Despite the great deal of attention on illegal immigration, most people never have heard of the DREAM Act. The act, which likely will face a vote in the U.S. Senate sometime next week, would grant temporary legal status to illegal aliens who entered the U.S. before their 16th birthday and have been in the country for at least five years. Immigrants could then earn permanent resident status by attending college or university, or serving in the U.S. military.

It was attached as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization budget for fiscal year 2011 because, as David Thronson, an MSU professor of law and immigration law specialist, pointed out, “That’s a common legislative tactic for anything, to attach provisions to bills that are must-pass bills. Attaching it is a way to get it to vote.”

In other words, illegal immigration is such a divisive issue that no politician wants to touch it. It seems like the pressing issues should be the ones politicians attempt to tackle, but if sneaking things in is the only way to get them done, so be it.

That being said, the DREAM Act needs to be passed. The reasons lie beneath the xenophobia and worries about job security; this is about what it means to be an American and the government’s role in facilitating it.

First, being American isn’t about any one thing. There is no one thing that unites all of us, no one cause we all feel is worth dying for. We don’t all speak the same language or have the same opportunities. Being American is partly about birthright. That is, being lucky enough to be born here. The other is growing up with the idea of an “American Dream.”

Illegal immigrants clearly don’t fulfill the first criteria. The second, however, is debatable. A child raised here from a young age, indoctrinated with the same values and dogma we all receive, is no less an American than someone who, through no conscious act of his or her own, was born here. Children who come here with their families, who work, learn and are brought up with “American” values are, for all intents and purposes, Americans.

What the DREAM Act does is bring the law into line with social realities. Instead of sitting back and doing nothing, the government will be able to actively administer aid to a segment of the population that prescribes to the same work ethic as the rest of us, but reaps very little of the benefits.

This amendment isn’t about illegal immigration. It’s about finding a way to lessen collateral damage. It gives a choice to children who never had one in the first place. This is supposedly the land of opportunity for everyone, not only the happy accidents.