News Update - October 26, 2007

By Alan Lee, Esq.^†‡

A DREAM Deferred: Senate Comes Up Short on Vote to Debate S.2205 on 10/24/07

The Senate voted 52-44 in favor of proceeding on debate of the DREAM Act (S.2205). However, 60 votes were needed to proceed. 8 votes short, the bill promising an opportunity for youths who entered the U.S. before the age of 16 and completed high school or the GED or are in college, is probably finished for this year. Just before the vote, the White House sent out a press release announcing the Administration’s opposition to the bill citing the need for comprehensive immigration reform and what it perceived as gaps or shortcomings in the legislation. Unless the Dream Act is resubmitted for consideration, there is the possibility that no meaningful immigration legislation will be passed this year. The White House's lack of support and even opposition to the DREAM Act was extremely disappointing to its supporters.

† The author is a 26+ year practitioner of immigration law based in New York City. He was awarded the Sidney A. Levine prize for best legal writing at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in 1977 and has written extensively on immigration over the past years for the ethnic newspapers, World Journal, Sing Tao, Pakistan Calling, Muhasha and OCS. He has testified as an expert on immigration in civil court proceedings and was recognized by the Taiwan government in 1985 for his work protecting human rights. His article, "The Bush Temporary Worker Proposal and Comparative Pending Legislation: an Analysis" was Interpreter Releases' cover display article at the American Immigration Lawyers Association annual conference in 2004, and his victory in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in a case of first impression nationwide, Firstland International v. INS, successfully challenged INS' policy of over 40 years of revoking approved immigrant visa petitions under a nebulous standard of proof. Its value as precedent, however, was short-lived as it was specifically targeted by the Administration in the Intelligence Reform Act of 2004.

‡ This article © 2007 Alan Lee, Esq.

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