Some Notes on the DREAM Act Legislation from Law Professor Michael Olivas:

Breaking Developments on the DREAM Act

At the urging of Latino groups, and to jump start Comprehensive Immigration Reform, Sen. Reid has apparently opted for a down payment approach, with DREAM being the first building block toward future comprehensive reforms. AGJOBS will likely be the next step.

The DREAM Act will become the DREAM Amendment to a Department of Defense bill.  He also plans on two other amendments: (2) a repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell and (3) an overhaul of the "secret hold" tradition in the Senate to require public-disclosure moving forward.  There has been some language in the DoD legislative plans, such as their Strategic Goals in December 2009 [(“as well as the DREAM initiative”)];

see, e.g.:  http://prhome.defense.gov/DOCS/FY2010-12%20PR%20Strategic%20Plan%20(Final%20Public)(4%20January).pdf (at page 8).

This trio of amendments faces two main hurdles: Tuesday the 21^st with a cloture vote to proceed, and sometime between late-Wednesday through Friday, with a cloture vote to amend each one to the main bill.  A successful cloture roll call would be 60, preventing a filibuster. 

Obviously, there will be many details to come. I will be in Wuhan, PRC, to speak on developments in the field of Sec. 529 prepaid college tuition from the 23^rd through the 29^th . (Maybe I should have left town earlier.)

This was first a small trickle: see the Attachment from La Opinion, above, picked up by Roll Call in July.

Sen. Reid made some comments on the issue at the Netroots Nation Conference in Las Vegas:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eoQXsh24Ac  

Julia Preston reported on the withholding of removal for DREAM Act students who came to DOJ attention: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/09/us/09students.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

A few reporters have broken the more recent news: See, e.g.,

http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/civil-rights/118745-defense-authorization-bill-will-address-the-dream-act-and-discrimination-in-the-military-sen-harry-reid   

Spanish-language media broke the news before the mainstream press did: See,e.g., http://colorlines.com/archives/2010/09/dream_act_on_the_move.html

See also: http://www.latinalista.net/palabrafinal/2010/09/for_the_sake_of_the_dream_act_students_l.html

On the 14^th, the Chronicle e-version had a brief mention:

http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Senate-Leader-Will-Press-fo/26922/

On September 15, 2010, InsideHigherEd.com carried a short piece: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/09/15/qt#238171

CSpan carried the news: http://cspan.org/Watch/Media/2010/09/14/HP/A/38117/Senate+Democrat+and+Republican+Conferences.aspx

And Sen. John McCain, who took a walk on the 2007 DREAM Act vote, even though he had been an earlier supporter, had this to say:

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/09/14/mccain_and_graham_lash_out_at_levin_over_defense_bill

Of course, all of this comes as my formerly-authoritative Wayne Law Review piece breaks into print, submitted to the press in May, and where I presciently predicted this would not happen. I will never have been so happy to have been wrong, should this come to pass. It is attached. Do I think that this is a cynical ploy, to attach several losing propositions to a DoD bill to shore up the base? Shocked, shocked I would be if that turned out to be the case. See, eg., Casablanca (Warner Brothers, 1942): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034583  .

Michael A. Olivas