The DREAM Act, which would have given hundreds of thousands of young people the chance to gain legal status in the U.S., perished in the Senate this week, as did an effort to repeal the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. Both were provisions of a defense spending bill that Democrats, led by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, were hoping to pass, but they failed to get even one GOP senator to support it in order to reach the needed 60 votes.
“We are extremely disappointed that action was blocked by a minority of ultraconservatives from voting on providing a path to citizenship for the roughly 65,000 students who graduate from high school every year without legal immigration status,” said Karen K. Narasaki, the president and executive director if the Asian American Justice Center. “The DREAM Act would have allowed those who stay in school, or join the military, to become citizens. These are young people who were brought to this country as children and who want to contribute their talents to help rebuild our economy and serve in our military.”
Republican senators said Democrats were playing politics by attaching the provisions to the defense bill, which would have authorized $726 billion in defense spending, including pay increases for troops, according to the Associated Press. But Democratic Senator Dick Durbin said repealing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy and passing the DREAM Act were a matter of justice and fairness, the AP reported.
Photo via An Unfinished Dream
