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Associated Press
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., talks to guests Jan. 27, 2012, during the Hispanic Leadership Network in Miami.
By Tovin Lapan (contact) 
Friday, March 30, 2012 | 4:58 p.m.
On Tuesday The Hill reported Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., was drafting an alternative Dream Act that he hoped to bring to Congress in the near future.
The newspaper that covers Congress said Rubio offered no specifics on how his bill would differ from previous versions of the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act.
However, there has been speculation that Rubio's bill would offer a legal status to young immigrants in the country who joined the military or graduated from college, but would not provide for a path to citizenship. In a preemptive strike Friday, Dream Act proponents in Las Vegas had a news conference to discourage Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nevada, from signing on to Rubio's legislation and to decry the proposal as insufficient.
"It's exploitative," Assemblywoman Lucy Flores, D-Las Vegas, said of the idea of a Dream Act with no possibility of achieving citizenship. "You can work here and pay taxes here, but you will never achieve the ability to vote or the right to participate in the democratic process."
Juan Ortega, president of the pro-Dream Act organization Dream Big Vegas, urged Heller, who he said met with Rubio this week to discuss the legislation, to not support Rubio's proposal.
"Instead of providing an earned pathway to citizenship for young men and women brought to this country through no fault of their own and who risk their lives in the U.S. military or attend college - they are offered third-class legal status," Ortega said. "This is an insult and a slap in the face to Nevada's Latino community."
Heller's campaign did not immediately return a request for comment.
Speculation on the details of Rubio's forthcoming proposal stems, in part, from an interview he gave Fox's Geraldo Rivera earlier in March in which Rubio said the Dream Act has "a series of problems" as it is currently drafted.
"I do think there is another way to deal with this," Rubio said. "And I think that one of the debates that we need to begin to have is a difference between citizenship and legalization.
"You can legalize someone's status in this country with a significant amount of certainty about their future without placing them on a path toward citizenship, and I think that is something that we can find consensus on," he said.
Nevada Sen. Harry Reid has said he wishes to bring the Democrat's version of the Dream Act, which would provide a path to citizenship but previously has failed to pass, to a vote sometime this year.
Also on Friday, a group of students who are walking across the country to raise awareness and support of the Dream Act was passing through northern Nevada. The Sun interviewed one of the walkers last week after they started their journey in California.
Yes, if Hispanics are very happy with the current status-quo then they should work very very hard to destory and attack all plans that come from the Republicans like Obama did to Bush's plan.
Yes if want nothing to ever happen then attack and defeat all the Republican plans.
The dream act is a nightmare for Americans.
Once you have legal residence the path to citizenship would be the usual one for legal residents just not an expedited one. Heaven forfend the Sun add that to their piece but of course that would be responsible journalism not propaganda for the Democratic Party.
I have some sympathy to those kids affected but the people they need to blame the most are their parents for not preparing them and putting them in this position.
Where were all the democrats when Bush and Kennedy had a bill to address the problem? They played politics with it is what they did.
I want someone to really address the problem of not enough visas being issued. That is one of the roots of the problem. Again that is a problem that both parties have avoided to address through legislation. We have a good system and checks on who should be allowed in. If we could increase the visas issued we could get the good people that want to do it legally in.
Hey Sun why not ask that kind of question rather than be the mouthpiece of the Democratic Party. It must be too hard, it's much easier to cut and paste an email from the DNC.
With all the humidity in Florida's summers, Rubio should take extra precaution to keep his Dreams from getting damp.
It would seem logical to wait for the details to come out before dismissing it out of hand just because it comes from the opposition party.
Then again, as few good ideas come from the left, I can understand the rush to judgement.
I have to agree with commenter Robert Hess on this one. Citizens of our great country are offended by the political football illegal immigration has become. It appears the floodgates were left open to allow MILLIONS of undocumented individuals in for the sake of industrialists to secure cheap, noncomplaining labor at near slave wages.
E-Verify comes too late, too little, too little used. There already exists a path to citizenship, and it should be enforced. If government needs to hire more clerks to shuffle papers, then do it! Send the message loud and clear, that people are EXPECTED to be here legally, and if they wish to live, work, and play, it must be legally.
Those suffering the most are the children, who are innocent. As a civilized society, we must address their plight. Their parents deserve deportation until they can follow the rules and secure the path to citizenship themselves through naturalization. Their children can stay with citizen sponsors in the meantime.
Our country has become over run by illegal residents and this must be addressed. We are spending billions of dollars supporting them via our infrastructure. Continuing to avoid enforcement of the laws that are already on the books, tells me that the DREAM ACT will forever be an issue pulled out at election time to incite and persuade people towards supporting one candidate over another. That is the pattern we have here.
Blessings and Peace,
Star
Once again, dipstick shows his ignorance of history. Not too long ago, there was a facility quite near the Statue of Liberty called "Ellis Island." That was the point of entry that immigrants used to enter the United States of America - LEGALLY! MY grandparents, all 4 of them, came through Ellis Island. They expected and received no special favors from the federal government; they learned English; and they became productive citizens - the right way. To condone or reward illegals simply because they managed to sneak into the USA is counter productive and sends the wrong message. But, apparently, dipstick & his fellow travelers feel they can obey only the laws they like and as for the rest, well, they can ignore them with impunity.
Awarding in state tuition to illegal aliens is fiscally irresponsible and patently unfair.
Push your state representative to stop this. Google: NUMBERSUSA .
Once you are registered, go to the "action board" to send free faxes to your state representative .
They are all typed up and ready to go, you just need to click your mouse to send.
Dream on. We will NOT enable a path to citizenship for illegal residents. Go home and do it legally. We don't want 13 million of you stealing 7 million non-agricultural jobs from Americans. And, we can't pay for millions of your babies to drain our government programs. Just a little research and it's clear that no other country, in the world, allows this type of nonsense to continue. No other country. Even Dominican Republic refuses to recognize illegal Haitians squatting illegally for generations. It is not a question of humanitarianism. It's a question of economic survival and a question of national sovereign necessity.
Is Ms. Flores an American or is her alegience to another country? p.s. There is no such thing as a Mexican American.
Passage of any law enabling illegal's to become legal will simply open the doors for millions more to enter the USA. What people are failing to understand is these people will flee their country of origin knowing they can come to the USA and sit around and not do a dam thing and get paid.
One has to ask themselves, do you want America to become a haven of freeloaders? We have enough of them now here and look at the cost to us taxpayers. I couldn't imagine another 20 million or more coming across the border to America and living their American dream at our expense. We can't afford the liberals now, what makes anybody think we can afford another few trillion a year being sucked away from us?
Liberals need to get a life and stop trying to force their sick immoral agenda down our throats.
let's see democratic president 2008-2010..democractic control house 2008-2010...democratic controlled senate with 60 vote super majority 2008-2010...and democrats did not pass Dream Act or Comprehensive Immigration Reform...why??????? They passed an unconstitutional health care act...
Democrats do not want immigration reform, they want to play politics with the issue.
Here's a guy, Rubio who I like that wants to do something and you people are never satisfied. Then you know what, you get nothing and you can live with being illegal forever. You get no sympathy from me. My kids went to college and I paid for that opportunity. Now you want my tax dollars to pay for your kids.
Illegal anchor babies cannot stay period.
Any CAREER politician out there bringing up the DREAM ACT during election time, is simply getting themselves some free name recognition and advertisement!
Virtually NOTHING has effectively been done about immigration since Ellis Island.
Those from other countries wishing to live in the USA must follow our laws, and must be here LEGALLY.
The USA government link regarding naturalization/immigration spells it all out: http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis
United States Citizens have grown tired of the political corruption that surrounds illegal immigration. All Rubio and other career politicians are doing is inciting the wrath of citizens by NOT enforcing what laws we have.
Blessings and Peace,
Star
Of course Reid is going to bring the Dream Act up for a vote, it's an election year. It will fail, and be put back on the shelf until 2014.
And the politicians and media debase themselves further with concern about minority voters while IGNORING AMERICAN VOTERS.
Dipstick with that statement you just show that you really are a Dipstick
I am totally against any and all "amnesty" type programs. First, these people are in this country illegally. How are you going to gauge, "thru no fault of their own" and once you do what are you going to do to the people that brought them here illegally?
Now, if they (no fault of their own) go into the military and complate AT LEAST 4 years active duty (in good status) or complete 4 years of college and EARN A DEGREE (without any special funding created for them) perhaps give them a green card and then they must go thru the normal legal resident path with their 5 years starting when they get the green card.
But, anything else is not fair to the legal residents coming to our country.
I don't hear the illegal Asian, Canadian, British, French immigrants asking for special treatment. It's the Hispanic only.
American citizens want the Borders SECURED, the illegal immigrants deported and immigration law enforced. It would make a big difference on entitlement program beneficiaries and deficits at the municipal, state and federal level. And, citizens and legal immigrants would get better government services and education.