From the People For The American Way website :

The DREAM Act removes the section of the [Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA)] that discourages states from providing in-state tuition to undocumented students and creates the opportunity for these students to achieve permanent resident status. This bill addresses the reality of young people who have been raised in the U.S. and have graduated from U.S. high schools, but cannot pursue higher education because of barriers posed by current immigration laws. Today, an estimated 65,000 undocumented students graduate from U.S. high schools each year without hope of pursuing a higher education.

Many social justice advocates like myself believe the IIRIRA did more than change immigration law in this country. It is a piece of legislation that turns the back of the United States as a nation of immigrants by turning one of humanity's basic practices -- the movement of people from one region of the world to another in the search for better conditions -- into a crime. A turn for the worse that has had most of it's impact on the children of immigrants. In some cases children have suffered the backlash of immigration sweeps and raids by becoming "migra orphans", due to their parents being deported. In other cases children have had to withstand prison-like conditions with their families in detention centers while they wait for their cases to be heard.

This clip was created by the fine people of Brave New Films. Part documentarians, part social justice activists, Robert Greenwald and his group have put together a video about the "the Dreamers" of "A Dream Deferred", immigrant teenagers, most who were brought to the US as young as 2 years old. The Dreamers have been raised and educated in the US and ready to enter college, and are now fighting for their right to the American Dream.