Reid embraces House version of DREAM Act
By Erin Kelly, Gannett News Service
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate on Thursday postponed until next week a vote on the DREAM Act, which would allow young immigrants brought to this country illegally as children to earn legal status if they attend college or serve in the U.S. military.
The Senate had been scheduled to vote on its version of the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act on Thursday morning. But U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., announced that he wanted to scrap the Senate version in favor of a different version passed Wednesday night by the U.S. House.
Wednesday’s vote was the first time the House has approved the DREAM Act in the 10 years since the legislation was first introduced in early 2001.
Now, if Reid manages to wrangle enough votes for the bill, it can go straight to Democratic President Barack Obama for his signature instead of having to go back to the House.
Reid won a 59-40 vote Thursday to table the Senate version of the bill.
The 1986 immigration act was sold as the last and final amnesty. Harry Reid is such a wonderful person to lead the US to new heights of wonderfulness.
The previous immigration laws neglected to take care of the children. Thousands of children were brought into our country by their parents. This country is the only home they know. After these kids go through elementary school, middle school and high school, they are not allowed to enter college because they don’t have citizenship papers. The colleges that do accept them make them pay out-of-state student fees. Personally, I feel this is a waste or brainpower. Some of these intelligent students end up in other countries and these other countries benefit from their education.
SLT Latino Affairs Commissioner.
Since 1986? That doesn’t quite work out, Ernie. Any children, even of college age, were not brought by parents pre-86. As was pointed out, that amnesty was supposed to be IT. Done. Anybody else who has come in since then should have done it legally or not at all. Why should we reward criminal behavior? And this doesn’t apply just to folks from south of the border. There are lots of Canadians, Irish, and others who have broken our immigration laws as well and need to be sent home.
The criminals are all of the employers who employ these workers illegally so they don’t have to pay market wages, benefits, workers comp. This is just another abuse of labor issue in a a long history of putting business, profits and more wealth for the wealthy first and the well being of workers last. If the employers would pay market wages to hire legal residents, there would be no market for illegal labor. yes, food may cost 5 times what it does now but won’t all of you pay that to know that no illegal practices were involved in its production?
Does it really make any sense, though, I wonder, not to allow the undocumented children to become legalized, after our tax dollars have educated them in our local community school systems? (And our undocumented youth are not just latino, by the way.) I believe that there is a provision in the proposed Dream Act that stipulates if any candidate has a record of criminal activity, they do not qualify. Also, their residency or citizenship would be revoked if there is any criminal activity for up to 10 years after it is granted. After we have invested so much in them, wouldn’t it be wasteful to let the best & the brightest go, only because all doors become closed to them once they graduate high school, and they feel forced to move on, just like their parents did, in search of a better life?
This great country of ours, the “melting pot” & “salad bowl” was formed and built by immigrants. Who among us can trace our family tree back to native American roots?