Lessons of the Dream Act defeat

The bill would have allowed illegal immigrants, if they passed background checks and became permanent legal residents, to qualify for lower in-state tuition rates at state colleges and universities, a point cited by Sen. Kent Conrad, D- N.D, who voted “no.”

Conrad explained that from his constituents in North Dakota, “I was hearing, ‘wait a minute, this is more generous than what we’re doing for people who were born in this country.’ And it’s certainly commendable to want to give this kind of educational assistance to people. But how can you justify that when we don’t do it for people who were raised in our country?”

From North Dakotans, Conrad said, “What I hear is, ‘look, you’ve got to secure the border. That’s got to be priority number one.’”

Fellow North Dakotan, Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan, joined Conrad in voting “no.”

Penalizing children for their parents' actions
To be eligible for the bill, the illegal immigrants would have to have been 15 years old or younger when they arrived in the United States.

Reid argued that “children should not be penalized for the actions of their parents. Many of the children come here when they’re very, very young; many don’t even remember their home countries or speak the language of their home countries.”

“Why good does it do anybody to prevent these young people from having a future?”

But the Dream Act’s foes said illegal immigrants did have a future — outside the United States.

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., urged those in the United States illegally “to go home and sign up for a legal program. We can do that in an orderly way.”

Assessing Democrats' motives
DeMint said the American people had delivered a message last year when the Senate scuttled a broader immigration bill that they did not want any legalization for those in the country illegally.

“I think it will make people even madder if we’re trying to sneak this through under the guise of ‘doing something for the children,’” he said Tuesday.

DeMint’s assessment of the vote was that Democrats “were just trying to go through the checklist” for their constituency groups.

“They are probably hoping Republicans will stop it,” he mused Tuesday. “I think they’d like to take credit for trying,” but not actually pass the bill.

Then he added, “Maybe I’m too cynical.”

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