Senate Blocked Vote on DREAM Act

Remember Langston Hughes’ poem, “Harlem: Dream Deferred”? That’s all I could think of when I heard on Saturday that the DREAM Act was defeated in the Senate.  Here’s how it goes:

What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?

On Saturday, instead of moving this country forward by passing the DREAM Act, the Senate crushed the dreams of innocent immigrant children and denied them powerful incentives for military service and educational success by blocking a vote on the merits of the bill.  Even though the bill got 55 votes in favor of proceeding, it needed 5 more votes to block a filibuster and get to the Senate floor for an “up or down” vote.  This was the last chance to pass the DREAM Act during this congressional session.

As a reminder, the DREAM Act offered a route to legal status and citizenship—by way of military service or higher education—for immigrant youth who were brought to this country before age 16 and have been here for more than five consecutive years. It would have helped millions of children—who grew up here and call America “home”—avoid getting stuck in a cycle of poverty, by giving them the educational and career opportunities that generations of Americans have relied on to achieve economic security. But a minority of Senators blocked the measure from moving forward, leaving behind these children—would-be future soldiers, scholars, and successful American citizens—and denying them the dream we all hold so dear.

How did your Senator vote on the DREAM Act?  Well, as the New York Times reported, Democratic Senators Baucus, Pryor, Nelson, Hagan, and Tester voted against it.  Democratic Senator Joe Manchin did not vote. On the Republican side, Senators Lisa Murkowski, Robert Bennett and Richard Lugar voted in support of the Act, while Republican Senators Snowe, Collins and Scott Brown voted against it. Former sponsors and supporters McCain and Graham voted against letting the bill proceed, and Senator Hatch, who also supported the bill in the past, did not vote.