BUMP
Senate to vote on giving illegals’ kids a shot at citizenship
USA TODAY’s Kathy Kiely reports this morning on a surprise move certain to set off another heated immigration debate.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid late yesterday signaled his plans to hold a showdown vote tomorrow on the DREAM Act.
Kiely says the measure would give children of illegal immigrants who complete two years of post-secondary education or two years of military service a chance to become citizens. It was part of a larger immigration measure that failed earlier this year. Backers, such as Sen Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., say it gives children who were brought here illegally through no fault of their own a chance to stay in the country they consider home.
Opponents, such as Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., say it’s a backdoor amnesty that could grant citizenship to more than 1 million children and young adults now here illegally.
Tam Tran, the daughter of Vietnamese boat people whose parents and brother were arrested last week after she spoke to USA TODAY, is scheduled to be at a press conference this afternoon hosted by backers of the DREAM act. The bill faces a key vote Wednesday morning.
Reid has also promised to put another piece of the immigration bill — a measure to legalize some agriculture workers — onto the Farm Bill, which is due up soon in the Senate. That measure has bipartisan support from Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Larry Craig.
Update at 12:35 p.m. ET: Kiely is on a conference call with Sen. Dick Durbin. She says the Illinois Democrat is predicting a close vote tomorrow, when he needs 60 votes for debate to proceed.
“We have commitments from about 8 Republicans … we have three or four Democrats who are not in our column at this point. When you do the math you see that puts us somewhere in the mid-50s,” he says.Durbin is hoping to build support overnight. Given the angry response that brought down the comprehensive immigration bill earlier this year, Durbin acknowledges that “it is not the best time to bring it up but I felt a special obligation to try. “
Reg Weaver, president of the 3.2 million-member National Education Association, warned there could be political consequences for lawmakers who oppose the measure. “We will be watching upcoming votes on the DREAM Act very very carefully,” he said.