The Dream Act Pros and Cons List

The DREAM act was introduced to the United States Congress. This bill stands for the Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors (DREAM). It basically wants to give young undocumented immigrants the power to become legal citizens in the United States of America. It does have requirements, including that they must live in the country since 15 years of age, they served in the U.S. army, they finished high school in America, and they finished at least two years of college.

List of Pros of The Dream Act

1. Will Increase Workforce
Immigrants usually take up jobs that the American citizens do not really want to do or simply dislike (this has created a whole stereotype) and as such, it will not damage the economy of the country.

2. New Path of Citizenship for Immigrants
This bill will create a new path for immigrants to stay in the United States other than the citizenship path. This just might end up reducing criminality and it will enable the country to focus some efforts that were being used against illegal immigration towards other necessities.

3. Keep Families Together
Young immigrants grow up in America, and recognize it as their home. Deporting these people is cruel and immoral, since children should never be punished as a consequence of the actions of its parents. This bill gives them a chance to cope.

4. Strengthen Ties
It will strengthen family ties because families that built up a life in America do not have to break up.

5. Decrease Criminality
Once legalization is allowed, criminality will go down substantially. Since a legal life is possible, they will no longer have to make a living through illegal methods.

6. Increase Self Sufficiency
Illegal immigrants will now have the ability to be self-sufficient allowing them the resources to survive and be free, something harder without citizenship.

7. Improve Military Strength
The bill will help improve the U.S. military strength in a few ways. By increasing the recruitment pool the country will have better capability of responding in international incidents. This is incredibly important because the country faces a lot of threats and the manpower within needs to be big enough to cope with them all.

8. Improve Global Competition
Since the Dream act requires people to study and finish high school (and even two years of college) it will keep citizens under a capable skilled workforce. This education allows America to compete with other countries in pretty much every way depending on the careers people choose to have. Since they are educated, they are able to innovate and to create.

9. Reduce Academic Barriers
High school dropout numbers will reduce. Illegal immigrants have a lot of problems with high school and barriers towards higher education. With the Dream act, these are cut down, and as such, they will have incentives towards studying. Lowering the amount of high school dropouts helps the economy.

10. Improve Individual Potential
The Dream act will give young immigrants the full potential to become people willing to live out honored lives, with strong understanding of ethics, deep loyalty towards their country and other positive virtues.

List of Cons of The Dream Act

1. Did Not Work for the Rights and Privileges
The act will have the government award privileges and rights to people who did not work for the government and have not in any way contributed towards the country. Therefore, these people do not deserve the rights and privileges given to them.

2. More Money Placed on Tax Payers
It may be expensive because a portion of the money American citizens pay will be spent on helping out with the Dream act.

3. Influx of Illegal Immigrants
There will be a larger amount of illegal immigrants coming into the country because it is now easier to secure a future in America.

4. Empower Law Breakers
Since illegal immigrants will now be legal citizens, the Dream act will be giving them the power to break the law.

5. Unfair To Those Who Followed Rules
The Dream act will be unfair towards individuals who have gone through the hard citizenship path, as they will be equals to the citizens that became legal American citizens because of the Dream act.

6. Erode American Culture
Because of the larger amounts of immigrants getting into the country and being able to acquire citizenship, this will slowly erode the American culture and the English language. This can, however, be looked at as evolution.

7. Depressing Government Resources
There will be a larger amount of people using limited resources provided by the government. Resources like health care, education and social security will be drained since these individuals do not pay any taxes at all, and the ones that do, pay very low taxes. This will increase the amount of deficit the government has and in the worst case scenario, it can even lead to bankruptcy.

8. Lead to Unfair Votes
The act might take a toll on the American democracy itself because people might just end up supporting the lawmakers who gave them citizenship as a way to thank them. This means that the democratic system will be affected since they are not voting fairly.

9. Rise in Unemployment
The amount of manpower will increase in the country, and this means that the amount of unemployment will increase. Alternatively to fight the unemployment, the minimum wage might be reduce in order for companies to be able to support these people, ultimately leading towards them taking advantage of cheap labor.

10. Increase in Overpopulation
There might be an overpopulation problem in some American cities. Since the immigrants will come in large numbers because of the act, American cities might just not be read to take them in at the time.