College Board Report: 350,000 Undocumented Students Would Benefit From DREAM Act

The nonprofit College Board announced Tuesday its support of the DREAM Act, while unveiling a report that said the plan to legalize undocumented college students could benefit 350,000 students today.

The report’s author, Dr. Roberto Gonzales, an assistant professor of the University of Washington, Seattle, School of Social Work, called the barriers that undocumented students face “probably the most important civil rights issue of our time.”

About 65,000 undocumented students graduate from high schools each year, said the report: “Young Lives On Hold: The College Dreams of Undocumented Students.”

Under a 1982 Supreme Court decision, undocumented students can legally attend K-12 public schools. In most states, they can attend college. But other obstacles make that choice difficult. Most states require them to pay out-of-state tuition rates. They don’t qualify for federal financial aid. They can’t legally work to pay for college.

“As they leave the protections of the public school system, they move into an adult legal world … ,” Gonzales said Tuesday during a release of the report on Capitol Hill. “Once they reach late adolescence, when it comes to driving, working, getting financial aid for college, they run into a severe barrier — legal status.”

The DREAM Act would provide conditional legal status to undocumented students “of good moral character” who entered the country before age 16 and lived here at least five years and graduated from a U.S. high school or earned a GED. They could apply for permanent status after six years of conditional status — that includes at least two years of college or military duty.