Thread: Senate set to take up immigration reform bill

Senate set to take up immigration reform bill

By: Susan Ferrechio 11/25/10 9:05 PM
Chief Congressional Correspondent
KEVIN WOLF/AP
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., promised on the campaign trail that he would take up the DREAM Act, a citizenship bill, as part of his outreach to Hispanic voters.
While lawmakers will be pressing the House to address expiring tax cuts and an arms treaty with Russia when Congress returns this week from its Thanksgiving break, Democratic leaders in the Senate plan to make one last effort to pass an immigration reform bill before their majority diminishes significantly in January.

With just a few weeks left in the 112th Congress, it will be difficult for lawmakers to clear the DREAM Act in time for the president's signature this year, but it will nonetheless consume part of the shrinking lame-duck calendar.

The DREAM Act would provide a path to citizenship for anyone under the age of 35 who came to the United States as a child and who enrolls in the military or college for two years.

The proposal won its place on the agenda in part because Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., promised on the campaign trail that he would take it up this year, arguably helping to secure the Hispanic votes he needed to overcome Tea Party candidate Sharron Angle.

Immigration reform advocates see the lame-duck session as perhaps the last chance to pass such reforms since Republicans will take control of the House and expand their minority in the Senate in January.

Proponents argue that the bill, much more modest than reform efforts proposed by President George W. Bush, would aid young adults who, by no fault of their own, ended up in the United States and simply want a chance to succeed.

With the lame-duck clock ticking, university students across Texas staged a hunger strike in an effort to pressure their senator, Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison, to back the bill. Hutchison, along with seven other Republicans, voted for the DREAM Act when a similar measure came to the Senate floor in 2007, but she's against it now, calling it too broad.

Reform opponents alerted Hutchison and other senators to a DREAM Act provision that provides retroactive benefits for certain illegal immigrants of any age who arrived in the United States as children and who have completed some military service or college. In other words, say critics, the path to so-called "amnesty" could be open to a much larger and older pool of illegal immigrants.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who backed the bill three years ago, also is now leaning against supporting it.

"This legislation is being cynically used for political purposes by Democrats desperate to curry favor with a political constituency," Hatch spokeswoman Antonia Ferrier told The Washington Examiner.

In order to make the bill more appealing to the GOP, Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin, D-Ill., offered a different version with an age limit of 30. But the second bill also contains the retroactive benefits.

Passage of the bill could hinge on the sentiments of a bevy of outgoing Republicans including Sen. Robert Bennett, of Utah, who signaled his support for the bill, said Julie Kirchner, executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which opposes the legislation.

"It's always a difficult calculus especially with so many people leaving," she said. "It really changes the whole dynamic on a vote like this

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/ ... z16QOsASkv

We already know this, this was posted last night.

The word I'm hearing is there isn't a chance in h..l that this is going anywhere.

The have MUST DO work , And its doubtful they will have time to even
get that done.

JMO , There are also re elected dems that seen the slaughter from the last election , they might have second thoughts about a bill that is so unpopular with the American public

Do not let your guard down though , We have about 3 weeks.

It will be their last gasp

The new guys are ONLY ENFORCEMENT ,
While the house can't do it alone , its up to us to promote a senate and president who will in 2012

I sure was hopin' you'd say that,"ENFORCEMENT ONLY!"
Been a damn long time since we heard that!
Com' on man I know you got it! Where is it?

[quote="stevetheroofer"]I sure was hopin' you'd say that,"ENFORCEMENT ONLY!"
Been a damn long time since we heard th
Com' on man I know you got it! Where is it?[/



I hear it Not going to pass . don't we have any say in this after all it our country. hear the voice of USA

I sure hope so GIRLFRIEND! cause this crap sure is gettin' old and stankin'!

Gettin ready to dial in C Span next week

Observe and report

I'll be keeping an eye on these idiots , I'm sure others here will also

I can multi task , make phone calls and watch congress at the same time while I'm posting here

I know medicine and rocket science also

I DON'T CARE HOW THESE PEOPLE ENDED UP GETTING HERE, THEY ARE STILL HERE ILLEGALLY AND THEY SHOULD NOT RECEIVE ANY SPECIAL TREATMENT JUST BECAUSE THEY WERE CHILDREN WHEN THEIR PARENTS BROUGHT THEM INTO THIS COUNTRY. THIS IS GETTING OLD REAL FAST, AND I'M SICK OF THEM GETTING TREATED BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE, AND ANYOTHER RACE OF PEOPLE IN THE COUNTRY THEY ARE NOT ANY BETTER THAN OTHER ILLEGALS BUT THEY HAVE BEEN MADE TO BELIEVE THAT THEY ARE. THE LOW LIFES.