As chances dim for the DREAM Act's passage, college campuses emerge as the latest immigration battle

[pampango]

As the 111th Congress comes to a close, GOP lawmakers are preparing for what promises to be a dramatic lame-duck clash over immigration. Last week, Majority Leader Harry Reid announced he'd schedule a vote on the DREAM Act, which would create a path to legalization for certain undocumented immigrants who came to the US before they were 16 years old and completed two years of college or military service. The move prompted Republican staffers to circulate talking points from Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Tex.) claiming that the bill would grant "amnesty" to some 2.1 million undocumented immigrants, give "college preference to illegals over citizens," and even provide "safe habor" to criminals.

Others on the right have slammed the bill for extending financial aid and other perks to undocumented students: Conservative pundit Michelle Malkin has railed against the legislation as an "illegal alien student bailout." Tea party activists, meanwhile, have bashed it as "a spending nightmare that we cannot afford." On the other side of the debate, advocates have touted the bill for rewarding "the best and the brightest" immigrant youth, arguing that they shouldn't be punished for the sins of their parents. They argue that while 2.1 million immigrants may be eligible for legalization, the same non-partisan group that provided the number estimates that only about 38 percent, or 825,000, would likely gain citizenship. Grassroots DREAM activists, in the meantime, have been ramping up their own advocacy, especially on college campuses: over the last week, two student body presidents in California and Florida outed themselves as undocumented, and students in Texas are currently on a hunger strike.

Despite Reid's pledge to put the bill on the lame-duck calendar, the Democrats don't have the votes yet. Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) supported the GOP filibuster of the legislation when it came up in September, and fence-sitters including Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) face tough 2012 re-election races in increasingly conservative states. This means Democrats will have to scrounge up even more GOP votes as a result, and Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ill.), a co-sponsor of the bill, so far stands alone in backing the bill on the Republican side. Exiting Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Uta.) may be persuadable, having previously promised to support the legislation on his way out, but the Democrats may need anywhere from five to seven Republican votes in total—a decidedly uphill battle.

As the immigration debate has heated up, undocumented students have become a far more visible organizing force on college campuses. "There was a time when we wouldn't share where our meetings where or share our status with anybody," says Sofia Campos, a UCLA student who discovered she was undocumented only after trying to apply for federal student aid when she was a high school senior. "Today, it's a completely different story—student government and population should recognize we contribute a lot."

http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/11/congress-dream-act-reid

[La Lioness Priyanka]

1. i really hope America does the right think and passes the Dream Act