Despite defeat of the Senate’s immigration bill last week,
Latino and other education leaders say they still will press for action this
year on a bill to help illegal immigrant students gain legal status as well as
access to in-state college tuition rates.
Advocacy groups say they have not abandoned efforts
to pass the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act,
which was part of the comprehensive Senate bill that lost a crucial vote last
week. They say the DREAM Act is less controversial than other elements of that
bill and they’ve always had a contingency plan to push the idea independent of
other proposals.
“It was one of the most modest
provisions of the comprehensive immigration bill,” said Melissa Lazarin,
associate director of education policy at the National Council of La Raza in Washington,
D.C. While she acknowledged that
“everybody’s still regrouping” after last week’s defeat, advocates may try to
bring up the bill soon as part of other legislation.
Under the DREAM Act, illegal
immigrant students could seek legal status if they have a high school diploma
or the equivalent and have lived in the U.S.
for five consecutive years. These students could obtain a temporary permit and,
later, permanent residency if they complete at least two years in college or
the military.
“It hasn’t been derailed at all,”
said Josh Bernstein, federal policy director for the National
Immigration Law Center
in Washington, D.C.
“It has strong support in the House and Senate.
“We’ve always had a dual track –
the comprehensive bill and a separate bill for the DREAM Act on its own
merits,” he told Diverse.
But organizations that successfully
fought the comprehensive Senate bill said they would work just as vehemently to
stop the DREAM Act.
