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Dream Act immigration reform bill to be put to US Congress this week Democrats hope the bill, which will offer path to citizenship to 2m illegal immigrants, will win over Latinos before mid-term elections
The US Congress is poised to vote this week on a bill that offers more than 2 million young illegal immigrants a path to citizenship, a move that will re-open the toxic debate on the issue ahead of the November mid-term elections.
The vote could come as early as tomorrow.
The bill is being introduced by the Democratic Senate leader, Harry Reid, and is facing widespread opposition from Republicans.
The Democratic party sees it as a no-lose situation. If the Republicans vote against, the Democrats hope this will cement their position as the party of the Latinos.
A Republican senator, John Cornyn, accused the Democrats of being "cynical and transparently political" rather than interested in genuine immigration reform.
The bill would allow young illegal immigrants to become citizens if they have completed a university or college education or served two years in the military.
Obama, responding to anger from Latino leaders this month at his failure to deliver on his pledge, urged them to get out and vote in November, and portrayed the Democrats as their friends and the Republicans as their enemies. He told Latinos not to forget "who is standing with you, and who is standing against you".
The Pentagon, struggling to maintain levels of recruitment in the face of troop demands in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere, is among the backers of the bill.
In a tactical device by the Democrats, the bill has been tacked on to legislation approving defence spending for next year, making it harder for the Republicans to obstruct it. If the defence spending approval is held up the Pentagon will have to seek emergency funding elsewhere.
The bill is labelled the Dream Act (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors) and insists that would-be students are of good moral character, came to the US before the age of 16, obtained a degree from an institute of higher education or "served in the uniformed services for at least two years and, if discharged, received an honourable discharge".
Supporters of the bill say that young people should not be penalised for the behaviour of their parents in entering the US illegally.
But opponents say it rewards lawbreakers. Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which opposes the bill, said: "At a time when our country is at war and our troops are fighting and dying in Afghanistan, the use of a bill to authorise funding for our military to benefit illegal aliens exemplifies why the American public has grown contemptuous of the way today's Washington operates."
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/20/dream-act-immigration-r...
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