October 24, 2007

Wednesday Cloture Vote Set For DREAM Act Amnesty Bill

October 23, 2007 Last night, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) filed to invoke cloture on S. 2205, Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin’s (D-Ill.) new stand-alone DREAM Act amnesty bill. The cloture vote, for which 60 YES votes are necessary to prevent a filibuster on the measure, is set for Wednesday, October 24. Reid is attempting to bring this nightmarish amnesty bill to the floor under Senate Rule XIV without it ever having been debated in committee.

It is imperative that everyone call their senators today to ask them to vote NO on cloture for S. 2205.

Call your senators today to ask them to oppose the DREAM Act: 202-224-3121.

Our Anti-Amnesty Champions

The senators listed below have made a firm commitment to vote NO on the DREAM Act amnesty under any circumstances.

Alabama: Sessions; Shelby
Colorado: Allard
Georgia: Chambliss; Isakson
Kansas: Roberts
Kentucky: Bunning; McConnell
Louisiana: Vitter
Mississippi: Lott
Missouri: Bond
North Carolina: Burr; Dole
Oklahoma: Coburn; Inhofe
South Carolina: DeMint
South Dakota: Thune
Tennessee: Alexander; Corker
Wyoming: Barrasso; Enzi

The Rest of the Senate

The senators listed below have not made a firm commitment to vote NO on the DREAM Act amnesty.

SENATORS IN GREEN are consistently telling their constituents that they will vote NO on the amnesty. But they have declined to pledge a NO vote meaning they still need more phone calls.

SENATORS IN RED have pledged to vote YES on the amnesty. Don't let them off easy. They need calls, too.

All phone numbers are in the 202 area code.

Alaska: Murkowski 224-6665; Stevens 224-3004
Arizona: Kyl 224-4521; McCain 224-2235
Arkansas: Lincoln 224-4843; Pryor 224-2353
California: Boxer 224-3553; Feinstein 224-3841
Colorado: Salazar 224-5852
Connecticut: Dodd 224-2823; Lieberman 224-4041
Delaware: Biden 224-5042; Carper 224-2441
Florida: Martinez 224-3041; Nelson (Bill) 224-5274
Hawaii: Akaka 224-6361; Inouye 224-3934
Idaho: Craig 224-2752; Crapo 224-6142
Illinois: Durbin 224-2152; Obama 224-2854
Indiana: Bayh 224-5623; Lugar 224-4814
Iowa: Grassley 224-3744; Harkin 224-3254
Kansas: Brownback 224-6521
Louisiana: Landrieu 224-5824
Maine: Collins 224-2523; Snowe 224-5344
Maryland: Cardin 224-4524; Mikulski 224-4654
Massachusetts: Kennedy 224-4543; Kerry 224-2742
Michigan: Levin 224-6221; Stabenow 224-4822
Minnesota: Coleman 224-5641; Klobuchar 224-3244
Mississippi: Cochran 224-5054
Missouri: McCaskill 224-6154
Montana: Baucus 224-2651; Tester 224-2644
Nebraska: Hagel 224-4224; Nelson (Ben) 224-6551
Nevada: Ensign 224-6244; Reid 224-3542
New Hampshire: Gregg 224-3324; Sununu 224-2841
New Jersey: Lautenberg 224-3224; Menendez 224-4744
New Mexico: Bingaman 224-5521; Domenici 224-6621
New York: Clinton 224-4451; Schumer 224-6542
North Dakota: Conrad 224-2043; Dorgan 224-2551
Ohio: Brown 224-2315; Voinovich 224-3353
Oregon: Smith 224-3753; Wyden 224-5244
Pennsylvania: Casey 224-6324; Specter 224-4254
Rhode Island: Reed 224-4642; Whitehouse 224-2921
South Carolina: Graham 224-5972
South Dakota: Johnson 224-5842
Texas: Cornyn 224-2934; Hutchison 224-5922
Utah: Bennett 224-5444; Hatch 224-5251
Vermont: Leahy 224-4242; Sanders 224-5141
Virginia: Warner 224-2023; Webb 224-4024
Washington: Cantwell 224-3441; Murray 224-2621
West Virginia: Byrd 224-3954; Rockefeller 224-6472
Wisconsin: Feingold 224-5323; Kohl 224-5653

DREAM Act S. 2205

NOTE: October 23, 2007 - E-mail sent to Senators

Joseph Biden (D)
Thomas Carper (D)

Please vote NO for this bill because

1. Any form of amnesty only encourages more illegal immigration. That is one of the reasons I oppose the DREAM Act.

2. Please note that this legislation covers "children" up to the age of 30, and there are exceptions for those over 30. When these amnesty recipients turn 21, they can bring in their parents and petition to bring in their other relatives--aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. The result will be a flood of millions into the U.S. and a further strain on our schools, hospitals, and infrastructure.

3. The American people have spoken, and they have spoken clearly. They are opposed to any form of amnesty. We must first enforce our laws, at the border and at the workplace.

4. I implore you to oppose the DREAM Act.

Joseph Parish
DelMarVa Survival Training Site
http://www.survival-training.info

NOTE: October 24, 2007 - Email received from Senator Thomas Carper

Senator Tom Carper
SH 513
Washington, DC 20510

202-224-2441 Washington
302-674-3308 Dover
302-856-7690 Georgetown
302-573-6291 Wilmington

http://carper.senate.gov
 

Dear Mr. Parish:

Thank you for contacting me to express your concerns about the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act of 2007. I appreciate hearing your views on this important issue.

Throughout my years in public service, I’ve worked to improve access to higher education for people from all walks of life. Graduation from high school is an important milestone in life, and many high school graduates look forward to attending college. For some though, the opportunity to attend college and realize their educational dreams is not an option because of their immigration status. Many of these children were brought to the U.S. when they were very young by parents who entered our country illegally. These children did not have a choice as to where they would live, but many of these children ultimately grew up here, went to school here, and have worked hard over the years to become productive members of our society.

Under current law, an undocumented immigrant is ineligible for in-state higher education benefits. Consequently, thousands of young people are prevented from pursuing higher education. Among them are honor-roll students, star athletes, and talented artists. In an effort to address this issue, Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Richard Durbin (D-IL) introduced bipartisan legislation several years ago that is now known as the DREAM Act (S. 774), which would remove some of the barriers to pursue education that this specific group of immigrants face. While this measure would not make this limited group of young people American citizens, it would allow them to earn the right to apply for legal status and to apply for college if they fulfill certain requirements. Among those requirements are: 1) qualifying undocumented students must have come to the U.S. before the age of 15 and have lived here for at least five years; 2) they must have attended and graduated from high school in the U.S.; and 3) they must be of good moral character. Moreover, the bill would also allow states to determine who is eligible for in-state tuition rates at state colleges or universities.

As you may know, Senators Hatch and Durbin recently planned to offer this legislation in the form of an amendment to the 2008 Department of Defense Authorization Act. While the amendment was not voted on by the full Senate and ultimately not included in the defense bill, I do expect the Senate to consider the DREAM Act at some time in the coming months. I have heard from a number of constituents who, like yourself, are opposed to the DREAM Act. I want you to know that I understand your concerns. In fact, I had similar reservations with the bill myself when I first heard about it several years ago. However, after careful examination, I came to realize that there were many misconceptions about the legislation. It is my belief that the DREAM Act is not an amnesty measure. It is narrowly tailored to assist only a select group of young people who have followed the rules, even if their parents did not, to earn the right to apply for legal status, but not citizenship.

Initially, I thought the bill might systematically reward immigrants with full legal status. However, that is not the case. Only after these student immigrants have lived here for more than five years, and have met the aforementioned requirements, would they have the opportunity to apply for a six-year conditional residential status. During that six year period, qualifying immigrants must complete at least two years of college, or serve honorably in the U.S. military for at least two years. If the immigrants do not satisfy these requirements, or if they commit any crimes within that period, their status would be revoked immediately and they would be subject to deportation.

I was also concerned the DREAM Act would create an incentive for parents to move their children here illegally. I directed my staff to search for any studies or reports that found a correlation between illegal immigration and access to a college education in this country. They could not find one. In fact, if they had, I would not have lent my support to this bill.

Moreover, I wanted to ensure that this bill would not have a negative impact on American students who are applying to college. It would be unfair for students who qualify under the DREAM Act to have an advantage over other students. Senator Hatch has explained to me that the DREAM Act would not affect colleges’ admission processes. Instead, it would give qualifying students the opportunity to prove their academic merits. It would not provide students with financial aid. Instead, it would allow this group of undocumented students to apply and compete for federal student assistance in the same manner as other students do.

The legislation would also benefit our military, which has been stretched thin by the missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Under the DREAM Act, thousands of well-qualified recruits would become eligible to join the U.S. military for the first time. And since many of them grew up in the U.S. and consider this their home, it is only natural that they would want to serve and protect our nation, something that I did for 23 years as a naval flight officer on active and reserve duty. Most people do not know that we have more than 40,000 men and women serving in our military today- service members who are not citizens of our country- but who love our nation so much that they are willing to risk their lives to protect it. These are exactly the type of immigrants that Senator Hatch and his coauthors of the DREAM Act had in mind. All military recruits who qualify under the DREAM Act must be well-qualified high-school graduates with good moral character and no criminal background.

That being said, I do not believe the DREAM Act is perfect, but there will be opportunities to improve the bill if it is to make its way through Congress in the months ahead. In the meantime, I firmly believe that we need to redouble our efforts to protect our borders and strengthen worksite enforcement before addressing other immigration issues. Along with many of my Senate colleagues, I voted earlier this summer to provide an additional $3 billion for border security, detention center beds, and worksite enforcement, as well as to begin the construction of a 700-mile fence along the U.S.-Mexico border.

As you know, today we have some 12 million immigrants living in our country illegally. While the flow has been significantly slowed over the past year, more still arrive each day, so we can’t sit back and be complacent. I assure you that I will continue to work with my colleagues to secure our borders and aggressively enforce our laws against employers who knowingly hire illegal workers. The faster we act, the sooner we’ll be able to deter future unlawful entry into our country, while ensuring that a bad situation does not grow any worse.

Thank you again for contacting my office. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future about matters of importance to you.

With best personal regards, I am

Sincerely,

Tom Carper
United States Senator