From the Mexico-U.S. border fence to the arrests of 250 illegal Wal-Mart employees in 2003, illegal immigration has taken center stage in American politics for quite some time. While the government has taken steps to quell the influx of illegal immigrants, the more pressing concern should be what we do with undocumented people who are already here. There are many who feel that a path to legalization for undocumented immigrants is neeeded. However, concerns about what effects the legalization some 16 million people might have on the country have prevented any such legislation from being passed.The proposal of the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act in March 2009 has now directed the spotlight on this issue to college campuses across the nation. If passed by Congress, the act would provide a path to legalization for undocumented students of good "moral character" who have completed a high school degree or GED and at least two years of higher education.

I must admit that when I first read about the act, I thought it was a terrible idea. I've always been on the fence-no pun intended-about legalizing undocumented immigrants. I understand that people are pushed by terrible circumstances to risk their lives and illegally enter the United States. But I've still felt that we shouldn't reward them for breaking the law.

Yet the more I read about DREAM, the more I have become convinced that this might be the best way to resolve the problems of legalization for undocumented immigrants. The difference with the DREAM Act is that it would provide legalization for many students who were brought unknowingly into the country at a young age. If passed, we wouldn't be rewarding those who chose to break the law, but we wouldn't continue to punish those who had little say in the matter, either.

For starters, if the act passed, it would only provide a path to legalization for around four million people, but not all of those eligible would actually achieve legalization. The act provides that an eligible student would be granted conditional status after graduating high school. They would then have to graduate from a two-year community college, complete two years toward a four-year degree or serve two years in the military within six years. It is highly unlikely that all eligible students would achieve one of these requirements in order to gain permanent residence and eventually citizenship.

That said, the economic strains that legalizing the undocumented population would put on the country would be considerably less under the DREAM Act. Adding a couple million people to the legal workforce would not drain available resources the way legalizing all 16 million undocumented people might. The students would have little impact on job availability because most of them would be in school for the first few years. And students eligible for legalization would only be eligible for government loans, not other forms of financial assistance. The government would not be spending a significantly larger amount of money to support these students.

DREAM students could also contribute a great deal to the activist and academic cultures of college campuses. The act is designed to provide legalization only to those that are driven and motivated. Students must have achieved a high level of education and must be proven to have a strong "moral character." This is slightly ambiguous, although it is likely that testimonies of character will be sought from teachers, deans or other such sources. Furthermore, a large number of the students who would be affected by this act are already known to contribute to campus life. According to a Huffington Post article by Will Perez, an expert on the DREAM Act, over 90 percent of undocumented college students have participated in volunteer work and various forms of activism.

The DREAM Act should also be passed from a moral standpoint because it could provide a degree of stability and independence to students whose futures would otherwise be hazy. As children of undocumented immigrants, these students are likely in constant fear of separation from their families due to deportation. They furthermore have dreary prospects for future careers no matter how much they succeed in college. Many of these students were brought into the country at a young age, and although we should not reward their parents for breaking the law, we should also not penalize the children for their parents' transgressions.

Legalization for undocumented immigrants is a tricky issue, but the DREAM Act could provide at least a partial answer. For the benefit of college students, and perhaps for the benefit of the country as a whole, the DREAM act should be passed.