Dream Act Headed for Senate Vote

[Lasher]

Source: New York Times

Latino leaders have turned up the pressure on senators facing a vote on Saturday on a bill that would grant legal status to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrant students, saying support of the measure will be used as a litmus test by Latino voters in the 2012 elections.

Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, scheduled the vote on the student measure, which is known as the Dream Act late on Thursday. The Senate will vote on a version of the bill that passed the House of Representatives on Dec. 8.

The bill gained some momentum after passing the House by 20 votes, including eight Republicans, a wider margin than its supporters had expected. But on Friday the Senate count appeared to be short of the 60 votes Democrats need to bring the bill to the floor for debate. Its sponsors, including Senator Reid and Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois, the second highest Democratic leader, acknowledged they faced an uphill climb.

Latino advocates have been in high gear all week.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/18/us/politics/18immig.html

[COLGATE4]

1. Where is Obama using his 'bully pulpit' on this issue? As far as

I have seen, the silence on Dream Act from the White House is deafening.

[demwing]

2. Maybe Latinos just aren't rich enough

Billionaires seem to get the President's attention, Subsequently, Congress gets those "End of my Presidency" phone calls...

[Rex]

3. Not millionaires, billionaires.

Millionaires are the small business people supposedly holding our fragile system together.

[demwing]

4. Point taken, message updated /nt

[IamK]

8. +1

[Kali]

5. all the blather about bootstraps and hard work don't apply to young people who actually do it.

[erodriguez]

6. The dream act is just that...a dream. This is going to go the way of DADT repeal.

I hate to be pessimistic, but as a Latino I've learned not to get my hopes up.

It all comes down a simple truth... the GOP is the party for rich white people.
Latinos aren't white and most are not rich.

[Lasher]

9. Not exactly. The DREAM act is toast but it looks like DADT repeal is going to fly.

Your pessimism about the DREAM act was justified. I don't blame you for that, I've turned into quite the pessimist myself.

[pampango]

7. "Obama making DREAM Act calls"

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/7345045.html

"The Obama administration and Latino rights groups Friday made an 11th-hour plea to lawmakers as the Senate prepared to vote on a contentious immigration bill that could provide citizenship to foreign-born immigrants.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., plans to hold a Senate vote on a procedural measure today to cut off a Republican filibuster and move the so-called DREAM Act to the full Senate for approval.

Supporters of the bill concede they lack the 60 votes needed to cut off debate, but they spent the waning hours making telephone calls to more than a half dozen Senate Republicans seeking their support for the bill.

President Barack Obama was calling lawmakers, urging them to vote for the Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors Act, said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs."

Sounds like the repub filibuster is likely to succeed. :(