Make Dream Act reality.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Since the failure of comprehensive immigration reform earlier this year, Congress has focused exclusively on enforcement, while ignoring the 12 million undocumented immigrants already in this country and the major sectors of the U.S. economy that rely on their labor.

Meanwhile, the Bush White House has forsaken its long-standing commitment to thorough reform and launched an executive branch crackdown on illegal immigrants. It includes a new federal directive that will result in millions of workers whose Social Security numbers differ from government records being dismissed from their jobs. Employers who fail to act promptly against those workers will face penalties that include large fines and possible prosecution.

Now, federal lawmakers have an opportunity to advance a compassionate and intelligent provision of the comprehensive immigration bill that failed in June. Sens. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., Chuck Hagel,R-Neb.,and Richard Lugar,R-Ind.,have introduced an amendment to a defense authorization bill pending in the Senate. The measure would provide a path to permanent legal status for people who came to the United States illegally before they were 16 years old, graduated from high school in good standing and agreed to attend college or serve in the military for at least two years.

The legislation would affect an estimated 65,000 students a year, providing them with a powerful incentive to finish high school and continue their educations in college or join the military - and eventually attain the legal status that would allow them to become successful, contributing members of society. For too many, the alternative is underground jobs and life in the shadows - or deportation to countries that many of these children don't remember.

These are kids whose parents brought them illegally to the United States. Critics of comprehensive immigration reform are fond of referring to undocumented immigrants as "lawbreakers,"but that description doesn't fit these young people. Yes, their parents broke the law by coming to the United States, but the children had no choice. They don't deserve to be punished. And since they will remain in this country, the best and brightest of them should be encouraged to pursue opportunities in the military or in higher education.

By passing the Dream Act, lawmakers would encourage the children of illegal immigrants, many of whom have spent years in America's public schools, to follow the upward trajectories of their U.S. citizen classmates, starting with either a college degree or service in the U.S. military. Who can argue that the armed services couldn't benefit from an infusion of high quality, motivated recruits?

The anti-immigrant hard-core in this country has denounced the legislation as the "Nightmare Act,"warning that its passage would open the door to sweeping amnesty for all illegal immigrants. That's fear-mongering. Providing hope and opportunity to young men and women eager for a shot at the American Dream would strengthen, not weaken, this nation.

Eventually, Congress must tackle the problem of the 12 million undocumented, but approval of the Dream Act in no way commits lawmakers to mass amnesty.

By passing the Dream Act, lawmakers can send an important message that they haven't entirely lost their way on immigration - that they still believe in this nation's grand tradition of absorbing newcomers, of changing and being changed by them, and of eventually drawing them and their children - and their children's children - into American citizenship.