Post-DREAM Act: Is Real Immigration Reform Dead?

Building momentum for immigration reform in a new Congress
We need to encourage ambitious Students and selfless young heroes who volunteer to protect us.  That’s why I was so discouraged by the failure of the Senate to find Cloture on the DREAM Act.   Children in the U.S. should have the opportunity to fulfill their potential and contribute to the welfare and the security of this country.  It is absurd to punish children for the actions of their parents.  Children born outside the U.S. but raised here feel the same love for our 

Times Laments 'Painful Setback' to 'Dream Act' Amnesty for Illegals
Reporter Julia Preston’s “news analysis” on Sunday on the Senate the defeat of Legislation granting Amnesty to hundreds of thousands of Illegal Immigrants, known as the DREAM Act by supporters (“Immigration Vote Leaves Obama’s Policy in Disarray”) is a reversal of the emotion displayed in her previous celebratory coverage of even the puniest symbolic gatherings of pro-“Dream Act” Protesters involving as few as four Students. Preston seemed anguish...

DREAM Act Students Vow Revolution
Posing as a Civil Rights group, La Raza (The Race) advocates a "Reconquista" of the American southwest. Frustrated Hispanic Students have vowed revolution and retribution against White Americans after the so-called DREAM Act failed to pass a Senate vote this past weekend. “This is war!” Phoenix student Aldemar Cruz is quoted by Examiner.com as shouting after the vote. “Republicans may have stopped the DREAM Act, but they won’t prevent La Reconquista from happeni...

Dream Act backers hold vigil after defeat
by Eddi Trevizo - Dec. 19, 2010 10:15 PM Carlos Arguello, 19, fasted for six days while standing vigil outside Sen. John McCain's office in Phoenix in support of the DREAM Act. The measure, which would have granted a path to Citizenship for Young People brought into this country illegally as Children, failed by a five-vote margin in the Senate on Saturday. Despite that, Arguello told a gathering of supporters Sunday: "I feel more powerful than most people my age. Exposure is protection. Once you...

Undeterred, Students DREAM Up New Plan for 2012
Young immigrants who fought to get the DREAM Act passed will now focus on the 2012 Elections. After the disappointment of Saturday's blockage of the DREAM Act, College Students in Los Angeles are planning to take their fight to the states as their gear up for the 2012 Elections. It will be an uphill battle. The Senate vote Saturday to toss the proposal that would have granted young undocumented immigrants a route to legal status dealt a harsh blow to Student Activists who will face an even steep...

What the DREAM Act's failure means for Philadelphia
The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act - or DREAM Act - failed in the US Senate on Saturday and those of us who hang out in Conservative camps couldn't be happier. The DREAM Act was a nightmare to begin with as it allowed for backdoor Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants under the guise of giving Tuition benefits to the Children of illegals dragged over the border. Now some in Libertarian camps are pro-illegal immigrants (but, hey, they're also 9/11 Truthers and think that the Worl...

Dream on
Posted by Paul at 9:07 PM Yesterday, the Senate defeated the DREAM Act. During the build-up to the vote there were, as usual, warnings about the impact defeating this Legislation will have on the Republican Party's ability to win the votes of Hispanics. And, as usual, some of the warnings came from Democrats. For example, Chuck Schumer noted that the Hispanic vote was probably decisive in the re-election of Democratic Candidates for the Senate in Colorado and Nevada. And it could have been deci...

U.S. Congressman Gutierrez Wants to Hijack the Civil Rights Movement
United States Congressman Luis Gutierrez has threatened Civil Disobedience if the DREAM Act, which would have offered a pathway to American Citizenship to millions of Illegal Immigrants, is not passed into law. "We're going to make it uncomfortable for the Democratic Party," Gutierrez said, adding that Immigration advocates would step up the pressure by drawing lessons from the movements for Civil Rights and women's Suffrage. "There'll probably be civil disobedience. There will p...

Graham: DREAM Act push hurt wider immigration reform effort
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Saturday that the failed Democratic effort to pass the DREAM Act in the Lame Duck session dealt a blow to future talks on a wider Immigration Bill. “It was an exercise to try and taint Republicans with Hispanic voters, knowing that the DREAM Act under these circumstances could never pass,” Graham told reporters in the Capitol after the bill sputtered on the floor. “What they have done on the DREAM Act is hurt overall comprehensive Immigration Reform,

A procedural note about H.R. 5281 and the DREAM Act
There is a bit of confusion on the Internet that needs to be cleared up about the Democrats’ plans for the DREAM Act. A number of readers have pointed to a weekend post at FreeRepublic.com warning that the DREAM Act is “hidden” in another bill, H.R. 5281. Senate staff explained to me today that DREAM was passed as an amendment to HR 5281 in the House and it was sent over as a “message,” which gave it privileged status so the Senate didn’t have to vote on a motion to pro

Post-DREAM, What's the Next Immigration Battleground?
The DREAM Act died in the Senate on Saturday morning when Democrats were unable to get enough votes to overcome a Republican Filibuster. The vote was 55-41, meaning that supporters were five votes short. Few expected the Legislation to pass, so why did Senator Harry Reid decide to bring it up in the first place? The rationale was essentially political: First, it was meant to show Latinos and Immigration advocates that Democrats were willing to push for a tough vote on the issue. Obama's enforcem...

Students Look to 2012 After Immigration Bill Fails in Senate
Monday, December 20, 2010 By Amy Taxin, Associated Press 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 on Saturday, Dec. 18, 2010. The DREAM Act would give provisional legal status to Illegal Immigrants who were brought to the country as Children. (AP Photo/Jason Redmond) Los Angeles (AP) - Emboldened by months of phone calls to lawmakers, Hunger Strikes and sit-ins, a group...

Penlope Cruz Controversy Reveals Duplicity in Immigration Debate
Providing us with another convenient excuse to share an image of the radiant Penélope Cruz, some readers responded with indignation to last week’s post regarding the actress and her unborn child. The source of their angst was a position taken in defense of the term “Anchor Baby.” A conservative Hispanic group, Somos Republicans, took a hard stance against Fox News Latino for using the term in reference to Cruz’s unborn child, equating it to epithets like “wetback...

DREAM OVER: Senate Blocks Bill for Illegal Immigrants...
The vote by the Senate on Saturday to block a bill to grant legal status to hundreds of thousands of Illegal Immigrant Students was a painful setback to an emerging movement of immigrants and also appeared to leave the Immigration policy of the Obama Administration, which has supported the bill and the movement, in disarray. The bill, known as the DREAM Act, gained 55 votes in favor with 41 against, a tally short of the 60 votes needed to bring it to the floor for debate. Five Democrats broke r...

What now for the DREAM Act?
It may take awhile, but the DREAM Act will be back, and it will pass. The Senate vote Saturday to toss the proposal that would have granted young Illegal Immigrants a route to legal status dealt a harsh blow to Student Activists who will face an even steeper uphill battle in the next Congress. Immigrants see rough times ahead in the next two years, with many Republicans vowing to push for tougher Immigration enforcement, but they also say Latino voters are getting fed up with lawmakers at a t...

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...

Requiem for a DREAM Act
The DREAM Act, which would have provided de facto Amnesty for millions of Illegal Immigrants died in the Senate today, which is good for all of us. We simply can not ignore our own laws, especially Immigration laws, and hope to keep our nation intact. I feel for those people who were brought here illegally by their parents or relatives and who have grown up knowing only America as home. It’s not their fault they’re here and they are in a terrible position. Most of them have no desire...

Dream Act put to sleep, DADT is over
Harry Reid's pound of flesh to the Hispanic voters who helped him achieve victory in his tight Reelection effort, the DREAM Act, has been put to sleep in the US Senate. It failed to achieve the necessary 60 votes to move ahead. The Dream Act is simply a back door Amnesty plan for Illegal Immigrants. Meanwhile, the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" era of the U.S. Military is over. Gays will be able to serve openly in the Military now that the US Senate--with six Republicans joining the Democratic majori...

The Politics of Voting Down DREAM (The Atlantic Wire)
WASHINGTON, DC – Just hours before the Senate voted on Sunday to Repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Democrats lost a major piece of Legislation: the DREAM Act, which failed to overcome the threat of a Republican Filibuster. The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act would have provided a path to legal Citizenship for some Illegal Immigrants who had arrived in the U.S. as minors but went on to graduate from U.S. colleges or serve in the Military. Democrats pushed the bill as a ...

After DREAM Vote, Immigration Reform Unlikely This Year
Hopes of Immigration Reform this year were basically ended on Saturday. There's no other way to put it. Democrats came five voes short of passing the DREAM Act, which would give young Illegal Immigrants the chance to obtain green cards by going to college or serving in the Military. Trying to overcome the 60-vote threshold to end debate and advance to a final vote, Democrats came up short. What's perhaps most troubling is that five Democrats voted against the bill. They were: Jon Tester (MT) Ma...

Senate rejects DREAM Act, closing door on immigration reform for now
Senate Republicans and a handful of Democrats voted Saturday morning to block Legislation that would grant legal residency to Illegal Immigrants who came to the U.S. before the age of 16. The DREAM Act, which would give legal status to 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, fell five votes short of the 60 needed to overcome a GOP-led Filibuster — 55 to 41. Three...

The 111th Congress
Earlier this year, congressional scholar Norm Ornstein wrote a column arguing that despite record unpopularity and minority obstinacy, the 111th Congress has been almost unprecedentedly prolific. ...this Democratic Congress is on a path to become one of the most productive since the Great Society 89th Congress in 1965-66, and Obama already has the most legislative success of any modern president -- and that includes Ronald Reagan and Lyndon Johnson. That column was published on January 31. It's ...

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...

Kerry Rips McConnell On START: Just Because You Say It Doesnt Make It True
Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) confronted Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) immediately after he spoke on ratification of the New START Treaty this morning. McConnell’s complaints about the process being rushed were too much for Kerry, who had overseen the treaty’s ratification and has frequently bent over backwards to appease Republican concerns. Kerry ripped McConnell: I would say to my friend from Kentucky: Just because you say it, doesn’t make it true. Our friends on the oth...

Joe Lieberman spearheads 'Don't Ask' repeal, DREAM act dies
Well, I'll say this for Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), the only Orthodox Jew in the Senate: he lives up to his party label as “independent.” Just when it looked like he was just a hair's breadth from being a conservative Republican, he led the charge to Repeal the Military's Don't Ask Don't Tell policy, which passed both Houses of Congress over the weekend. This despite the fact that his best buddy and the guy he supported for the presidency in 2008, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), was po...