Immigration

Senators reject legal status for children of immigrants

The so-called Dream Act would have allowed young people to gain citizenship through education or the military.

By Nicole Gaouette and Johanna Neuman
Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
October 24, 2007

WASHINGTON -- The Senate today rejected a bill that would have allowed young people brought to the United States as children by their illegal immigrant parents to gain legal status provided they attended school or entered the military.

The 52-44 vote, short of the 60 required, was seen as a test of the Senate's appetite for pursuing an immigration overhaul on a piecemeal basis, as opposed to the comprehensive approach that failed this summer. The procedural vote would have allowed debate to begin.

'Melting pot' America

Vote dashes Bush immigration plan
BBC NEWS
6-26-07

The US Senate has blocked a vote on a landmark immigration bill, dealing a major blow to one of President George W Bush's key policy planks.

Senators rejected a motion to take the bill to a final vote - meaning action on the planned law is now unlikely until the presidential poll in 2008.

President Bush had argued the bill would give the immigration system a much-needed overhaul.

But its conservative opponents said it gave an amnesty to illegal immigrants.

The planned law would have enabled some of the millions of illegal immigrants already living within the US to eventually seek citizenship.

"Hordes Redux" Mark Fiore
Mark Fiore

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2007/06/06/...