Senate to Consider DREAM Act Immigration Reform

By Devin Dwyer
@devindwyer
Follow on Twitter

ABC News’ Devin Dwyer reports:  If you thought last month’s bipartisan border security package was the only immigration reform Congress would consider this year, think again. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced today that he will offer the controversial DREAM Act as an amendment to a major defense bill expected to receive a Senate vote next week. “This amendment will ensure that millions of children who grow up as Americans will be able to get the education they need to contribute to our economy,” Reid in a statement.  The DREAM Act, which has some bipartisan support, would allow young illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. before age 16, and have been here for at least five years, to earn legal status if they pass background checks, attend college or serve in the military for at least two years. A version of the measure was first introduced in 2001 and was drafted to address the situation of children and teenage immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents and have only known the U.S. as home. Many have no family or ties to their countries of birth. “By bringing the long-overdue DREAM Act to a vote, Senator Reid has shown that he agrees with 70 percent of Americans who want to provide undocumented young men and women a chance to apply their full potential to making our country a better place to live,” said Tyler Moran with the National Immigration Law Center. Reid told reporters today that he isn’t sure whether the measure has the 60 votes it needs to pass. Republican Sen. Richard Lugar has been a sponsor of the DREAM Act, but many Republicans see the bill as an “amnesty” and are wary of touching it in a hotly contested election year. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell today called Reid’s move “needlessly controversial.” “Some of these [immigrants] are compelling cases, no doubt about it,” said Roy Beck of Numbers USA, an advocacy group that favors tighter immigration controls. “But you’ve got to draw some lines a lot narrower than the DREAM Act draws them.  This is about giving millions of illegal aliens permanent work permits, and I don’t think in this economy that this is a very happy time to be doing that.” Passage of the DREAM Act independent of a comprehensive immigration reform measure would be a departure from a strategy favored by many immigration reform advocates, congressional Democrats and the Obama administration. But the White House has indicated, as recently as yesterday, that it would support DREAM legislation.
 
“The president supports the DREAM Act and I support the DREAM Act. The president supports immigration reform, and I support immigration reform. And how Congress takes that up is for the Congress and the leadership to decide,” said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.