Speech #CREC-2018-01-18-pt1-PgH548_t4

In other words, they had to have a clean record. This was just to be considered. Once they were accepted into the program, they will get a conditional permanent residency status, a temporary green card. Then to transition to lawful permanent residence under the Dream Act, a DREAMer needed to do certain things. In other words, for them to transition from a conditional green card to a permanent green card, they needed to maintain a clean record for 8 years. They needed to have completed a college degree or 2 years for a bachelor's degree or higher, or they must have served in the military for 2 years. It further asks that they would have to have been employed for at least 3 years for 75 percent of the time under the conditional permanent residency status. In addition to that, only after meeting all of the above, could they then transition to legal permanent status. So after that, they would have to wait an additional 5 years for them to be able to apply for naturalization, citizenship. So they would have to wait in total, from the time they got their temporary green card to the time they actually will be eligible to apply for citizenship, a total of 13 years. More than a decade. So the campaign to portray the Dream Act or a solution to the DREAMers and the DACA situation as amnesty is totally false. So 13 years--13 long years--they would have to wait from the minute they got a temporary green card to the time they will be eligible to apply for naturalization, citizenship. So 80 percent of America supports these DREAMers. And this is the Dream Act, a bipartisan bill that has been around for some time, led by Republicans and Democrats that did not have a border security provision to it. But we heard how the other side of the aisle wanted to address some of the concerns at the border. A group of bipartisan Members of this House led by Representative Will Hurd from Texas and Pete Aguilar began to put together a second proposal, USA Act.