Durbin proposes a sit down with Kyl on immigration

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefi...-down-with-kyl

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin on Sunday asked Minority Whip Jon Kyl to sit down and talk about comprehensive immigration reform.

The duo, appearing on "Fox News Sunday," didn't agree on much when discussing immigration -- Kyl said border security is the first priority and Durbin pressed for passage of the DREAM Act -- but Durbin made a pitch.

"Here is the offer I'll make to Jon Kyl and John McCain. I will sit down with you, I will work with you to have border security beyond what the president has done," Durbin said. "I will go even further to make sure that our border is safe, and to stop, as much as humanly possible, illegal immigration, if you will join with us in comprehensive immigration reform so that we can identify those living in this country, we can give the children under the DREAM Act an opportunity to have a good life in this country, and we can finally fix this broken system in good faith."

Kyl responded, "Dick Durbin and I sat down before to talk about things, and I'm very happy to do it on this very important issue. But I will say, we have got to secure the border in order to achieve these other results as well."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has vowed to hold a vote the DREAM Act, legislation creating a route to legal residency — and ultimately citizenship — for illegal-immigrant students.

The latest version of the DREAM Act, introduced Wednesday by Durbin, is nearly identical to last year's House-passed proposal which failed to pass the Senate. It offers a pathway to citizenship for between 1 million and 2 million illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. before the age of 16, have lived in the country at least five years, have a high school diploma or the equivalent, and enter college or join the military.

Like the House-passed bill, beneficiaries would be ineligible for Pell grants and must be able to read, write and speak English. Those stipulations were added last year to attract support from Republicans, most of whom characterize the DREAM Act as an amnesty bill that rewards those who broke the law when they entered the country.

damn as i said Pass mcCain 10 point boarder secure bill first and see what is going on

Exactly, give the GOP their sense of closure and give us our dream acr thats the ONLY way I see the GOP members coming even close to voting yes on the Dream Act we need a border security amendment attached to it.

I agree, we should focus more on getting senators to vote for any type of border legistation, and then we'll have a hell of a better chance to pass the DA.

Durbin is already getting down to business which is good.

go Durbin, dreamers in Arizona should bring this information up to each of their offices, just to push them again.

If we give the GOP what they want they won't give us anything in return. The 10 Border plan should be attached to Dream act and AJJObs otherwise they'll just give us lip service .

Obama/Durbin 2012

I hope when everybody says that we should give GOP what they want, I hope you guys mean the same thing as hgr. Or else, they will just get the border security and then not pass the dream act. Just making sure.

You have to attach the McCain/kyle plan to something. If you pass just the McCain/Kyle plan by itself, the GOP will come up with some form of excuse next time you try to pass a legalization program.