence (also known as getting a green card). All told, MPI estimates that HR 6 would put slightly less than 2.7 million of the nation’s estimated 11.3 million unauthorized immigrants on a path to a green card.

Read the full article about The American Dream and Promise Act of 2019 by Julia Gelatt at Migration Policy Institute.