DREAM Act To Come Before Senate

This week may be the U.S. Senate’s last chance to pass a bill that would grant amnesty to undocumented students before Congress’ term ends and a Republican majority takes over the House of Representatives.

On Nov. 17, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid vowed to vote on the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act as a standalone bill during the lame duck period. If passed, the DREAM Act would provide some undocumented youth with a 6-year-long conditional path to citizenship upon the completion of two years of higher education or two years of military service. The bill is expected to be voted on this week.

“This is the last chance we have for [the bill to pass] this year and possibly for the next three years,” said Mario Rodas, a student at the Harvard Extension School and member of the Student Immigrant Movement. “With the new Congress coming up with the Republicans, they tend to be unsupportive of the DREAM Act.”

The Student Immigrant Movement—a Massachusetts student group that advocates for immigrant students—organized a rally that will take place today in front of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston.

About 250 people are expected to attend the rally this afternoon, which will feature students speaking and sharing their stories, according to Colette S. Perold ’11, a member of the Student Immigrant Movement.

“We can’t wait two more years,” Perold said. “We have to pass this right now.”

Other student advocacy groups on campus are also making a last minute push to draw support for the bill.

Harvard College Act on a Dream, a campus immigrant rights organization, is joining with the Harvard College Democrats to create a poster campaign, featuring posters with photo portraits accompanied by a pitch for passing the DREAM Act.

The idea is to garner support from the peers of undocumented students—as opposed to just the undocumented students themselves, according to Nicolas E. Jofre ’13, co-director of Act on a Dream.

Additionally, Act on a Dream is organizing a phone banking event to encourage affiliates to make calls to their senators about the upcoming vote. The student group has also repackaged its collection of undocumented students’ stories and will be sending them to senators.

If the DREAM Act is passed in the Senate, the legislation process will carry over to the House.

Despite the failed vote in the Senate in September when Reid introduced the DREAM Act as an attached bill, Joffre said he is still optimistic.

“As always, I’m hopeful that this will be the time that it finally goes through,” Jofre said. “I think, like last time, there are definitely obstacles, so it’s an uphill climb, but not an impossible climb.”

—Staff writer Xi Yu can be reached at xyu@college.harvard.edu.