Rubio’s plan will grant legal status to some undocumented young people brought to the United States as children, but it will not give them a way to become US citizens. In other words, unless they can get a green card through some other means, these students will be unable to vote for the rest of their lives.
While the plan is presented as a compromise between the real DREAM Act and the deport-them-all proposals of the conservatives, we should remember that the original DREAM Act itself was a compromise arrived at between Democrats and immigration moderates from the GOP.
When the actual bill is introduced, I’ll provide a full analysis, but don’t get your hopes up. Rubio’s legislation has no support among Tea Party congresspeople and little chance of clearing the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, unless presidential politics makes passage a necessity.
