The DREAM Act must pass to give young people a future.

BY Friday, Washington state will lose another bright young mind. Jorge Alonso-Chehade will have to leave the country, bound for Peru.

His family brought him, as a child, to the Puget Sound area where he learned English, excelled in school and graduated from the University of Washington.

He is among thousands of young people who, through no fault of their own, do not have legal authorization to live in the United States. Yet many succeed. Acknowledging this reality, the state Legislature voted to charge these students in-state tuition at public colleges and universities.

But that doesn't resolve the longer-term prospects for these young people. Congress can do that but has failed, since 2001, to pass the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act. The DREAM Act is an elegant solution that gives young people with good moral character and academic success or military service the right to earn legal status. The bill has been a casualty of the larger, bitter immigration debate but it has broad bipartisan support, including both of Washington's U.S. senators and President Obama.

Alonso has his education but he won't be giving back to the community he embraced. A wrong turn on a car trip landed him at the Canadian border, where border agents discovered he was not a legal U.S. resident. Under voluntary departure, Alonso must leave by Friday or face more severe penalties.

This reality squanders human potential, not to mention the investment Washington taxpayers have made in Alonso's education. Better that he and others like him have the opportunity to give back to the communities they have embraced.