The U.S. Senate failed Saturday morning to halt debate and move to a vote on the DREAM Act, which would create a path to citizenship for some illegal immigrants who entered the country as children.
Supporters could not rally the 60 votes needed to invoke cloture, which would conclude debate on the matter so it could proceed to a vote for or against passage. The vote on the cloture motion was 55-41.
Read CNN's coverage of the DREAM Act debate
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Past presidents & lawmakers had the guts to get illegals out of the country to make jobs for AMERICANS. There are many carpenters out of work but in the Orlando area there are companies that only hire illegals while American workers are collecting unemployment. INS said it will only deport those committing crimes, do these dunces understand the word illegal and that they are already breaking the laws of this country. But I guess it is like the old saying birds of a feather flock together,(Lawbreakers, not lawmakers) are illegals of a different type. It make a mockery of every immigrant of the past that wanted into our country legally and be come a patriotic, legal productive citizen who speaks English, the language of the land. Illegals should have no rights in this country. I had a situation where a woman was screaming at me in spanish while fishing and tried to grab my cell phone, later found she wanted paramedics for husband that became a blue smurf via a heart attack, if she took the effort to learn the language she might have a husband today.
Its funny mexicans thought racism was suppose to skip them as if it only applied to AFRICAN AMERICANS mexicans are so nieve and it shows welcome to this great country ha ha ha
The Democrats failed these kids, but they will manipulate them into mobilizing the vote for Obama in 2012. Nobody minds when ilegal immigrant farm workers keep our food affordable, and nobody minds when illegal immigrants deposit billions (yes billions) into our banks. But God forbid their children should get the chance to APPLY for citizenship after going to school or serving in the military. These kids are the wrong color. That's the real issue here.
And to Steve K, your parents are not contributing billions to our economy through their labor like the parents of these kids are, so your situation is not comparable.
Susan,
Me and my parents did not contribute billions, but my work and work of people that are in a similar situation contributed hundreds of billions. Just look at Sergey Brin as an example of a smart legal immigrant or a tonn of kids working in Silicon Valley and or finance. In general, legal immigrants built this country and contribute infinitely more than any illigals do. Your comment makes no sense.
I don't understand how non-citizens easily get state and federal services that I as a citizen and vet have to jump thru hoops to get, by proving that I am indeed a citizen! What is so hard in defining "illegal" in this "computer age"!
Nasty Nate: They were dumb to vote for Obama, as was the rest of the country. You have the mentality of someone who wants these kids to be just as miserbale as you are. Not going to happen. We will make sure of that.
Steve K, historically, California agriculture has brought in more money than Silicon Valley. You don't know what you're talking about. And it sounds to me like you are unfamiiliar with the Dream Act. It was a chance for these kids to APPLY for citizenship ten years after serving in the military or attending college. Nobody is taking anything from you. Everytime you eat affordable food remember who planted it, packed it, and shipped it. As I said, we have no trouble economically exploiting immigrants from Mexico and Latin America.
All agriculture is heavily subsidized so it is money loser for the country historically even with the cheap labor – my problem with DREAM act is that it allows "the bottom of the barrel" get in front of the line while the rest of us legals have to wait in line for many years (the same years as before or even worse). The government is picking favorites when it should be either all or none (at the very least those that are legal should get an easier way in if illigals get an amnesty) And Silicon Valley made this country a leader in the world – not the government subsidized farmers. Especially not the crop pickers.
Re: "gives it to those that broke the law"
They didn't break the law. It's not against the law to cross the Mexican border. Why not? Because that's how we get farmworkers. And it's not corrupt for the federal government to regulate immigration by passing the Dream Act. That's their job. You really don't know what you're talking about.
It is in fact against the law to cross the border without papers or overstay your visa. It does not matter who and why they are here. Read the law – I spent enough time applying for visas to know that to be as certain as death and taxes.
Re: "It is in fact against the law to cross the border without papers or overstay your visa."
Wrong. It's not a crime to cross the Mexican border, but it is a crime to overstay your visa. Stop spreading misinformation.
I clearly states cross a border without papers. Pay attention.
I clearly stated... Correction
try living in Texas. go to a grocery store and look at all the stuff that caters to hispanics. i am bilingual (thank god) and i have talked to illeagals, they work crappy jobs, eat crappy food and live in one bedroom apts. with five guys (one on the lease), the money they make gets wired to the familia in the country they are from. do i want them gone? heck yeah, they are taking jobs, filling the schools and draining services like city, state and federal. on the flip side if all the lazy white, black or tan legals would get off thier butts and do these jobs then the we wouldnt have as big a problem. but no, it is easier to live off the gov. teat and keep making babies. this country has gone free and brave to home of the lazy and give me a hand out.
Steve K, My problem with DREAM act is that it allows "the bottom of the barrel"
What is bottom of the barrel about these kids? Nothing. You're no better or more deserving of anything than they are. As for your comment about crop pickers, without an agricultural labor force, agribusiness would move out of this country, and we have no affordable food. Game over.
If you're going to be part of this country, you'd better realize that all human being have worth. You should also study economics because I don't think you understand the basics. You don't understand what kind of infrastructure needs to be in place for something like Silicon Valley to exist, and you don't understand where that infrastructure comes from. And Silicon Valley also receives government money in the form of education investment and government contracts..
Susan, your attempt to attach aliens being illegally in U.S.A. to agricultural Inc. is laughable and also is very similar to slavery, where Africans were brought to US Plantations to work for Rich Plantation Owners. SO, basically you promote no freedoms for these poor people, since they can not move somewhere else or to work for other industries, – right? If that is the case YOU and ALL Others like you who corrupted US legal system and immigration enforcement to show illusion of same opportunity as legal people in America to illegals in order to exploit them heavily, and when they get older to ditch them.
Susan, your attempt to attach aliens being illegally in U.S.A. to agricultural Inc. is laughable and also is very similar to slavery, where Africans were brought to US Plantations to work for Rich Plantation Owners. SO, basically you promote no freedoms for these poor people, since they can not move somewhere else or to work for other industries, – right? If that is the case YOU and ALL Others like you who corrupted US legal system and immigration enforcement to show illusion of same opportunity as legal people in America to illegals in order to exploit them heavily, and when they get older to ditch them.
I don't know where you got the idea that I support no freedom for farmworkers. I just described the system as it has existed for nearly 100 years in CA. When I hear people say that "illegal immigrants" do not contribute to the economy, I know it's wrong because their farm labor alone contributes hundreds of billions of dollars to our economy. As I said, nobody cares if they pick crops and deposit their paychecks into US banks. Just don't ask to be a citizen and cut
in "line" in front of somebody who has never contributed anything to this country.
Why do you think all of the Democrats from the midwest agricultural states voted agianst the Deam Act? Because agribusiness there wants another generation of cheap labor. They aren't on the border with easy access to laborers.
Susan, are you OK then to allow contagiously sick illegal immigrant worker, since they din't go through health check as legal immigrants do, to touch food and other transmission media and you are not concerned as this is National Security issue? – WOW!
Steve K, so you're saying that you want to be included in the Dream Act? You realize that there is a ten year wait just to APPLY for citizenship once the applicant has attended two years of college, or served in the military? And you are not eligible for any student loans or government financial aid? And that citizenship is not guaranteed? I don't see how that is easier than your own immigration process. You don't have to go before a firing line. Plus you were allowed to take out a student loan.
If they were contagious, we'd all be dead by now. Get real.
Naptime, kids!
@ Susan: is it crime to cross ranch and US border, such as in killed by illegals Robert Kranz case in Arizona?
Nobody knows who killed Mr. Kranz. The majority of people killed on the border are Mexican, and it has been that way for 150 years.