Immigrant activists launch suit against U.S. Senate

A group of college graduates who are in the country illegally, politicians and a watchdog group announced Tuesday that they are suing the U.S. Senate for using the filibuster rule to prevent passage of a bill that would have given them a pathway to U.S. citizenship.
Young immigrant rights activists joined by allies from the Common Cause group and political supporters discussed the filing of the lawsuit at a Washington, D.C. press conference. They said they launched the suit on Monday to challenge the constitutionality of the U.S. Senate's filibuster rules, which require routine 60-vote thresholds for bills and nominations that often have majority support.

In 2010, the DREAM Act reached the U.S. House and Senate but was defeated after a filibuster. The DREAM Act would have given some college graduates and military hopefuls who are in the country illegally a chance at legal residency and eventually citizenship.
"The lives of thousands of youth from all over the country, who constantly live in fear of deportation, were depending on this legislation to pass," the group said in a prepared statement. "However, despite the fact that 70 percent of Americans support the DREAM Act and the House passed the bill with a majority vote, it failed to pass in the Senate due to the filibuster rule. Although a majority, 55 Senators, voted yes, a minority blocked this DREAM from becoming a reality."
Anti-illegal immigration activist Barbara Coe, who heads a group in Huntington Beach, said she's not too worried about the suit.
"I would be very, very surprised if a lawsuit against the Senate is going to be successful because they are pretty much protected," said Coe, who leads California Coalition for Immigration Reform.
She and other anti-illegal immigration activists have called the DREAM Act bill a provisional amnesty, stating that it was flawed and contained major loopholes.
"I am obviously anti-Dream Act in any way shape or form so whatever techniques are available to defeat it, we're obliviously going to support," she added.
Plaintiffs Erika Andiola, Ceasar Vargas and Celso Mireles are three college graduates who are in the country illegally. They were brought as children to the U.S. from Mexico by their parents. Each earned a college degree with honors and would be on track to become a U.S. citizen if the DREAM Act had passed.
The activists stated that the filibuster rule routinely shuts down debate, preventing lawmakers from doing their jobs and makes a mockery of the legislative process, according to a report about the presser in Politico.com.
Common Cause, a non-partisan watchdog group, was the lead plaintiff of the suit. Other plaintiffs in the case also include Rep. Michael Michaud, (D-ME), Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) and the three college graduates
The bill, defeated in 2010, would have allowed students who are in the country illegally and who have finished at least two years of college or military service to apply for legal status. The bill would have also protect them from deportation and made them eligible for student loans and federal work study programs.
Those who would have qualified are students who had lived here at least five years before the bill were enacted into law and have arrived before they were 16. Applicants would have also needed to be younger than 36.
Still, the bill opponents said the bill didn't have enough safeguards to keep applicants from lying about when they first came to this country.
In addition, some immigration enforcement activists said, the bill would encourage chain-migration, in which students would eventually be able to sponsor parents who are in the country illegally for U.S. citizenship.
However, it's not an automatic process and that applicants would have to wait to gain legal status first and then wait five years before they would be eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship. Only then would they be able to petition for a parent, which is a lengthy process in itself.
Tuesday's announcement is just the latest effort by DREAM activists to bring the issue and bill into the forefront of American politics.
The lawsuit also comes at a time when Congress is mired in partisan gridlock and amid complaints that the filibuster is being abused by minority Republicans, according to a report by Politico.com.
Attempts to reform the filibuster rules have also failed because it requires two-thirds of senators – or 67 votes – to make any changes to Senate rules, the web site reported.
"They are putting the Senate in a straitjacket," Stephen Spaulding, staff counsel for Common Cause, told Politico.com. "They cannot adopt their own rules, and that's an issue we think the courts should settle."

http://www.ocregister.com/news/bill-...ilibuster.html

If only they had done this sooner..

Where do they get this money from to sue the Senate?

the comments piss me the hell off

Family, donations, loans?
There are Dreamers who have money.

I don't get it, what's the point?

To keep putting pressure to get the Dream Act passed.