What About the Hopes and Dreams of Documented Immigrants?

Bhaskar Chitraju came to the United States from India at the age of 13, and has never been back, living legally in the U.S. for the past 10 years. In Southgate, Mich., he played soccer, excelled at Quiz Bowl, and indulged in Battlestar Galactica marathons with his buddies. High school was easy for him, he remembers, because people accepted him for who he was.

However, the aspiring business owner is as far from American citizenship as the day he stepped off the plane. And two years ago, a clock started ticking down on the only life he knows.

His father, a computer programmer, applied for a green card as soon as he could file the paperwork. Bhaskar would have benefited from that petition, but at 21, he was hit by a provision called "aging out" — a consequence of a visa processing backlog that affects thousands of aspiring Americans a year. He continues to live in the United States on a student visa, but Bhaskar may be legally obligated to leave after he graduates from business school next year.

"I feel frustrated and helpless most of the time," said Bhaskar, who insists he is determined to play by the rules. "There's so much uncertainty in my life — I don't know if I'll be here next year or not."

Reform for the Younger Generation

As green card backlogs delay or derail their chances for citizenship, people like Bhaskar are pinning their hopes on a controversial piece of legislation that was meant to address the quandaries of illegal — not legal — immigrants. The DREAM Act, or Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors, is a federal bill that would provide immigrant youth who enroll in college or serve in the military an expedited path to citizenship. It would also make it easier for states to offer undocumented immigrants in-state tuition at public colleges and universities.

The prospect of legalization for undocumented aliens, even a small portion of them, stirs passions on all sides of the immigration debate. Opponents say the DREAM Act amounts to amnesty for lawbreakers, while proponents stress it would benefit only those who entered the U.S. before age 16, have lived here for at least five years and have a clean criminal record. Versions of the bill foundered in the Senate four times since 2001, but bipartisan support may favor supporters this time around. In March, senators Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Richard Lugar, R-Ind., reintroduced the bill in the Senate, while Howard Berman, D-Calif., and Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., introduced a similar version in the House.

If it were to pass, the DREAM Act would immediately make 360,000 undocumented high school graduates ages 18 to 24 eligible for legal residency, according to the Migration Policy Institute.

Bhaskar hopes the DREAM Act will help him, too, even though he has never been undocumented. "I would be so happy," he says. "I could work to pay my tuition. Most of my problems would be solved."

After 9/11, immigrants faced increased security restrictions, severe backlogs in processing visas and an increasingly histrionic debate over immigration. Young immigrants — the documented battling new barriers to permanent residency, the undocumented in fear of deportation — quickly flocked to the DREAM Act. Its supporters, many of them undocumented, lobbied politicians, organized marches and spoke to the media, often at the risk of exposing their status.

In online discussion forums, so-called "legal DREAMies" draw parallels between documented and undocumented kids who were brought to the United States at a young age. Jason, a naturalized American from Barbados, is a frequent poster on dreamact.info, an activist site. Having experienced the immigration system both as an undocumented teen and a green card petitioner, he believes both groups deserve an expedited path to citizenship. "You can't go ahead in life always looking over your shoulder," he said. "The DREAM Act should be a comprehensive immigration reform for the younger generation."