Joining a chorus of diverse support, yesterday Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, called on Congress to pass the DREAM Act citing improved immigration enforcement as another reason to back the legislation.
“It’s important to point out that the DREAM Act fits into a larger strategy of immigration enforcement, and would actually complement the Department of Homeland Security’s efforts to prioritize our enforcement resources on removing dangerous criminal aliens from the country,” Napolitano said.
The Secretary’s focus on enforcement and deportation was yet another angle meant to try to garner bipartisan support for the bill that would provide a pathway to legalization for students who are here without documentation and whose parents brought them to the US as children.
Napolitano added, “The DREAM Act would take out of the calculus those young people who really . . . are not responsible, of their own will, for being in the country.”
Both Sen. Harry Reid, the Majority Leader, and House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, have vowed to bring a version of the DREAM Act legislation up for a vote in their respective chambers during the lame duck session.
In an effort to attract Republican support, the version of the bill the Senate is considering contains more restrictive language than was previously considered.
Passage of the DREAM Act is unlikely without at least some Republican support. Earlier this week, Reid’s office singled out Sen. George LeMieux (La Plaza) for joining all fellow Senate Republicans in setting conditions before they would consider this or any other Democratic proposal.
No date for debating the bill has been set in either the House or Senate.
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