The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act seeks to provide a path to legalization for eligible unauthorized youth and young adults. 1 It does not provide permanent legal status outright to potential beneficiaries. Rather, it allows individuals to apply for legal permanent resident status on a conditional basis if, upon enactment of the law, they are under the age of 35, arrived in the United States before the age of 16, have lived in the United States for at least the last five years, and have obtained a US high school diploma or equivalent. 2 The conditional basis of their status would be removed in six years if they successfully complete at least two years of post-secondary education or military service and if they maintain good moral character during that time period. 3

According to our analysis, the law’s enactment would immediately make 726,000 unauthorized young adults eligible for conditional legal status; of these roughly 114,000 would be eligible for permanent legal status after the six-year wait because they already have at least an associate’s degree. Another 934,000 potential beneficiaries are children under 18 who will age into conditional-status eligibility in the future, provided that they earn a US high school diploma or obtain a General Education Development (GED) degree. An additional 489,000 persons ages 18 to 34 would be eligible for conditional status under the law’s age and residency requirements, but they lack a high school diploma or GED and therefore do not currently qualify for this status.