Thread: Reactions and threats to the failed DREAMact vote

This is from NumbersUSA.
Read what how the national media are quoting NumbersUSA in reaction to today's victory


Most of these are excerpts. But I've included the whole news flash story from The Hill, which is one of the authoritative publications that covers Congress intensely and is followed closely by political junkies nationwide. The Hill jumped out with this story almost immediately after the vote.
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THE HILL
Pro-immigration groups decry 'shameful' vote;
Enforcement groups vow new push

By Bridget Johnson

12/18/10 12:10 PM ET
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An anti-illegal immigration group said after Saturday's defeat of the DREAM Act in the Senate that "we look forward to moving aggressively to offense."

"Now, the next Congress can start to put unemployed Americans back to work by eliminating the ability for illegal aliens to hold jobs and by reducing the number of unnecessary permanent foreign workers we currently bring in legally every month," Roy Beck, president and founder of NumbersUSA, said in a statement minutes after the Senate voted 55-41 to end debate on the measure, not clearing the 60-vote filibuster threshold.

Beck lauded a decade of "perfect defense" against "amnesty" initiatives.

"Now, we look forward to moving aggressively to offense," Beck said. "The next Congress has the strongest pro-enforcement membership since 1995 and probably since 1924."

But the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda decried senators' "shameful" failure to pass the DREAM Act.

"Todays failed vote is an indication that an ugly current of nativism is alive and active in the U.S. Senate, said Lillian Rodrguez-Lpez, chairwoman of the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, in a statement.

"It would be an outrageous ploy if a yes vote on this bill was withheld for partisan gain in the next Congress," she said. "To those Senators who denied the American dream to so many worthy young people, we will not forget."
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ABC NEWS

Opponents of Illegal Immigration Claim Victory With Repeat DREAM Act Failure

By DEVIN DWYER and MATTHEW JAFFE

Dec. 18, 2010

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By a vote of 55 to 41, the bill -- the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors, or DREAM Act -- failed to win the 60 votes needed to break a GOP filibuster, even though the measure passed the House last week.

The defeat was the second for the legislation since 2007, when it last was brought to the Senate floor. Opponents have argued that the bill amounted to an "amnesty" that could cost taxpayers and encourage continued illegal immigration.

"We are declaring a 10-year victory," said Roy Beck, president of Numbers USA, an advocacy group that has lobbied against the DREAM Act. "Since 2001, there has been an attempt to pass giant amnesties every year. And we have been on defense, we have fought every single year. And now there's not going to be any amnesty in this new Congress. It's over."

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President Obama said in a statement that he was "incredibly disappointed" by the vote.

"It is disappointing that common sense did not prevail today," he said. "But my administration will not give up on the DREAM Act, or on the important business of fixing our broken immigration system."

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"There are some compelling cases out there that deserve to be considered. But there are also 22 million Americans who have compelling cases, who want a job and can't find a job," Beck said. "What the DREAM Act does is add at least a couple million more workers to legally compete against the 22 million unemployed Americans."

"I realize these kids did not personally decide to break the law. Nonetheless, they represent law-breaking. How do you keep parents from doing this to their kids in the future? The DREAM Act does nothing about that," he said.

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NEW YORK TIMES
Immigration Vote Leaves Obama Policy in Disarray

By JULIA PRESTON

Published: December 18, 2010
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The vote by the Senate on Saturday to block a bill to grant legal status to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrant students was a painful setback to an emerging movement of young immigrants and also appeared to leave the immigration policy of the Obama administration, which has supported the bill and the movement, in disarray.

The bill, known as the Dream Act, gained 55 votes in favor with 41 against, a tally that fell short of the 60 votes needed to bring it to the floor for debate. Five Democrats broke ranks to vote against the bill while only three Republicans voted for it. The defeat in the Senate came after the House of Representatives passed the bill last week.

The result, though not unexpected, was still a rebuff to President Obama by newly empowered Republicans in Congress on an issue he has called one of his priorities.

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Groups favoring reduced immigration cheered the vote on the student bill as a watershed victory that they said marks the end of a period they have spent on the defensive.

"The next Congress can start to put unemployed Americans back to work by eliminating the ability for illegal aliens to hold jobs," said Roy Beck, president of NumbersUSA, which lobbied hard against the student bill. "Now, we look forward to moving aggressively to offense."

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FOX NEWS
DREAM Act Goes Down in Flames in Senate

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/12 ... z18UJU4sBW

Published December 18, 2010 | FoxNews.com

An immigration bill that would blaze a trail to legal status for hundreds of thousands of undocumented students went down in flames in the Senate on Saturday, delivering a critical blow to Democrats and Hispanic activists.

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Both sides, which have fought tooth and nail over the bill immediately reacted to Saturday's vote.

"Now, the next Congress can start to put unemployed Americans back to work by eliminating the ability for illegal aliens to hold jobs and by reducing the number of unnecessary permanent foreign workers we currently bring in legally every month," said Roy Beck, president and founder of NumbersUSA.

Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, said, "It is deeply disappointing that the Senate today refused to even allow a vote on the bill."

House Democrats vowed the fight was not over.

"Though disappointed by the result of today's DREAM Act vote in the Senate, we are not deterred in our determination to continue advocating for this critical legislation," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement.

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FINAL THOUGHTS TODAY
There is much more to be said, friends. But not today.

You can tell from the sampling of my quotes in the media that I think we have just ended an era of DEFENSE.

And you can see that NumbersUSA is ready for aggressive offense. Our top staff has already met to strategize that OFFENSE for 2011. We have met with key Members of Congress and key staff. We are improving our activist tools.

I will talk to you more about all of that after Christmas.

For now, I just want to thank all of you for what you were able to do this week, this fall, this year and, for many of you, for this entire decade!

For those of you who didn't watch our live webcast of the Senate vote and our analysis of it this morning, I'll say what I said into the camera:

You created the political conditions that caused 12 of the 15 Republican Senators who voted for an amnesty in the past to NOT vote for the amnesty today.

You created the political conditions for 6 Democratic Senators to go against their Party and their President to NOT vote for the amnesty today.

That's why we won today.

As Jim Robb said on our live webcast: We didn't have wealthy lobbying groups that stood to make money off defeating the amnesty the way that wealthy groups stood to make money by passing the amnesty. We didn't have any of the country's blocs of elites helping us. All we had was individual citizens who banded together in an internet grassroots mobilization to defeat an amnesty for the 10th year in a row.

THANKS FOR YOUR CHRISTMAS GIFT TO THE NATIONAL INTEREST,

again........OUTSTANDING!!!!!!

I'm starting to see this being twisted in a way that could cause a bigger backlash with enough of the political propaganda we see every day.

Instead they should be instead talking about helping "Americans" retake jobs and cut down on legal and illegal immigrants be spinning it as their priority is securing the border before any other subjects about illegal and legal immigrants. Even with slight eluding to a potentual immigration overhaul in a smaller manner down the road after.

I see the way its being spun now as having a potential anti immigrant type of atmosphere be it illegal or legal. This will of course outrage some legals and illegals along with some citizens.

However if they spun it as they didn't necassarily "oppose" the dream act but instead simply feel the border security needs to come first before they look at options available for the future beyond that. It could actually attract support from more legal immigrants, leave a measure of temporary (even though possibly false hope) for the illegal "children" and at least unite an even bigger amount of American citizens (even though now probably 80% of citizens feel the border needs to be secured).

Just think the Reps themselves are even spinning it wrong that could hurt them.