DREAM Act fails in Senate

DREAM Act would have been a nightmare
With all of its good intentions the DREAM Act or the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, would have been almost impossible to enforce.  It was a massive Amnesty that would have extended amnesty to the millions of Illegal Aliens who "through no fault of their own", (sins of the father clause) - entered the United States before the age of 16. The illegal alien who applies for this Amnesty is immediately rewarded with “conditional” lawf...

The power of strong tea
The Power of Strong Tea by digby If you want to understand the power of the Tea Party, and more importantly, the power of winning primary battles, read this postmortem on the defeat of the DREAM Act. They tried mightily to convert the many vulnerable 2012 Democrats with threats, but were only successful in a handful. But they converted nearly every 2012 Republican who had previously supported Immigration Reform. I suspect one of the reason we did so much better with the smaller group of Repub...

The Dream Act is dead. Long live the Dream Act
The DREAM Act is dead.  Long live the Dream Act. Just kidding, the DREAM Act isn’t really dead, it is undead.   Unlike the zombies of fiction in TV and movies, this zombie is real and it will return, I guarantee it.  But for now at least this piece of junk Legislation, this sewage, this deceitful lie from its very inception, won’t be threatening our Sovereignty or occupying Activists time.   And our email accounts will, temporarily, cease to be...

Republicans crush Dream Act in Senate
WASHINGTON — A last-ditch Democratic effort to establish a path to Citizenship for some Children of undocumented immigrants failed in the Senate on Saturday, likely derailing any attempt at sweeping Immigration Reform in Congress for the foreseeable future. The bill, known as the DREAM Act, had passed the House, and its advocates and Democratic sponsors hoped that they could muster enough Republican votes to bring the Legislation to the floor. Instead, it fell Victim to a GOP Filibuster, ...

The DREAM Will Never Die: Senate Blocks The DREAM Act 55-41
Above are Renata and Ada repping the Student Immigrant Movement, which I am a proud member of, but see this post from United We Dream for more reflections from the leaders of the migrant youth movement. By now you've probably heard that the DREAM Act was blocked in the U.S. Senate by five Democrats and 36 Republicans. Before I continue I want to be clear about what happened: Everywhere I look Mainstream Media who up until this point as all but ignored the migrant youth movement is writing he...

Post-DREAM Act: Is Real Immigration Reform Dead?
The failure of the Senate to achieve Cloture on the DREAM Act has not ended the Immigration debate. Politically, both sides will attempt to capitalize on this vote.  Democrats will argue that they are the only ones who care about the Hispanic community, while Republicans will claim that they are the only ones serious about enforcement.  But from a policy perspective, where might the debate go during the next Congress with Republicans running the House and a stronger GOP presence in the Senat...

DREAM Act Goes Down in Flames in Senate
Undocumented Students push for the DREAM Act at a New York rally. An Immigration Bill that would blaze a trail to legal status for hundreds of thousands of undocumented Students went down in flames in the Senate on Saturday, delivering a critical blow to Democrats and Hispanic Activists. Even though the House approved the DREAM Act last week, the Senate fell five votes short of the 60 needed Saturday to advance the bill past Republican opposition. President Obama said in a statement it was "incr...

"Dream Act" immigration bill blocked in Senate (Reuters)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Controversial measure providing a pathway to Citizenship for Illegal Immigrants who came to the United States as Children was dealt a death blow in the Senate on Saturday by Republicans who said it would reward illegal activity. The so-called "DREAM Act" passed the House of Representatives earlier this month, but it failed to gain the 60 votes necessary to overcome opposition in the 100-member Senate. President Barack Obama and Democratic supporters vow...

Students look to 2012 after immigration bill fails
Undocumented UCLA Student Leslie Perez, 22, weeps while watching a televised debate of the DREAM Act in the Senate at the UCLA Downtown Labor Center in Los Angeles, Saturday, Dec. 18, 2010. Perez is an undocumented Student at UCLA. The DREAM Act would give provisional legal status to Illegal Immigrants brought to the country as Children. Emboldened by months of phone calls to lawmakers, Hunger Strikes and sit-ins, a group of College Students and graduates in Los Angeles say they plan to take th...

Dream Act fails to advance in Senate
Reporting from Washington and Los Angeles — The Senate rejected a path to Citizenship for some Illegal Immigrants on Saturday, a defeat that pushes any effort to reform Immigration into the next Congress where Conservatives will have even more influence. In a 55-41 vote, senators failed to advance the DREAM Act, which would have provided a way to legalize those immigrants who arrived in the United States illegally as Children and who attend college or serve in the Military. Three Republ...

Harry Reid, DREAM ON Dream Act Blocked by US Senate 55 to 41
Hey Harry Reid and Democrats … DREAM ON!   “Dream On” - Live from Aerosmith Boston 2009 The  DREAM Act once again failed to break a Filibuster in the Senate on Saturday morning, effectively killing the bill this year. The next time this will be an issue is the 2012 election. The Senate blocked the Dream Act, a bill that was nothing more than backdoor Amnesty ,  that  would have created a path to Citizenship for certain young Illegal Immigrants wh

Lame duck Senate kills the DREAM Act
This has been a pretty good week to be a conservative. First Harry Reid was forced to kill his $1 Trillion, 2,000 page, earmark laden spending bill which nobody had a chance to read, and yesterday the Lame Duck Senate failed to get the 60 votes necessary for Cloture on the DREAM Act, killing this bill for the foreseeable future.   The DREAM Act is probably the one piece of Legislation that I feared the Lame Duck Senate might be able to ram through before the new Congress...

Senate Roll Call: Falling short on Dream Act
The 55-41 roll call Saturday by which the Senate voted to pass the DREAM Act, which would give hundreds of thousands of young Illegal Immigrants a path to legal status if they enrolled in college or joined the Armed Forces. The vote fell five short of the 60 needed to enact the Legislation before Republicans take over the House and narrow Democrats' majority in the Senate next month. A "yes" vote is a vote to pass the bill. Voting yes were 50 Democrats, 3 Republicans and 2 Independents. Voting n...

Senate roll vote on Dream Act immigration changes
The 55-41 roll call Saturday by which the Senate voted to pass the DREAM Act, which would give hundreds of thousands of young Illegal Immigrants a path to legal status if they enrolled in college or joined the Armed Forces. The vote fell five short of the 60 needed to enact the Legislation before Republicans take over the House and narrow Democrats' majority in the Senate next month. A "yes" vote is a vote to pass the bill. Voting yes were 50 Democrats, 3 Republicans and 2 Independents. Voting n...

Republicans block DREAM Act from advancing in Senate
The Senate failed to overcome a Republican Filibuster of the DREAM Act on Saturday, giving a setback to a major policy issue of Democrats, Latinos and Immigration Reform supporters. The DREAM Act would give Illegal Immigrants who came to the country at a young age, lived here for at least five years, graduated from High School and attended college or served in the Military a pathway toward Citizenship. By a 55-41 vote, it was five votes short of the 60 it needed to advance. In the end, three Rep...

Senate Roll Call: Falling short on Dream Act
-- The 55-41 roll call Saturday by which the Senate voted to pass the DREAM Act, which would give hundreds of thousands of young Illegal Immigrants a path to legal status if they enrolled in college or joined the Armed Forces. The vote fell five short of the 60 needed to enact the Legislation before Republicans take over the House and narrow Democrats' majority in the Senate next month. A "yes" vote is a vote to pass the bill. Voting yes were 50 Democrats, 3 Republicans and 2 indep...

Sunday Show Guests Assail Republicans For Blocking The DREAM Act
Yesterday, Senate Republicans blocked the DREAM Act from securing 60 votes to pass Cloture, denying hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants a path to legal status if they enrolled in college or joined the Military. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) even said yesterday on the Senate floor that young people lobbying his office had wasted their time. Today on the Sunday political Talk Shows, guests from a wide array of the ideological spectrum assailed the GOP for blocking the measure: ...

Statement on Senate's DREAM Act Failure
From Mark Silverman of the Immigrant Legal Resource Center: Statement on the Senate’s Failure to Pass the DREAM Act by Mark Silverman, Director of Immigration Policy, Immigrant Legal Resource Center The vote for the DREAM Act failed   in the Senate to advance the DREAM failed today, December 18th.  A majority of the senators voted for the DREAM Act today.  But the vote of 55-41 in favor of the DREAM Act was five votes short of the 60 required because of the Senates ou...

Pro-immigration groups decry 'shameful' vote; enforcement groups vow new push
An anti-illegal Immigration group said after Saturday's defeat of the DREAM Act in the Senate that "we look forward to moving aggressively to offense." "Now, the next Congress can start to put unemployed Americans back to work by eliminating the ability for Illegal Aliens to hold jobs and by reducing the number of unnecessary permanent foreign workers we currently bring in legally every month," Roy Beck, president and founder of NumbersUSA, said in a statement minutes after the Senate voted 55...

A 'thank you' on DADT repeal and an appeal on DREAM to NC Senators Burr and Hagan
It was a complete surprise to see that 0% HRC-rated Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) actually voted to Repeal DADT yesterday, and I just wanted to concur with this statement from Faith in America: Sens. Hagan, Burr thanked for courageous votes Faith in America in a statement Saturday thanked North Carolina's U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan and U.S. Sen. Richard Burr for their vote to Repeal the U.S. Military's "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy. "Today's vote in the U.S. Senate is a monumental achievement in the...

Former Central Valley student killed in Afghanistan
Simonetta played on Central Valley’s junior varsity football team. Simonetta played on Central Valley’s junior varsity football team. A former north state man was one of six U.S. Soldiers killed Sunday when a van packed with explosives was detonated at a jointly operated outpost in southern Afghanistan. Spc. Derek Todd Simonetta, 21, of Redwood City, was among those who died in the attack, and four other American Soldiers were wounded, the U.S. Department of Defense announced Tuesday...

Youth immigration bill falls five votes short of passage
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans yesterday doomed an effort that would have given hundreds of thousands of young Illegal Immigrants a path to legal status if they enrolled in college or joined the Military. Sponsors of the DREAM Act fell five votes short of the 60 they needed to break through largely GOP opposition and win its enactment before Republicans take over the House and narrow Democrats’ majority in the Senate next month. President Obama called the vote “incredibly dis...

GOP blocks path to citizenship for young illegal immigrants
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans on Saturday doomed an effort that would have given hundreds of thousands of young Illegal Immigrants a path to legal status if they enrolled in college or joined the Military. Sponsors of the DREAM Act fell five votes short of the 60 they needed to break through largely GOP opposition and win its enactment before Republicans take over the House and narrow Democrats' majority in the Senate next month. President Barack Obama called the vote "incredibly d...

"Dream Act" immigration bill blocked in Senate
WASHINGTON | Sat Dec 18, 2010 11:49am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Controversial measure providing a pathway to Citizenship for Illegal Immigrants who came to the United States as Children was dealt a death blow in the U.S. Senate on Friday by Republicans who said it would reward illegal activity. The so-called "DREAM Act" passed the House of Representatives earlier this month, but it failed in the Senate. The Legislation would provide legal residency to Young People who came to the United St...

Midday Open Thread
DADT is dead, 17 years too late. After much trial and with much tribulation, President Obama and Majority Leader Reid kept a crucial campaign promise and advanced equality in our country. Welcome to the thread. The Christian conservative right considers this the end of America. This is worth reprinting at length for the sheer hilarity. This isn’t a game, and the Military should never be used, as is now being done, for massive social re-engineering. The new Marine motto: “The Few, ...