Overview
- Sens. Dick Durbin, Lisa Murkowski and Alex Padilla filed the Dream Act of 2025, renewing a two-decade effort to provide legal status for immigrants brought to the U.S. as children.
- The proposal would let eligible childhood arrivals earn citizenship by meeting education, work or military service requirements and passing background checks.
- This iteration includes Documented Dreamers, offering up to eight years of conditional permanent residence and a route to a green card after set education, service or employment benchmarks.
- DACA’s future remains unsettled, with a January 5th Circuit decision preserving deportation protections but finding work authorization unlawful in Texas, and new applications have been blocked since 2021.
- Passage is seen as unlikely under Republican majorities and a hard-line immigration stance from the White House, even as reports note detentions of DACA recipients and Durbin nears retirement.