DREAM Act Dies In The Senate
The decade old DREAM Act, which would create a path to citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants, failed to pass a cloture vote in the Senate:
The Senate on Saturday blocked a bill that would create a path to citizenship for certain illegal immigrant students who came to the United States as children, completed two years of college or military service and met other requirements including passing a criminal background check. The vote, 55-41 in favor of the bill, effectively kills the measure for this year, and its fate beyond that is uncertain.
Most immediately, the measure would have helped grant legal status to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrant students and recent graduates whose lives are severely restricted because they are illegal residents, though many have lived in the United States for nearly their entire lives.
Young Hispanic men and women filled the spectator galleries of the Senate, many of them wore graduation caps and tassels in a symbol of their support for the bill. And they held hands in a prayerful gesture as the clerk called the roll .
The measure, known as the Dream Act, failed to get the support of 60 senators needed to cut off a filibuster and bring the bill to the floor.
This means that the measure is dead, not just in this session of Congress but also most likely in the incoming Congress as well. Given the current GOP position on immigration, a bill like this is unlikely to get a hearing no matter how much sense it makes.
