Senate Fails on Dream Act
Posted: December 18, 2010 Filed under: Civil Rights, Democratic Politics, Human Rights, jobs, legislation | Tags: senate fail, The Dream Act 12 Comments
People are NOT Political Pinatas
Right after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans had an influx of Mexican workers. Many spent their evenings at Vaughn’s because owner Cindy has a house in Mexico and has a lot of cantina music on the juke box. She also runs a gift store that sells native art from all over Mexico. There’s a side room with a TV that’s mostly on soccer too. We’re a very welcoming neighborhood. The upper 9 is pretty diverse and tolerate. We’re known as the place where the gay community, artists, writers and musicians live as well as a huge number of working class people. It’s an inner city hood. Make no doubt about that. Most of the neighborhood didn’t didn’t flood since it’s so close to the Mississippi. It was a natural place for recovery workers to dwell. We’re one mile east of the French Quarter via the River Road. Close enough to walk, bike or take the shuttle, but far enough to miss Mardi Gras madness and tourists.
Anyway, I got to meet a young man in his early 20s there. He was extremely cute, had a wicked crush on my neighbor, and you wouldn’t know he was Mexican because he could barely speak Spanish. He’d been brought to the country as a baby and was educated in U.S. schools. For all intents and purposes, Juan is a typical American young adult about the age of my oldest daughter. But, if he were picked up by ICE, he would be sent back to a country where he knows no one, can’t speak the language very well, and has absolutely no attachments. Why would we do that? His story compelled me to find out more about the Dream Act. I can’t see visiting the ‘sins’ of the elders on kids like these. Current immigration policy is way too harsh.
Evidently, Senate Republicans and RINOs disagree with me.
The Senate failed Juan and many other kids of various foreign births in similar situations. (I was surprised to find how many Irish and New Zealand illegals we have in New Orleans so it’s not just all about Mexicans, but their numbers are obviously larger.) This information is from the NYT and David Herszenhorn. To me, Passing the Dream Act should’ve been a no brainer. The Republicans held together in their block of “no to everything we didn’t think of” and then there were the usual RINOs like Ben Nelson who represent the neanderthal wing of the Democratic Party.
The Senate on Saturday blocked a bill that would have created a path to citizenship for certain young illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children, completed two years of college or military service and met other requirements, including passing a criminal background check.
The vote by 55-41 in favor of the bill, which is known as the Dream Act, effectively kills it for this year, and its fate is uncertain. The measure needed the support of 60 senators to cut off a filibuster and bring it to the floor.
Supporters said they were heartened that the measure won the backing of a majority of the Senate. They said they would continue to press for it, either on its own or as part of a wide immigration overhaul that some Democrats hope to undertake next year and believe could be an area of cooperation with Republicans, who will control a majority in the House
Most immediately, the measure would have helped grant legal status to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrant students and recent graduates whose lives are severely restricted though many have lived in the United States for nearly their entire lives.
Young Hispanic men and women filled the spectator galleries of the Senate, many of them wearing graduation caps and tassels in a symbol of their support for the bill. They held hands in a prayerful gesture as the clerk called the roll and many looked stricken as its defeat was announced.
President Obama had personally lobbied lawmakers in support the bill. But Democrats were not able to hold ranks.
Five Democrats joined Republicans in opposing the bill. They were Democratic Senators Max Baucus of Montana, Kay Hagan of North Carolina, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Jon Tester of Montana.
I’ve never been sure why we make it so hard for people to get citizenship here. My Lama–a Sherpa from Nepal– just got his citizenship last year via his religious VISA and green card being the lama at our Dharma Center. I’m sponsoring his young son who just started at UNO and wants to be a doctor. His daughter is in Massachusetts now with other sangha family going to community college. I’ve been sponsoring Sherpas for some time now.
There are lots of students I meet from other countries that major in areas where we could used some help. Of course, any service to our country through military or other duty should be rewarded. But, some folks just cling to some xenophobic idea of being overrun by outsiders or something. This confuses me because if some one really wants to be an American and contribute, we should reward it. We shouldn’t make villains of the very people that want to be us. The senate garnered 55 votes. That’s a clear majority. Something is very wrong right now with the beltway. So many people’s lives should not be held hostage by a belligerent minority. People are not political pinatas.
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
ecocatwoman
grayslady
mablue2
NW Luna
peggysue22
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Personally, I don’t believe that failure of the Dream Act was such bad thing. The students, who’ve gotten higher education can go back to countries that need better educated population. The U.S. educated students can give more in those countries that they could here.
I’m not sure that some of those students that don’t want to be here won’t go back any way. From my experience, most of them do return unless they come from countries with unbearable problems. I just think we should be more open to folks staying; especially if they have engineering degrees, etc.
When the “hate and bigotry” drum has been beaten as loudly and as vociferously as it has the last two years, there is no question that the “fear” this elicits would have an impact in how we perceive ourselves as a nation.
Being a “Christian nation” we seem to believe we have the right to impose these outmoded beliefs on the rest of the world as we go about denying anyone and everything an equal share to live with dignity.
I say this after watching those GOP members today fight against this policy and DADT with nary a hint that includes a conscience. It is unbelievable to me to find that there are still some willing, able, and proud to wear their hypocrisy as a badge of courage.
I think part of it is fear of the unknown and the foreign people taking good jobs because thay may be qualified. .
We should probably bring up the experience of the Mung folks who were imegrated from Vietnam and deposited in the Wisncon, Minndsota and Michigan area. Dak – you might have more insight and I would defer to you because of your MN experience. I think the Mung people were Montonyards who helped us in Vietnam during the War.
How ever this is my understanding from the Wausau area. These folks were dumped in the area, sponsored by religious and state dept people for 1/2 year. Then they became wards of the local school district who had to staff up for teahing, depleating other programs. Then relatives started showing up and cramping apartments. Crime and violence picked up. It took years to assimilate with a lot of bitterness.
Then the famous deer hunting incident in north west Wisconsin where hunters were harassing Mung people from Wisconsin. They wear poaching on private land. Ratial epitats started flying and the Mung people knew how to stalk and use guns with several being killed.
A similar thing is going to happen with the Caldean folks when we get out of Iraq. Chaldeans are Christian Iranians. Detroit has a lot of arab immegrants and it shows up in the crime statistics. Several Small business loan indictments show up. For some reason they concentrate in gas station ownership and sell illegal tax free imported cigarettes from South Carolina.
Another example was while working at GE, I was forced to take a Vietnameese River Boat captain on staff and put him to work. He spoke halting english. Wonderfull person but imposed on me.
A lot of Mung people have done very well and are model citizens, A lot of them not.
Now in North Central, Wisconin a meat packing plant has manny spanish speaking folks. I kind of kid the folks back home that this will all blow over when the kids start co habitating. The diety or evolution designed it that way. The God fearing Christians are very nervous about that.
What is your experience with the Vietnam shrimpers in LA
So – most of it is fear, economic pressures, unfamiliarity and bad experiences. I think those of us that have had academic experienct to foreign folks have a ragher pristene view.
Further comment: in the deer hunting massacure, a lot of locals got killed. No Mung casualties
So, a story local to Seattle.
A young baby was adopted by an American couple, aged I think about 5 months or so, from an orphanage in Mexico 30+ years ago. She grew up in America, can only speak English, never been to Mexico, has no ties there. She’s married, has kids, been to college.
For some reason her citizenship papers never got filed correctly. Her fault, her parents’ fault? who knows.
She went through some rough times, got drunk, stole something from a friend, got talked to by police. Then ICE came down. She’s been living in a detention center for something like 3 years while ICE is working through the court system to deport her.
To a country she doesn’t know. She doesn’t speak the language. She has no relatives there. They want to dump her on the streets of Mexico. The latest judge has decided that it won’t put her in mortal danger to dump her on the streets of a country she’s never been to. ICE says she can come back to the country in 10 years… so 10 years in Mexico, with no job, no place to stay, no support system, nothing.
Immigration is a tough topic. I figure if we don’t want the immigrants, then we’d better raise the salaries on the jobs they do, so Americans’ll do them. Other than that, this country needs the immigrant under class to pick vegetables, gut and skin chickens, process pork, run offal through grinders to make dog and cat food… and all those other low paid disgusting jobs most Americans won’t do.
Sheesh. Where are our priorities in this country?
Dak – I used to read Peter Drucker a lot and he predicted this to happen years ago. His point was the economic disparity across the border would be a massive draw and no force could stop it.
It makes it worse that we are the major drug users for the drug industry south of the border. I now nothing about drugs etc, however realize that we have to take th mariket away from the crooks. Hence legalization of Mariwanna is a start
Dak – it is my understanding that the clan flourished mostly in hard economic times. Have you seen anything of the clan starting up down there?
The Klan’s always been around in parts of GA, LA, MS, and AL. They’ve never gone away in some of the more rural areas. I’m not sure if they’re numbers are up or down. I usually check RIGHTWING WATCH or the Southern Poverty Law website’s HATE Map to find out what they and similar groups are up to. They have little symbols that tell you were the NAZI, KLAN, Nation of Islam, and then the Bircher/Christian Church places with other hate groups that attack Gays and Minority groups. I’d go check it out. California, Florida and Texas are the states with the most known hate groups.
Oh, I can answer this. I live in the heart of KKK country…In fact the grand wizard of the clan lives in the county next to mine. There are plenty of fire parties around here. So yes, it is flourishing. I just do not know if it is building steam in the rest of the country. Thanks for that link to the hate map Dak…
You don’t get so many below I-10 but above it they’re flourishing!! Just west of Jackson MS around Monroe is just awful! There was a pod around Hammond that killed a woman that asked to be a recruit and then decided to back out. It was a father son and a few neighbors. If I was black, I wouldn’t live any where in the N/E corner of LA. It’s scary up there. I had a black colleague at UNO around 10 years ago that had just graduated from LU in Monroe. Kids would spit on her from their dorm windows. NW Part of Mississippi is scary too. You just don’t want to go outside of Jackson.