July 13, 2007

Please find below an important message from the National Immigration Law Center regarding the DREAM ACT.

Write & Call your Senators!

SENATE TO VOTE ON DREAM ACT! ***IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED***

On Friday July 13, Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) announced that next week he, Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and Richard Lugar (R-IN) will introduce the DREAM Act as an amendment to H.R. 1585, the Department of Defense authorization bill, which is now being debated in the Senate. The amendment will need 60 votes to pass. Its adoption would be a giant step forward for the DREAM Act, which would then stand an excellent chance of becoming law this year.

The provisions of the DREAM Act amendment are expected to be word for word identical to S. 774, the bill that Senators Durbin, Hagel, and Lugar introduced earlier this spring. It would provide a 6-year path to permanent residence and eventual citizenship for individuals brought to the United States years ago as undocumented children if they graduate from high school and continue on to college or military service.

We do not yet know when the vote will be, and it is possible that procedural obstacles could prevent one from occurring at all. But regardless, it is imperative for all DREAM Act supporters to call your senators and click here to send an e-mail message to them today, and again tomorrow, and again every day until the vote occurs. You can find your Senators' phone numbers here.

We expect anti-immigrant groups to spread falsehoods about the DREAM Act and to try to inflame their base to intimidate Senators like they did in the recent Senate debate about immigration reform. But DREAM Act supporters are passionate too. We can and must fight back and match their intensity.

CALL BOTH OF YOUR SENATORS AND TELL THEM "PLEASE VOTE FOR THE DURBIN-HAGEL-LUGAR DREAM ACT AMENDMENT TO H.R. 1585 SO THAT IMMIGRANT STUDENTS BROUGHT HERE AS CHILDREN CAN REALIZE THEIR POTENTIAL"