Borcherdt's Research Group 2015

College tuition has skyrocketed in recent years. Many Americans cannot afford college or have taken out student loans. Should the United States neglect its own citizens and subsidize the education of students who are here illegally?

College tuition has skyrocketed in recent years. Many Americans cannot afford college or have taken out student loans. Should the United States neglect its own citizens and subsidize the education of students who are here illegally?

Many leaders of both parties in Congress are pushing for the DREAM Act, which would grant reduced tuition and legal permanent residency to possibly millions of students who have been in the United States illegally. Why is the DREAM Act unfair, irresponsible and disastrous if it is adopted?

Many students graduate from U.S. high schools with undocumented status—that is, they are not legally permitted to reside in the United States. Many of them were brought to the United States as young children and have lived in America for most of their lives. Once they graduate from high school, there are few opportunities for them as they lack access to in-state college tuition or the legal ability to work. The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, or DREAM Act, would change this, offering undocumented youth the chance at legal resident status. These youths, or Dreamers, should be allowed to have the chance to stay in the country they call home.

rent or other family member, sometimes alone. She speaks with an American accent and tells me how she attended local elementary, junior high and high schools. Perhaps she studied a year or two in college before dropping out for financial reasons or perhaps has only just graduated from high school. To all outward appearances, she is a typical American kid.

out to make a shift, one that I welcome, which is to recognize that -- having hit a critical mass of states that have recognized same-sex marriage -- it doesn't make sense for us to now have this patchwork system," Obama told BuzzFeed News on Tuesda

So why would this young person be sitting in the office of a nonprofit immigration legal services agency like Nationalities Service Center?