WASHINGTON — The Obama administration and Latino rights groups Friday made an 11th-hour plea to lawmakers as the Senate prepared to vote on a contentious immigration bill that could provide citizenship to foreign-born immigrants.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., plans to hold a Senate vote on a procedural measure today to cut off a Republican filibuster and move the so-called DREAM Act to the full Senate for approval.
Supporters of the bill concede they lack the 60 votes needed to cut off debate, but they spent the waning hours making telephone calls to more than a half dozen Senate Republicans seeking their support for the bill.
Seeking support
President Barack Obama was calling lawmakers, urging them to vote for the Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors Act, said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.
"He's talking with those whose votes are tremendously important," Gibbs told a group of regional reporters.
Obama did not contact Texas Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn, both Republicans, who vocally oppose the DREAM Act and are targeted by immigration activists lobbying them to change their vote.
Hutchison, through a spokeswoman, claims the DREAM Act would expand the number of illegal immigrants eligible for citizenship beyond the children it was initially meant to help.
Republicans argue that the bill would create a "chain migration" and "amnesty" for illegal immigrant relatives and spouses.
Supporters argue that if the so-called DREAMers meet all the requirements for eventual citizenship, they will be awarded conditional residency for a period of 10 years, during which they must complete two years of college or military service and stay out of trouble.
After becoming a permanent resident, the applicant must wait an additional three years before applying for citizenship.
Once U.S. citizens - which could be 15 to 20 years after they first applied under the act - DREAMers could petition for parents or siblings to gain legal status.
The House voted mostly along party lines last week to pass the bill, 216-198.
As the Senate vote neared, Obama administration officials sought to dismiss Republican concerns and highlight aspects of the bill.
Brought by parents
Education Secretary Arne Duncan said the nation needs the contributions of thousands of youth who go to college or the military, but who were brought to this country by illegal immigrant parents.
"DREAM Act students are in a bind. It goes against the basic American sense of fairness to punish children for the choices of their parents," Duncan said.
Duncan estimates that the DREAM Act would provide legal status for 65,000 high school graduates a year.
Opponents, meanwhile, cited a report by the Center for Immigration Studies saying the law would result in 1 million illegal immigrants entering state universities and colleges at cost to taxpayers of $6.2 billion a year.
Those eligible for eventual citizenship under the law would have to be under age 30, brought to this country before age 16, have lived here for more than five years, graduated from high school and willing to spend two years in college or serve two years in the military.
