INDIANAPOLIS | State Rep. Mara Candelaria Reardon, D-Munster, and a handful of her colleagues are calling on Congress to create a clearer path to citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants.

U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., has introduced federal legislation that would extend six years of temporary residency to immigrant children who plan to attend college or enlist in the military after graduating high school. To remain in the country -- and on the path to citizenship -- they would have to earn an associate degree or complete two years of military service.

"It's not a free pass," Candelaria Reardon said Wednesday at a Statehouse news conference. "It's about doing the right thing."

The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors -- or DREAM -- Act, is similar to measures introduced in past sessions of Congress. The proposed law would affirm state rights to extend in-state college tuition rates to the immigrant children who came to the United States before age 16.

"This is for the little kids," said Javier Cerdantes, a Mexican immigrant who said he will graduate from Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis next month. "They don't tell you they want to be a doctor or a lawyer. They just want to be documented."