Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid asserted his commitment to getting the DREAM Act passed through the Senate, but he took issue with a Republican alternative to the bill on Sunday.
Speaking on Univision’s Al Punto, Reid said that while he’s willing to work with Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., on an immigration bill, the junior senator needs to get something in writing.
“The problem is right now there has not been a single word put on paper, not a word, and remember in anything we do in life, the Devil is in the details,” Reid said, adding that “he says one thing to one group, another thing to another group.”
By Alexandra Jaffe
nationaljournal.com
Updated: May 13, 2012 | 12:47 p.m.
The DREAM Act, as currently stands, would provide a way for young people brought illegally to the U.S. by their parents who engage in higher education or military service to live in the country legally and gain U.S. citizenship. Rubio has said his version would not include an expedited pathway to citizenship, and that seems to remain a sticking point between Democrats and Republicans. Reid said he would not support a bill that didn't include such an option.
“Right now I am bound and determined to pass the DREAM act that's now before the Congress. If he has something better and something that I think is going to be okay, I will be happy to support it, but let’s stop this nonsense of talking about it,” he said.
Though President Obama has come under fire from Hispanic leaders for not doing enough on immigration, Reid did not seem worried that the president may have trouble getting Hispanics to the polls in November. “Because of what the republicans have done on wide ranging issues to be anti-Hispanic, the polls show Democrats leading,” he said.
But Reid, D-Nev., did admit that Obama and Congress could do more.
“President Obama is not a perfect man. He hasn't been a perfect president. He's been a very, very good president. And we've done some extremely good things, especially as it relates to the dreamers,” he said, adding, however, that “there's more that can be done.”
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