Gaby Pacheco, Carlos Roa, Felipe Matos and Juan Rodriguez, please take a bow.

Thanks to the efforts of these four Miami-area immigrants and Miami Dade College alums, who walked from Miami to Washington to plead their case for immigration reform in 2010, a version of the “Dream Act” is now a reality.

Many other young people from throughout the United States have been involved in pressing their members of Congress for action, but these four took great risks to get their message out. Some of them faced deportation back to their parents’ home country and were spared by various legal maneuvers, often with the help of South Florida’s Cuban-American lawmakers.

President Obama didn’t wait for Congress to pass the Dream Act proposal, which has long received bipartisan support but has been blocked by political machinations as tea party activists have hijacked the Republican Party. On Friday, he signed an executive order that would grant work permits to young adults brought to the United States before they turned 16 and who have been in this country for at least five years, with no criminal record. They must graduate high school or serve in the U.S. military to qualify.

It’s a shame that such a common-sense proposal — to legalize the status of young adults who were brought to this country by their parents when they were children and who often don’t even know that they are undocumented — has not been embraced by Congress. It’s a shame, too, that the president waited until just a few months before the presidential election to act. Clearly, there are political motivations on both sides of the aisle.

Nevertheless, for the 800,000 or so young adults under age 30 who likely will qualify to stay, study and work in this country through the president’s executive order (though without an automatic road to citizenship at this point), Mr. Obama’s action means they can finally move forward with their lives — and in this nation’s best interests.

America needs young people like Gaby (from Ecuador), Carlos (Venezuela), Felipe (Brazil), Juan (Colombia) and all those from Haiti, Jamaica, Mexico and the like to become scientists, teachers, lawyers, sales clerks and workers in every field. Indeed, as more Baby Boomers retire and Americans continue to have fewer children than in the past, there will be fewer American workers to shore up Social Security. That’s the most selfish of national interests for why the Dream Act makes sense.