Reid, 21 Senate Democrats Revive DREAM Act Hopes

Nevada Senator Harry Reid and 21 Democratic senators are pleading with President Barack Obama to create  bureaucratic pathway for students currently in trouble with immigration authorities, but who would be eligible to stay under the DREAM Act. As we all know, Obama’s support for the DREAM Act was too little, too late, and ultimately the bill failed in part because 5 Democratic senators pooped out on the vote.

Reid’s office issued a press release that reads in part:

Nevada Senator Harry Reid and a group of 21 Democratic senators today sent a letter to President Barack Obama asking him to establish a rigorous, consistent and orderly process for handling requests for stays of deportation from young people who would qualify for the DREAM Act if it were to become law.

The Obama administration, like the Bush administration before it, has granted “deferred action” to some young people who would be eligible for the DREAM Act. But it has done so without a formal process, leading to inconsistent handling of cases by different field offices around the country. The senators requested that the Obama administration consider establishing a formal process for applying for deferred action and for tracking of DREAM Act cases, to ensure more consistent treatment of like cases.  The letter notes that DREAM Act students, unlike violent criminals or individuals who are a threat to national security, are not an enforcement priority and that deferred action in such cases can help conserve limited law enforcement resources.

We can only hope that President Obama pursues this route. After all, we know that he’s trying to pin “the Latino vote” on a single issue — education — and since he came so short during the DREAM Act fight, we at News Taco hope he’s able to make up with this. For, as we noted at the time, the DREAM Act opposition was really about anti-Latino sentiment and piling one more hateful issue on top of the Arizona-style laws and cat fight over who can be “tougher” on immigration (even if that means profiling anyone who “looks” Latino).

So, let’s hope that the senators and Obama do the right thing here, but let us not let them off the hook so easily. The 2012 election is coming up, have you registered to vote? Have you considered registering others to vote? Think about it, we’ve still got plenty of time, but if you want your representatives to truly represent your views on important issues like the DREAM Act, you have to start thinking about making them listen now.

Follow Sara Inés Calderón on Twitter @SaraChicaD