Durbin hopes to pass 'Dream Act' for illegal immigrants' children
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
September 20, 2010
By: Bill Lambrecht
WASHINGTON -- Hurdles remain for the controversial Dream Act, which would give children of undocumented immigrants conditional residency and a path to citizenship.
But Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the chief sponsor, worked this afternoon to round up supporters and expressed confidence that the long-debated measure could pass the Senate as early as this week.
"We have a tradition in America that we don't hold children responsible for the crimes and misdeeds of their parents," Durbin said in an interview.
Durbin, the Senate's assistant majority leader, acknowledged the twofold challenge ahead: He and other Democrats are attempting to amend the Dream Act to the Defense Department authorization bill.
But Republicans thus far have prevented the Senate from moving to the Pentagon legislation. A key obstacle is the repeal in the bill of the ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military.
A vote on taking up the defense bill is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. It remained unclear whether Democrats could muster the 60 votes needed to overcome a GOP-led filibuster.
Moving to the bill would open the door to adding the Dream Act, which Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said last week he planned to do.
Reid's announcement triggered heated exchanges on the Senate floor, with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., declaring: "I regret that the Armed Services Committee has evolved into a forum for the social agenda of the liberal left."
McCain once supported the Dream Act; backers of the legislation no longer count him in their corner.
The Dream Act would give children of undocumented immigrants six years of legal status to go to college or enter the military. That would let them qualify for government loans and resident tuition rates, usually out of their grasp.
Two years after entering college or the military, immigrants' children could qualify for a green card that would enable them to live in the U.S. legally and seek citizenship.
The bill could make it possible for some 2 million undocumented young immigrants to start moving toward citizenship.
The scope of the legislation is part of what troubles opponents, along with the specter of what is referred to as "back-door amnesty" and the prospect of people receiving government benefits to which they're not entitled.
The legislation came up eight votes short in the Senate three years ago.
Durbin said in the interview that if the vote occurs this week, he'll need several more Republicans on board because he's likely to lose some Democrats, among them Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb. Durbin's co-sponsor is a Republican -- Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana.
"We have a number of Republican senators in the conversational phase, but they're not with us yet," he said.
WASHINGTON -- Hurdles remain for the controversial Dream Act, which would give children of undocumented immigrants conditional residency and a path to citizenship.
But Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the chief sponsor, worked this afternoon to round up supporters and expressed confidence that the long-debated measure could pass the Senate as early as this week.
"We have a tradition in America that we don't hold children responsible for the crimes and misdeeds of their parents," Durbin said in an interview.
Durbin, the Senate's assistant majority leader, acknowledged the twofold challenge ahead: He and other Democrats are attempting to amend the Dream Act to the Defense Department authorization bill.
But Republicans thus far have prevented the Senate from moving to the Pentagon legislation. A key obstacle is the repeal in the bill of the ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military.
A vote on taking up the defense bill is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. It remained unclear whether Democrats could muster the 60 votes needed to overcome a GOP-led filibuster.
Moving to the bill would open the door to adding the Dream Act, which Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said last week he planned to do.
Reid's announcement triggered heated exchanges on the Senate floor, with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., declaring: "I regret that the Armed Services Committee has evolved into a forum for the social agenda of the liberal left."
McCain once supported the Dream Act; backers of the legislation no longer count him in their corner.
The Dream Act would give children of undocumented immigrants six years of legal status to go to college or enter the military. That would let them qualify for government loans and resident tuition rates, usually out of their grasp.
Two years after entering college or the military, immigrants' children could qualify for a green card that would enable them to live in the U.S. legally and seek citizenship.
The bill could make it possible for some 2 million undocumented young immigrants to start moving toward citizenship.
The scope of the legislation is part of what troubles opponents, along with the specter of what is referred to as "back-door amnesty" and the prospect of people receiving government benefits to which they're not entitled.
The legislation came up eight votes short in the Senate three years ago.
Durbin said in the interview that if the vote occurs this week, he'll need several more Republicans on board because he's likely to lose some Democrats, among them Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb. Durbin's co-sponsor is a Republican -- Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana.
"We have a number of Republican senators in the conversational phase, but they're not with us yet," he said.