The President will meet with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus today on the chances of passing the DREAM Act, which would give a path to citizenship for undocumented students if they first completed a college program or military service. Harry Reid has already vowed to bring the DREAM Act up for a vote, either as part of the defense authorization bill or as a standalone measure, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to join him in that effort; the House bill could happen this week. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) will join Reps. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY) and Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) at the meeting.
Elise Foley lays out the chances of DREAM Act passage.
I explain some of the votes up in the air in our preview of the lame-duck session today. Pelosi has said she hopes to call for a vote on the bill, as has Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). But so far, it’s unclear whether the Democratic leadership has the votes to pass the bill, with some members of the Democratic caucus likely to break with the party to vote against the bill.
For immigrant rights groups, the stakes are high: If the DREAM Act cannot pass with Democrat majorities in both the House and the Senate, it will almost certainly be delayed until at least 2013, when Democrats could again take control of Congress. Immigrant rights groups are stepping up their efforts by staging protests and lobbying politicians to vote for the bill.
Mark Kirk, who will join the Senate after Thanksgiving, is unlikely to support the DREAM Act in the lame duck, which means that supporters lose a vote in the Senate. There are some Republicans, like Bob Bennett (R-UT) and Richard Lugar (R-IN), who are likely to support a standalone bill. But there are an unspecified number of Democrats who would vote against it. Because of Kirk replacing Roland Burris, after Thanksgiving supporters would need a net +2 on the Republican side to reach the 60-vote threshold to break a filibuster. It’s unclear if they can do that.
We’ll see what comes out of the meeting.
