(Here's an ad from last year that was produced to garner support for the Dream Act.)
Bringing back The Dream Act is good news, but I doubt the xenophobes inhabiting the GOP will do the right thing and instead do everything they can to stop this piece of legislation and continue to demonize Latinos and other minorities in America:
Senate Democrats will re-introduce the long-stalled DREAM Act, hoping to tap into momentum from President Barack Obama’s speech along the border Tuesday about America’s need to pass comprehensive immigration reform.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and other Democrats will urge passage of the DREAM Act at a news conference Wednesday morning at the Capitol.Foundering in Congress for a decade, the legislation was passed in the House but came up five votes short of overcoming a Republican filibuster in the Senate during last December’s lame-duck session. The DREAM Act would provide a path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants brought to the country as children if they attend college or join the military for two years.
At a speech in El Paso, Texas, Obama called on Congress to pass the bill and “stop punishing innocent young people for the actions of their parents.”
“It was a tremendous disappointment to get so close and then see politics get in the way,” Obama said. “These are kids who grew up in this country, love this country, and know no other place as home. The idea that we would punish them is cruel and it makes no sense. We are a better nation than that.
“So we’re going to keep up the fight for the Dream Act. We’re going to keep up the fight for reform.”
I asked President Obama directly about the Dream Act when I had the chance to go to the White House because it's the right thing to do and because I've worked so closely with the Latino community to help make this happen and I will continue to push for this to come true. Whatever happened to America the strong, America the brave, America, the land of the free? The Pat Buchanan types that have littered our history happened. Right Wing talk radio happened and FOX News happened.
The DREAM Act, a bipartisan bill that is supported by 66% of the American people, would enable young people who came to the country as children, but lack legal immigration status, to enlist in the U.S. military or attend college on their way to becoming full U.S. citizens. Seventy-five percent of Latino voters say passing the DREAM Act in short order is either extremely important or very important.
