Thread: After the 'DREAM'

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The federal Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act would have repealed a 1996 law limiting financial aid benefits available for undocumented students, and also would have allowed immigrants under the age of 16 who go on to attend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€

constituent discontent

That's an understatement!

Dixie

'DREAM Act' backers still dreaming
By: Martin Kady II
October 25, 2007 05:15 PM EST

The immigration issue has become so toxic in American politics that Congress is now unable to pass even modest measures that once had widespread support, and immigration supporters who were once on the verge of a bipartisan breakthrough are now in danger of a backlash in next year’s elections.

The potency of the issue was on full display in the Senate on Wednesday, as eight Democrats, mostly from Republican-leaning states, helped scuttle a narrowly tailored measure aimed at granting legal residency for longtime students whose parents came to the United States illegally.

And the death of the so-called DREAM Act, which once had 47 co-sponsors in the Senate, was a stark reminder of the depth of discontent among voters to Democratic strategists who personally back liberalization of immigration rules.

“This issue has been so painful for so many people — they’re running scared,â€

[quote]How do you determine legal status? We’re going to use what we’ve always done, race, ethnicity, language, accent, someone who looks different.â€