Immigration Changes Give Youths Hope

Tony Choi poses at a bus stop in Palisades Park, N.J. Despite having a degree in political science and Spanish, the young man is unable to find legal employment and depends on public transportation because he cannot apply for a driver's license. A U.S. resident for 14 years, he is among the estimated hundreds of thousands of undocumented youth who were brought to this country by their parents.

—Emile Wamsteker for Education Week

By Lesli A. Maxwell

With more than 1.3 million undocumented young people now eligible to seek relief from deportation and gain work permits, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down much of Arizona's immigration law, some educators and advocates hope that more college and career opportunities will open up for youths who were brought illegally to the United States as children.

The June 15 announcement that President Barack Obama's administration would halt deportations of qualified undocumented youths younger than 30 and allow them to seek legal work permits bypasses Congress to implement portions of the DREAM Act , but falls well short of providing the path to citizenship proposed in that bill, which was blocked by Senate Republicans in 2010.

Under the administration's "deferred action" policy