Perchance to DREAM

Should a child whose parents entered the country illegally be granted the privilege of enrolling in school here? ... As University of Houston law professor Olivas writes, there is widespread support both for a path to citizenship and for the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act and related legislation, which would both grant legal status to such children and allow them to enter school at resident rates of tuition... An accessible and pointed study in the law of both education and citizenship. ~Kirkus Reviews

Legal scholar and advocate Olivas offers a thorough and timely examination of the interwoven legal and political ramifications of court decisions and legislation related to the generation of undocumented immigrant children and youth who were the focus of state and federal Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Acts and eligible for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status...[This] work will further and aid in-depth research on U.S. history, law, politics of immigration, and higher education. ~Library Journal

This book covers the history of the DREAM Act—a legislative proposal to grant temporary residency to immigrants who entered the United States as minors—and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which the Obama administration began in response to Congress’s failure to pass immigration reform. University of Houston law professor Michael Olivas discusses how these initiatives have developed over the past 20 years and how the Trump administration’s anti-immigration policies have affected those the DREAM Act and DACA were intended to help. ~Trial Magazine

Michael Olivas, the nation’s leading expert on immigration law and higher education, offers the definitive history of the DREAM Act and DACA. But he does much more, analyzing the long and winding road that undocumented youth have traveled in their struggle for justice and inclusion. Full of arresting observations informed by a lifetime of work as law professor, public intellectual, and pioneering activist, Olivas tells this compelling story with unique insight and flair. ~Hiroshi Motomura, author of Immigration Outside the Law

Compassionately curated by a prolific expert on both immigration and education law and policy, Perchance to Dream gathers and narrates a complex interplay of U.S. law, politics, and (in)humanity with Dreamers at its core. Exhaustively researched and elegantly told, the complexity of this history gives way to the simplicity of human tragedy that envelops all of us—our many failed chances to honor the dreams of those merely seeking dignity and opportunity in our midst. Through it all, presidents have come and gone, senators have lived and died, immigrants have stayed or been deported, while those of us who believe in compassion have waited, perchance, for hearts and stars to align. ~Steven W. Bender, author of Mea Culpa: Lessons on Law and Regret from U.S. History

I can think of no better chronicler for the history of the DREAM Act and DACA than Michael A. Olivas. Having lived, researched, and taught during this history, Olivas goes well beneath the surface and uncovers the pains, talents, and hopes that America has witnessed and young immigrants have endured in search of a permanent solution. ~Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia, author of Banned: Immigration Enforcement in the Time of Trump

Offers a breathtaking blow-by-blow account of the DREAMer movement and emergence of the DACA policy. The book ends with the Trump immigration revolution, leaving DACA hanging by a thread. This incredible story thus is not yet done; we can only hope that Michael Olivas writes the next chapter. ~Kevin R. Johnson, Dean and Mabie-Apallas Professor of Law and Chicanx Studies, University of California, Davis School of Law

From separating families to banning Muslims to countless other cruelties, President Trump has claimed an almost limitless power to banish immigrants and refugees from our land. The nation’s leading expert on immigration enforcement eloquently exposes the illegality of these policies and their devastating impact on immigrant and refugee families. ~Stephen H. Legomsky, John S. Lehmann University Professor Emeritus, Washington University in St Louis School of Law

Perchance to Dream is a pioneering attempt to chart broadly the many attempts to pass the DREAM (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) Act. ~Southwestern Historical Quarterly