The Dreamers of a decade ago are today teachers, nurses, journalists, lawyers — but still lack US citizenship
The DREAM Act was introduced in Congress in August 2001, and has still not been approved. This law would allow 3.5 million undocumented young people who arrived in America as minors to regularize their situation
Reyna Montoya is Mexican, Arizonan, DACA recipient and Dreamer. She has a degree in Political Science, a master’s degree in Education, and a certificate in Executive Education from the Harvard Kennedy School. She was listed by Forbes magazine as one of the 30 social entrepreneurs under 30, and is the president and founder of Aliento, an organization that guides, supports and educates young people on how to face and overcome the trauma that comes with being undocumented or being part of a mixed-status family. It supports young people like her, who have also been affected by the fact that the U.S. Congress, after two decades, has still not approved the DREAM Act, the dream that is never comes to fruition.
Since it was first introduced in the U.S. Congress in August 2001, the DREAM Act has failed to pass, irrespective of who has been in office. If it were passed, this law would allow 3.5 million undocumented young people who arrived in the United States as minors to regularize their immigration status with a temporary residence that would open the way to citizenship. It was voted on several times without success over a decade. And in December 2010, the DREAM Act passed the House of Representatives, but fell five votes short in the Senate — this was the closest it got to being approved.
