Final push for DREAM Act in lame duck

The historical November midterms repudiated liberal policies and relinquished totalitarian control in Washington D.C. from the Obama Administration, but Democrats have one last gift they’d like to give the American taxpayer- amnesty.

This little gem, the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM Act), would grant amnesty to children who came with their parents unlawfully to America and opponents claim would start a chain migration amnesty for millions of illegal aliens over the next decade.

The weakened Democratic Party has decided the last legislative gift of 2010 will be the DREAM Act bill and Senate leaders, Dick Durbin (D-IL), Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Congressman Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) joined immigration advocates on a conference call to urge weary grassroots organizers to keep up the fight.

Senator Durbin did his best to boost moral among listeners and boast about the historic accomplishments of the House vote last week, but in the end he conceded the votes are not there in the Senate.

“I wish I could say we have all the votes, but we need Republican support. Sadly, we don’t have all the Democrat votes either,” Durbin said.

He did encourage DREAM Act supporters or “dreamers” to continue the barrage of calls to Capitol Hill in support for the amnesty legislation in the waning days of the 111th Congress. “It’s been a long battle, but we want to bring this across the finish line,” he finished.

Both Senators and Rep. Gutierrez placed the failure to pass the DREAM Act blame squarely on the GOP. “There has been a lot of rhetoric and they (Republicans) are smearing our kids,” Gutierrez said.

Despite all the “rah-rah” pep talks when it comes down to the Senate voting for the DREAM Act, Senator Durbin painted an honest picture. “The Senate will be voting on the tax bill first and then we will vote for the START treaty (Russian nuclear arms treaty), then we will need to vote to fund the government,” he explained.

And if that wasn’t enough to drain all the air out of the room, Durbin said the GOP is filibustering the legislation and forcing lawmakers to read all the bills before a vote can take place. “They (GOP) are asking us to read 15 hours for one bill and basically all day for another bill,” Durbin explained.

Durbin equated the Republican tactics to nothing more than stalling and running the clock out. “We continue to ask them to stop this,” he said. However, it was clear to those on the phone call that Democrat senators were not optimistic the DREAM Act would be signed into law, but encouraged students and advocates to keep trying and maybe a few Republican senators will change their minds.

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