Miami Republicans back DREAM Act for immigrants

While a conservative resurgence this year has discouraged prospects for immigration reform, Cuban-American Republicans from Miami are swimming against the tide by backing a bill that would give a break to the children of illegal immigrants.

Reform advocates this week touted comments by Republican U.S. Reps. Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Cuban-Americans from Miami, in support of the proposed DREAM Act. The bill would allow immigrant children to remain in this country to serve in the military and attend college.

Diaz-Balart -- who refused to sign the Republican Contract with America in the 1990s because he thought it embraced anti-immigrant policies -- called upon House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to bring the DREAM Act to a vote during the lame-duck session.

America’s Voice – a Washington advocacy group pushing hard for broader reforms that include a path to citizenship for millions of illegal residents – also cited support for the DREAM Act from Republican congressman-elect David Rivera of Miami.

“The drumbeat is getting louder,” said Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice. “Now is the time for Congress to step up to the plate and secure America's future with the extremely popular, bipartisan DREAM Act.”

Cuban-Americans are not directly affected by most immigration legislation because arrivals from Cuba are given legal status once they set foot in this country. The Cuban-Americans in Congress, nonetheless, represent large numbers of immigrants from other countries and often express solidarity with their causes.

The Cuban-Americans generally vote the same as their Republican colleagues on most issues but often follow a different path on immigration matters.

Diaz-Balart, who is retiring from Congress, represents a district that includes parts of Miami-Dade and Broward counties.


http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/dcblog/2010/11/miami_republicans_back_dream_a_1.html

To be fair, you should list the source...Kim

Where is this article cited it is good news dont get me wrong but how true is this??

Jesus you two, copy and paste the article's title to google. It took me 0.3 seconds to find it

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news...dream_a_1.html

hahaha cookieeater you're great!

Do you know what getting endorsement from Miami Republicans is like for the Dream Act? It's like not getting an endorsement.

They don't matter and nobody cares. It does nothing for us. Call the senators and cable news agencies to vote for the dream act and cover the story.

Cuban-Americans are immensely loyal republican voters, they will overlook a lot of stuff and they have a tendency of voting regularly, if they don't like an issue and there is reason to believe that they may switch sides (extremely unlikely) or that they won't vote, then for a state like florida which has had the tendency of playing hugely in past presidential elections, then this stance might help GOP reconsider their positions if they want to win the next presidential election. Recall... Al Gore lost his presidential elections due to a few hundred votes in Florida.

BTW, the governor race was extremely close, I believe it was 51% republican, as for the senate race, Rubio did have very strong arguments across the board, it was not just on immigration that he won, and he did have to soften his immigration stance somewhat.