After the 'DREAM'
By: Taylor Fife - The Daily Californian
Oct 25, 2007 06:10 PM EST

A few hours after the U.S. Senate rejected consideration of a bill allowing undocumented immigrants to be eligible for financial aid and potentially citizenship, policymakers came to campus to speak on the future of immigration legislation.

The federal Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act would have repealed a 1996 law limiting financial aid benefits available for undocumented students, and also would have allowed immigrants under the age of 16 who go on to attend college or join the military to move towards legal status.

The proposal, submitted by Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., required 60 votes to initiate formal debate. Yesterday it failed with 52 voting in favor and 44 against.

Yesterday’s panel discussion in Wheeler Hall featured State Senator Gilbert Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, who supported the state version of the DREAM Act recently vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Maria Echaveste, Boalt Hall School of Law lecturer and Deputy Chief of Staff under President Clinton from 1998-2001.

“This campus, as the epicenter of the Free Speech Movement and place that has taken up the moral issues of the day, really is a place that should be taking up these issues,â€