Members of Congress Push for DREAM Act Despite Challenges
 

After a decade of failure in Congress, the DREAM Act refuses to die.

Washington, D.C. - infoZine - Scripps Howard Foundation Wire - The bill that would give people brought to the U.S. illegally as children a chance to become legal residents fell five votes short of becoming law in December, marking its fifth consecutive defeat. But supporters are rallying around it once more.

“Every year we fail to pass it, people who did nothing wrong are being deported unfairly,” Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., the bill’s House sponsor, said.

Eligible immigrants could gain permanent residency after completing at least two years of college or military service and meeting other requirements.

“The DREAM Act children are caught, through no fault of their own, in a legal and political situation they know nothing about,” Rep. Rubén Hinojosa, D-Texas, a DREAM Act co-sponsor, said.

photo: Protesters gather outside the White House
Protesters gather outside the White House Tuesday to ask President Barack Obama to halt deportations of DREAM Act-eligible immigrants. More than a million deportations have been carried out since Obama took office. SHFWire photo by Nadia Tamez-Robledo
“We’ve done it, and we’ll do it again,” he said about passing the bill in the House.

The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act in June. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano voiced their support.

But the committee’s House counterpart is unlikely to do the same under the leadership of Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas. On July 12, the House Judiciary Committee chairman introduced the Hinder the Administration’s Legalization Temptation (HALT) Act. The bill would prevent the government from exercising prosecutorial discretion, a practice by which authorities may choose not to deport some undocumented immigrants based on factors such as how they arrived in the country, college enrollment and criminal history.

“This isn’t an issue that he’s going to embrace – he’s made that very clear,” Angela Kelley, vice president of immigration policy at the Center for American Progress, said of Smith. “It doesn’t mean that the politics of this couldn’t overtake his opposition to it. This isn’t a Polaroid snapshot. This is a movie, and no one can tell how it’s going to end.”

The DREAM Act garnered an 18-vote win in the House last year but failed on a 55-41 split in the Senate. The November Republican sweep, which ousted about one-fifth of the bill’s House supporters, has left observers with little faith that it will make headway during the next two years.

“Everything in this Congress is a tug-of-war to the highest degree,” said Anastasia Tonello, partner and head of U.S. practice for the immigration law firm Laura Devine Attorneys in New York. “I don’t see why, if it didn’t pass in December, it would pass now.”

A major roadblock for the bill has been its characterization as amnesty, a label its supporters refute.

“An amnesty is to forgive people for something they did wrong. These DREAM Act students didn’t do anything wrong,” Berman said. “They came here as children because a parent or guardian decided to come here and bring them.”

Opponents of the DREAM Act, including Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, reason that the bill would promote illegal immigration.

“There are instances in which a child is brought into the United States illegally and does not discover it until it is time to apply for college or a job,” he said in a statement. “We should find a compassionate way to deal with such situations that does not undermine the rule of law or encourage others to violate our laws.”

Critics argue that making children legal residents would lead to making entire families legal residents.

But children must be 21 to sponsor their parents, and penalties and application processing time make that argument unrealistic, Tonello said. She estimated that illegal immigrants would have to wait 35 years before they could gain residency through their children.

“The parents aren’t going to benefit for a very long time if they are even eligible to benefit,” she said.

Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Texas, doesn’t see immigration policy moving forward while fiscal issues dominate Congress. Additionally, the DREAM Act fails to address holistic immigration reform, he said.

“It’s taking one piece of the overall immigration policy and trying to do it in a piecemeal basis,” he said. “We’d have to look at some kind of comprehensive immigration reform for issues covered under the DREAM Act to really be brought up.”

Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, did not respond to a request for comment.

Activists on both sides of the debate are battling on the state level as well. Opponents of a Maryland bill, which would allow undocumented students to pay in-state tuition if they meet certain requirements, gathered thousands of petition signatures. That suspended the law in June, two months after it was passed, and put it on the ballot in 2012.

Though the chances of the DREAM Act making it through Congress appear dim, Kelley said that pushing it forward is part of the advocacy process.

“That was just one small component of a much bigger movement of youth that are organizing and going to incredible lengths to tell their story,” she said. “That kind of intense advocacy continues even after the bill failed.”

Hinojosa and Berman said they will continue to raise public awareness about the bill, help immigrants tell their stories and recruit co-sponsors.

“Changing the minds of those against the DREAM Act is definitely an uphill battle,” Hinojosa said. “This is not an easy fight by any means, but it is a cause we cannot and will not give up on.”

Related infoZine DREAM Act Article
Dream Act Student’s Life in 'Llimbo,' He Hopes Law Will Pass

http://www.infozine.com/news/stories...iew/sid/48441/

Re: Members of Congress Push for DREAM Act Despite Challenges
 

interesting

Re: Members of Congress Push for DREAM Act Despite Challenges
 

Those who oppose need to offer an alternative. The Dream Act won't go away, sooner or later something will have to be done. Maybe they can make a compromise.

Re: Members of Congress Push for DREAM Act Despite Challenges
 

Nah, politicians don't care about the country's future and it's people. They only care about getting re-elected so they're trying to make democrats as bad as possible by nothing making anything happen with them as majority. Will people fall for this? The public is extremely gullible so it won't be surprising.

Re: Members of Congress Push for DREAM Act Despite Challenges
 

Republicans are just idiots.

Re: Members of Congress Push for DREAM Act Despite Challenges
 

I don't understand, what's so hard about making a temporary alternative?

Something like getting rid of the 10 year ban for DREAMers, so at least if we went back to our countries we can return to America the correct way.

10 years and absolutely no progress, this is ridiculous. Well at least Obama told ICE not to deport DREAMers, that's a small start. :???:

Re: Members of Congress Push for DREAM Act Despite Challenges
 

If they can't make a compromise on a freaking spending budget, i doubt they will compromise on this anytime soon

Re: Members of Congress Push for DREAM Act Despite Challenges
 

No, despite Lamar Smith's accusations, the idea was proposed by another official, and Morton issued the memorandum.

Re: Members of Congress Push for DREAM Act Despite Challenges
 

dtrt09


0 AP

Quote:
Originally Posted by Boulevard
If you are referring to critics of Obama (such as myself), I really do not recognize anything beneficial that Obama has done for the undocumented community. Until Morton's (triple emphasis added) memorandum, all Obama did was terrorize our group. Sorry, I must be blind. So, please make me acknowlodge the good deeds that Obama has done for the undocumented community so that my unenlightened soul and other critics can stop being ungrateful. :- )

Morton's legal memo was proposed by the administration's USCIS Chief Counsel , Roxana Bacon informing HIM and HIS administration of available LEGAL options to protect individuals or groups from the threat of removal back in 2009.

From the NYTimes:
The memo outlined measures that the agency could take under existing laws to “reduce the threat of removal for certain individuals present in the United States without authorization,” instead of waiting for Congress to pass an immigration overhaul to give legal status to millions of illegal immigrants

According to the memo, one of those changes has been quietly put into practice since May. The new policy allows illegal immigrants who are spouses, parents and children of American citizens serving in the military to complete the process of becoming legal residents without having to leave the United States — a procedure that is known in immigration law terms as granting parole. The memo says agency officials approved the new parole approach “to preserve family unity and address Department of Defense concerns regarding soldier safety and readiness for duty.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/us/01immig.html

I noticed that the timing of the Morton memo was actually in accordance to the timeline recommended by the "administrative alternatives memo". Among other things; I believe they will soon create a "Deferred Action" form that can affirmatively be filed with USCIS (this was also a recommendation from the memo); see:

Ombudsman Recommendation: Recommendations on USCIS Deferred Action Processing
http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/c...mbined-dar.pdf


However, he held off on granting these for nearly two years for fear of political reprisal. How many people were placed in removal proceedings,without a single traffic ticket, who had been long-term residents, taxpayers, and could have avoided deportation and have been helped by these guidelines had this administration had the guts to do the right thing?
Last edited by dtrt09 : 07-25-2011 at 06:23 PM.

Re: Members of Congress Push for DREAM Act Despite Challenges
 

We should be seeing the bill on the floor soon.