The need for the DREAM ActIn August 2001, Republican Senator Orrin Hatch introduced the first version of the Development Act, l aid and education of foreign minors (or, the DREAM law). It was a sort of companion bill to fellow Senator Chris Cannon's Student Adjustment Act of 2001, which had been introduced a few months earlier. The Student Adjustment Act of 2001 sought to amend the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 so that undocumented immigrants would be eligible for higher education benefits, such as tuition fees. education in the state, in the same manner as documented residents of the state in which they lived, and to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to grant permanent resident status to middle school or high school students who grew up in United States, which would make them eligible for federal and state aid funds for higher education (Student Adjustment Act, 2001). . Hatch's version of the bill was introduced in the Senate and House of Representatives numerous times in the years to come (it was reintroduced in the 108th, 109th, and 110th Congresses) and was added as an amendment to many others immigration-related bills at the time, including the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Acts of 2006 and 2007. In 2007, Democratic Senator Richard Durbin made the decision to add the DREAM Act to the bill. Department of Defense Authorization Act of 2008 – an action that generated much controversy at the time. Opponents of the DREAM Act as it was written at the time were under the impression that the bill made it mandatory for all states to unilaterally offer on-site classes to DREAM Act beneficiaries. In reality, the DREAM Act was written to allow them to do this only if they want to. In-sta...... middle of paper ......-0-10948.htmlInfographic: The 12 states with the greatest economic impact following the passage of the DREAM Act. (October 1, 2012). Center for American Progress. Retrieved April 4, 2014 from http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/immigration/news/2012/10/01/39586/infographic-the-12-states-with-the-greatest-enomic-impact-from - pass-the-dream-act/Odeja, RH, Takash, PC, Castillo, G., Flores, G., Monroy, A. and Sargeant, D. (December 1, 2010). No DREAM left behind: the economic potential of DREAM Act beneficiaries. No DREAM left behind: the economic potential of DREAM Act beneficiaries. Retrieved April 1, 2014 from http://naid.ucla.edu/uploads/4/2/1/9/4219226/no_dreamers_left_behind.pdfPlyler c. Doe. 102 S.Ct. 2382. (1982). Retrieved from WestLaw Academic Database. Student Adjustment Act of 2001. HR1918. 107th Congress. (2001.) Extract from the THOMAS database.