Wednesday, December 8, 2010

House Approves DREAM Act By 216-198 Vote, Now It Heads To U.S. Senate

Students of all ages protested on September 21, after the defeat of the DREAM Act by comming out and marching in S. Cesar E. Chavez Drive in Milwaukee. Today, they celebrated the House approval of the act. Photo by HNG

U.S. student immigrants long awaited DREAM Act almost a reality

By H. Nelson Goodson
December 8, 2010

Washington, D.C. - On Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives shortly after 8:00 p.m. passed the long awaited DREAM Act by a margin of bipartisan 216 - 198 votes, including eight Republicans. 38 Democrats voted with a majority of Republicans against it. The DREAM Act (Development, Relief, and Education for Aliens Minors Act) now heads to the U.S. Senate for a vote on Thursday morning, which is most likely to approve it after passing the main hurdle in the House.
The DREAM Act would provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented students who were brought to the U.S. at a young age of 16, lived in the U.S. for five years, had graduated from a credited high school or have completed the G.E.D., have good moral character, pass a background check and complete at least two years of college or military service.
The DREAM Act will affect about 2 million undocumented students in the U.S.
The House approval comes after millions of undocument parents have already contributed billions of tax dollars and Social Security (SS) in the last twenty years and don't collect tax refunds or qualify for SS retirement benefits. The enormous effort for support that was generated during the last four years by immigrant rights groups, activists, supporters, public and elected officials throughout the nation to convince House representatives to approve it, finally paid off.
The DREAM Act approval comes as a major blow for anti-immigrant groups and anti-amnesty organizations, which have engaged in racially motivated attacks and negative propaganda advocating against it.
Last week, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report indicated that the approval of the DREAM Act would help cut the federal deficit by $1.4 billion, and generate $2.3 billion in corporate and social insurance taxes within the next ten years. http://bit.ly/fk6B3N

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