por Luis Carlos López Hispanic Link News Service
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Immigration advocates aren’t giving up the fight. Despite their loss in the Senate Sept. 21, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid vowed, “We are going to vote on the DREAM Act. It is only a question of when.”
As part of the multi-billion- dollar defense reauthorization bill that included an amendment to repeal “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.” The act died when all but two Senate members voted along rigid party lines.
The Development Relief and Education for Alien Minor Act, introduced on the hill in one form or another for nearly a decade, fell 56-43, four votes shy of the 60 needed to pass. Two Democrats, Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor, both of Arkansas, joined the GOP opposition.
Following defeat on a procedural vote — whether to move the bill and the amendments forward for debate and consideration — Reid, of Nevada, and Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois pledged to help the “Dreamers” continue to fight for their cause.
Maintaining the act had some Republican support throughout most of its existence, Sen. Robert Menéndez (D-NJ) told Hispanic Link, “You never know what’s going to happen until they vote.”
Arizona’s GOP Senator John McCain called Reid’s scheme to attach the bills “a cynical ploy to try to galvanize and energize their base in the Hispanic vote. President Obama’s popularity has dropped dramatically with Hispanics,” he pointed out. He called the repeal of the ban on allowing gays to serve openly in the military in “direct contradiction” to the recommendations by the four military chiefs. As with the issue of immigration, McCain has flipped-flopped on DADT over the years.
A study by the Pentagon due Dec. 1 will determine whether the DADT repeal will have negative effects on military morale and readiness.
Massachusetts Senator John Kerry called the GOP’s opposition “shirking our responsibility” to discuss an issue that is “long overdue.”
Obama promised to do “whatever it takes” to support the Congressional Hispanic Caucus efforts to pass the DREAM Act.
Despite the president’s efforts to revitalize La promesa de Obama — the president’s broken promise to deliver immigration reform his first year in office — there are those who remain skeptical over the sudden push for the bill.
Francisco Ayala, editor of La Prensa Libre which is read through northeastern Arkansas and southwestern Missouri, said Sept. 20, that he was skeptical of the DREAM Act’s success.
Before the vote, Ayala told Hispanic Link, “So long as this remains as an issue of justice and not economic benefit, the bill has little chance. Unfortunately, most politicians think only in terms money.”
Some 30 advocates met at the National Immigration Forum just blocks from the Senate chamber to offer words of encouragement.
Among those present was America’s Voice executive director Frank Sharry. He said he remained confident the change would ultimately come from the people’s voice.
“I’ve worked in Washington for 20 years and I’ve come to trust one thing,” Sharry told Hispanic Link, “the power of a social movement to make politicians do what they need to do.” Hispanic Link.
