Latino, labor and community leaders are calling on senators from both parties to support the DREAM Act when it comes up for a historic vote in the Senate tomorrow morning (currently slated for 10:30 am).
Today, leaders of organizations that mobilize Latino and new American voters emphasized on a press call how real immigration reform like DREAM has become a litmus test issue for these voters, and how tomorrow’s vote on the DREAM Act will be a moment of truth for each and every senator. DREAM is a bipartisan bill that is supported by 66% of the American people, and a full seventy-five percent of Latino voters say passing the DREAM Act in short order is either extremely important or very important to them.
So much so, in fact, that the nation’s largest Spanish-language TV network, Univision, will be carrying the vote live. They will allow their rapidly-expanding viewership (of millions) to see first-hand which Senators voted for and against America’s future.
The New York Times reports:
Latino leaders have turned up the pressure on senators facing a vote on Saturday on a bill that would grant legal status to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrant students, saying support of the measure will be used as a litmus test by Latino voters in the 2012 elections.
This week immigrant students, including many without legal status, lobbied in Senate offices in Washington. They sang Christmas carols with lyrics that called on senators to support the bill, donated blood and held military drills in cold weather outside the Capitol to show their interest in enlisting in the armed forces.
Janet Murguia, President and CEO of National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest Latino civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States, stated on today’s call:
“This is absolutely the right thing to do and the smart thing to do…Tomorrow’s vote draws a clear line. Arguments and objections to get to this vote have been addressed. There is nowhere left to hide. It comes down to a very simple and clear choice: members who choose to stand for innocent children, and members who do not…Latinos, the fastest-growing electorate in the country, will remember exactly which side these Senators chose, and will see it as an indication of who stands for our families and our communities. It is a vote that we will remember for generations to come.”
