Editor's note: Ruben Navarrette Jr. is a nationally syndicated columnist, an NPR commentator and a regular contributor to CNN.com.
San Diego, California (CNN) -- The single most divisive immigration reform proposal out there isn't what you think it is.
It isn't what restrictionists call "amnesty" -- what the rest of us, who can think beyond sound bites, understand to be earned legal status for illegal immigrants. That concept gets the headlines, but it's not the one splitting allies down the middle in the immigration reform community.
That distinction goes to the DREAM Act, a bill that was first proposed back in 2007 but now seems headed to a vote in the Senate next week, thanks to a better-late-than-never push from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
DREAM stands for Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors, and it's the brainchild of Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, and Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Indiana. The bill targets young people who are in the country illegally, offering them "conditional permanent residency" if they arrived before they were 16 and if they attend college or serve in the military.
Once they graduate or complete their enlistment, they would get permanent legal residency with a chance to eventually apply for U.S. citizenship. Anyone who didn't participate by enrolling in college or joining the military would be subject to deportation.
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