The Politics of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act

• In Event: The Whole Is Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts 2

Abstract

This paper provides a mixed method approach to study why the Developmental, Relief, and Education Act (the DREAM Act) has not been enacted by the Federal Government. The DREAM Act would provide legal status to U.S. high school graduates who were brought to the U.S. by their undocumented parents. The law would enable many undocumented immigrant students to attend higher education or join the U.S. military. The DREAM Act has overwhelming bipartisan support--yet has never been enacted. The authors utilize legal research, quantitative content analysis, and qualitative framing analysis to study the congressional history of the bill. The authors discuss whether opponents have more successfully framed the debate in Congress and whether this may be one reason the bill has failed.

Authors

• Karen L. Miksch, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

• Mark H. Pedelty, University of Minnesota