 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
California politicians voiced strong disappointment on Friday after the Senate filibustered the Dream Act. "I deeply regret that the Senate did not vote to consider the Dream Act," Senator Dianne Feinstein said in a statement. Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, another Senator from California, were among the 55 who voted in favor of the Dream Act, but the bill fell five votes short of the 60 it needed for passage. Earlier in the day, Senate Republican voted to block the Dream Act which would have given hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants a path to legal status if they enrolled in college or joined the military. "Many of these children know no other country as their own," the Feinstein statement read. "And I believe we should give them a chance to succeed." Boxer issued a similar statement to express her disappointment. Meanwhile, Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa decried the death of what he called a "sensible, pragmatic piece of legislation (that) would have strengthened our economy and infused the talent and skills of hard-working, educated young adults into our country's workforce and military". Although the bill will be reintroduced next year, its chances are rated as poor in next year's Republican-majority House of Representatives. In Los Angeles, immigration rights advocates said the Senate had made a huge mistake. "Today, democracy lost and politics won," lamented Angelica Salas, coordinator for the California Dream Network. "We will strengthen our voter engagement programs and we will focus on 2012," she said. The opponents view the bill as an unfair reward for people who broke U.S. immigration laws. Republican senators maintained that the United States better secure its borders with Mexico before changing immigration laws. They also argued that it was unfair to people who were waiting outside the country for a shot at citizenship to allow illegal aliens to register first. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
