Blog - DREAM Act Gets Its First Hearing Ever 
OpenCongress Blog
Blog Feed Comments Feed More RSS Feeds
DREAM Act Gets Its First Hearing Ever
June 29, 2011 - by Donny Shaw
The DREAM Act, a bill that would give citizenship status to some undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children, received its first ever Senate committee hearing yesterday. The bill has been stalled in Congress since 2001. Yesterday’s hearing indicates that Democrats, with support from the White House, are launching a major effort to rally support around this ahead of the 2012 elections.
The bill would establish a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants under the age of 35 who entered the country at age 15 or younger and have graduated high school, obtained a GED, or served two years in the military. Applicants for citizenship under the bill would have to meet certain criteria designed to prevent the bill from being exploited and to weed out applicants that have been in trouble with the law.
The bill has a long history of bipartisan support, but when Senate Democrats held a last-minute vote on the DREAM Act last year it failed to secure enough support to overcome a filibuster, with 4 Democrats voting in favor of the filibuster and 5 Republicans crossing the line to vote against the filibuster. They then tried to add it to the 2011 Defense Authorization bill, but that bill ended up being filibustered as well. Since then, the last remaining Republican supporter, Sen. Richard Lugar [R, IN], has backed away. The bill now has zero Republican co-sponsors.
Obviously, with no Republican support in the Senate and the House under Republican leadership, getting the DREAM Act through either chamber, let alone through both and signed into law, is going to be extremely difficult, if not impossible. Sen Dick Durbin [D, IL], the chief sponsor, told Politico that he was "going to look for the right opportunity to pass this bill and to have it signed by the president,” though he declined to comment on whether or not he would be trying to attach it to some other must-pass bill. No matter what happens, showing their support for this in what ever way they can will help Democrats shore up the Latino vote ahead of the election. With the chances for passage so slim, that may be what this is actually all about.
Get Blog Updates by Email
Want a simple way to stay on top of what's happening in Congress?
Subscribe to this blog!Send Us a Tip
-
I've been watching a lot of...
Submitted by Robert Schwartzman on Dec 9
-
Proposed Bill HR-2674 Prote...
Submitted by Mary on Jun 16
-
Amendment No. 601 to the Om...
Submitted by Winifred on Mar 3
You can submit a tip anonymously, or attributed to your own name and e-mail, whichever you prefer. Read more about submitting a tip.
Recent Posts
- Endless Blockade for the Senate ... January 25, 2013
- One Year Ago We Killed SOPA -- H... January 18, 2013
- Senate Democrats Looking to End ... January 08, 2013
- Welcome the 113th U.S. Congress:... January 03, 2013
- Secretive Conference Committee F... December 20, 2012
Archives
See All ArchivesBlogroll
- A plain blog about politics
- The Baseline Scenario
- Capital Eye
- The Caucus
- CBO Director's Blog
- Congress Matters
- The Corner
- CREW Blog
- Crooks and Liars
- Jamie Dupree
- Election Law Blog
- FDL News Desk
- Glenn Greenwald
- Hot Air
- Irregular Times
- Little Sis
- Naked Capitalism
- The Moderate Voice
- OMB Watch
- Open House Project
- Party Time
- Plum Line
- Political Animal
- Political Wire
- ProPublica
- Real Clear Politics
- RedState
- Secrecy News
- Sunlight Foundation Blog
- Talking Points Memo
- techPresident
- 2chambers
- Unanimous Consent
- The Weekly Standard
Sort By
Comments
Spam Comment
Spam Comment
“The only difference that Dream Act will make is transform these people from productive undocumented immigrants into productive tax paying citizens.” – all immigrants before them have had to follow rules already in place for becoming legal immigrants – why are these rules not good enough?
Why does opencongress not record all pluses as a plus – ??? I try to agree with some commenters, and the rating goes down rather than up.
Sheesh. There is a lot of FUD in these comments.
The current revision of the Dream Act has fixed all of the concerns which have been raised about previous revisions. Some of which date back almost 10 years ago. Yet, many people still claim that today’s revision is no different than the original which is simply not true.
In other words, to those reading these comments, be careful what you believe. The current revision is not mass amnesty by any means. Those who may qualify are the kids who were brought here with no choice. Even then they have to prove themselves to be the kind of citizen which is more productive and less of a threat to society than many other Americans. They have to go to college or the military and succeed to qualify.
The only difference that Dream Act will make is transform these people from productive undocumented immigrants into productive tax paying citizens.
Here is a solution; Let’s hunt them down and remove them from our society, or put them in Concentration camps.
That would make you guys happy.. Wouldn’t?
Evidently this act gives illegals the opportunity to go to college, thereby find a job that legal immigrants may not be qualified for. – it sounds like a dream for the illegals, although talk is cheap, and believing false prophets is dangerous; how’s government healthscare working out for those that legally receive these “services”?
-creatingorwellianworld-view-alaphiah.blogspot.com/2010/12/Creating Orwellian World-view by Machiavellianism – “Exploring Orwellian attempts of changing the American society through legal coercion,politically correct language and political Fascis …” December 09, 2010
- colorlines-com/archives/HOUSE PASSES DREAM ACT!! December 8 2010 “… [The DREAM Act] hurts American workers, rewards lawbreakers. The nation has an unemployment rate of 9.8 percent, has exceeded 9.5 percent for 16 months, the longest stretch since the Great Depression. The DREAM Act makes illegal immigrants eligible to work legally in the United States…”
@bluezook … you answered your own question. they have no intention of verifying anything, because they don’t give 2 hoots about this Republic or our laws. they are openly & notoriously violating our laws with the express purpose of destroying America from the inside!
this gov’t is infuriating, but the people who elected these fools & continue to support the destruction of America because they think they are entitled to something they’ve not earned, or just plain don’t want to work are far more infuriating!
Spam Comment
Great docs … thanks for the info!!
Spam Comment
Question: how does our inept government plan on verifying whether or not an UNDOCUMENTED 30 year old has been in the country since they were 16?
Also, the previous “last ever” amnesty was in 1986 so this bill overlaps the “last” amnesty.
Why even have laws? This government disgusts me.
Spam Comment
Spam Comment
Spam Comment
The Dream Act will qualify millions more illegals than what is stated above. And if they were such good people, they would have already applied for citizenship, so this nothing more than a mass amnesty!!! Those over 18 have “chosen” to be in this country illegally, therefore should not get citizenship!!
And there is NO WAY to background check millions of illegals in a timely manner so they will circumvent the process and just give them ID’s and that is something nobody should accept! They WILL BE giving murderers, rapists, molesters, ID theft criminals and others the ability to roam our streets legally, and finding them when their true background is realized will be next to impossible!!
Didn’t this used to be called a “publicity stunt”? I mean, c’mon, Eva Longoria and other Latino celebrities are pushing this after a meeting at the White House in late April. That’s not serious business, that’s PR.