The College Board endorsed a piece of federal legislation Tuesday that would allow undocumented immigrant students who have grown up in the U.S. to apply for conditional permanent resident status and to eventually become eligible for U.S. citizenship as long as they attend college.

Recently revised by a group of bipartisan congressional legislators, the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act would also allow undocumented students to pay in-state tuition to their respective college or university, barring no legal trouble and a diploma from a U.S. high school.

Only recently has The College Board started to take strong public positions on legislation related to college access and success, Jennifer Topiel, executive director of communications at The College Board, said in an e-mail to The Badger Herald.

Topiel said students who would benefit from this law would still have to perform well in high school to earn admission into postsecondary schools and would thereafter have to compete for financial aid.

According to the legislation, undocumented students would be eligible for work-study and student loans, and individual states would be able to provide their own forms of scholarship without government restriction. Illegal immigrants would not, however, be eligible to receive Pell Grants or certain other forms of federal financial aid.

“In other words, the DREAM Act would simply provide undocumented students with the legal right to pursue opportunities they have already earned for themselves,” Topiel said.

The 10 states that have passed laws allowing undocumented students to pay in-state tuition have not seen a greater financial burden, a large influx of immigrant students or displacement of native-born students, Topiel said.

Topiel added these 10 states, which include California, Texas and New York, are home to about half of the nation’s undocumented immigrants.

Rep. Spencer Black, D-Madison, a member of the Committee on Colleges and Universities, also voiced support for the DREAMS Act.

“I think these young people deserve a chance and should not be punished for what their parents may have done in the past,” Black said.

Black said he did not have a sense of whether the bill would pass in Congress because the vote totals are still up in the air.

Black said he could not comment any further on the bill.

According to The College Board report, 1.8 million undocumented children live in the U.S. Under the DREAM Act, more than 360,000 undocumented high school graduates would have a lawful way to receive additional funding for college, and 715,000 K-12 students would be motivated through incentives to graduate secondary school and pursue a college education.

“The DREAM Act is about providing equitable educational opportunities to all students, so this issue is entirely consistent with our mission,” Topiel said, “All young people should have access to education and hope for a better future.”