How to Immediately Support the DREAM Act

Created: 20 September, 2010

Updated: 20 April, 2022

4 min read

National Council of La Raza (September 17, 2010)

Two important votes will be happening starting next week. Below you will find information about the timing of these votes and the members of Congress that need to hear from you.

ACTION #1: Winning the Motion to Proceed to Department of Defense bill

The first hurdle we have to overcome is winning the vote on the Motion to Proceed (MTP) to the

Department of Defense (DoD) Authorization Bill for Fiscal Year 2011. This is a must-win vote to get to a vote on the DREAM Act. The vote will be on Tuesday, September 21st at 2:15pm (EST); 60 votes are needed.

Between now and 2pm on Tuesday, please urge these Senators to VOTE YES on the Motion to Proceed:

OH Voinovich (R)
MA Brown (R)
ME Collins (R)
VA Webb (D)
NE Nelson (D)

ACTION #2: Winning the vote to add DREAM Act to DoD

If the Motion to Proceed vote succeeds, amendments to the Defense bill will be considered on Wednesday. The vote to add the DREAM Act as an amendment to the Defense bill could happen as early as Wednesday, but could carry over into the following week, depending on the order of amendments to the bill: 60 votes are needed.

Between Tuesday and Friday, please call and urge these Senators to VOTE YES on the DREAM Act:

OH Voinovich (R)
FL LeMieux (R)
MA Brown (R)
ME Snowe (R), Collins (R)
UT Bennet (R), Hatch (R)
KS Brownback (R)
LA Landrieu (D)
NC Hagan (D)
AR Pryor (D)
MO McCaskill (D)
ND Dorgan (D), Conrad (D)

For questions, background materials or talking points on the DREAM Act, please contact:
Laura Vazquez, NCLR Immigration Legislative Analyst, 202-776-1563, lvazquez@nclr.org.

Background

The DREAM Act (S. 729) is bipartisan legislation introduced by Senators Durbin (D-IL) and Richard Lugar (R-IN) and has 40 co-sponsors. It has also been introduced in the House by Representatives Howard Berman (D-CA), Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL), and Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA). The DREAM Act would permit certain immigrant students who have grown up in the U.S. to apply for temporary legal status and to eventually obtain permanent status and become eligible for U.S. citizenship if they go to college or serve in the U.S. military; and would eliminate a federal provision that penalizes states that provide in-state tuition without regard to immigration status. To be eligible, students must have come here when they were 15 years old or younger, have lived in the U.S. for at least five years, graduated from a U.S. high school or obtained a GED, be under 35 years of age, and have good moral character and not committed any crimes that make them inadmissible under general immigration laws.

Emailing/Calling Key Senators on the DREAM Act
League of United Latin American Citizens (September 16, 2010)

First push these three Republican Senators for defense authorization cloture vote scheduled for 9/21/10

State Senators Education Staffer Immigration Staffer

Maine (ME)
Snowe, Olympia matthew_hussey@snowe.senate.gov jim_catella@snowe.senate.gov
Collins, Susan lorinda_harris@collins.senate.gov rob_strayer@hsgac.senate.gov

Massachusetts (MA)
Brown, Scott daniel_diorio@scottbrown.senate.gov daniel_diorio@scottbrown.senate.gov

Second urge the following senators to support the Dream Act Amendment vote scheduled for 9/23/10

Republicans
Indiana (IN)
Lugar, Richard leanne_gibbs@lugar.senate.gov andrew_mills@lugar.senate.gov

Ohio (OH)
Voinovich, George dana_smullen@voinovich.senate.gov charles_abernathy@hsgac.senate.gov

Florida (FL)
LeMieux, George vennia_francois@lemieux.senate.gov ben_moncrief@aging.senate.gov

Massachusetts (MA)
Brown, Scott daniel_diorio@scottbrown.senate.gov daniel_diorio@scottbrown.senate.gov

Kansas (KS)
Brownback, Sam LaRochelle_Young@brownback.senate.gov leslie_bolz@brownback.senate.gov

Alaska (AK)
Murkowski, Lisa karen_mccarthy@murkowski.senate.gov Nathan_Bergerbest@murkowski.senate.gov