Long after it appeared that federal immigration reforms were abandoned this year, Senate Democrats surprised immigrant groups last week by announcing that they would attach the so-called DREAM Act to a defense reauthorization bill already headed for a vote.
Illinois advocates welcomed the support for a proposal primarily sponsored by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., that would grant conditional legal status to people brought into the country illegally as children if they attend college or join the U.S. military.
But opponents criticized the Democratic move as a cynical ploy to win more Latino votes just before the November midterm elections.
The Senate prepared for a procedural vote this week that, if passed, would clear the way for a floor debate on the DREAM Act. Even though chances still appear slim for the legislation first introduced in 2001, the announcement has mobilized both sides, with faxes and phone calls flying into congressional offices.
"When I first heard about it, I was so excited; it sounded too good to be true," said Uriel Sanchez, 19, a political science student at Harold Washington Community College in Chicago.
Like thousands of others who would be affected by the legislation, Sanchez has religiously monitored every mention of the act. Last year, he was forced to turn down acceptance to DePaul University after learning that his illegal status made him ineligible for financial aid and, therefore, unable to afford the university's tuition.
"It would make a drastic, 180-degree turn in my life," said Sanchez, who was brought into the U.S. illegally as a child. "It would clear the way for so many career possibilities."
Such arguments have been made repeatedly in support of the DREAM Act, fueling the frustrations of advocates who had pushed for the stalled legislation that would grant conditional legal status to students and military personnel who entered the U.S. illegally before they were 16 and have lived continuously here for five years.
Last week, President Barack Obama acknowledged the frustrations in a speech at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute in Washington that blamed Republicans for the lack of movement.
Roy Beck, whose NumbersUSA group in Virginia has argued against passage of the DREAM Act, dismissed any talk of immigration reforms so close to the congressional elections as political gamesmanship.
He criticized supporters of the legislation for depicting its sole beneficiaries as children and recent high school graduates when the age cap for those eligible extends to 35-year-olds. The bill's drafters say that age limit is an effort to include those who would have benefited from the bill when it was first introduced.
"It's like a rhetorical bait-and-switch," Beck argued. "They use a very small number of people as a wedge to get 2 million people in as amnestees."
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