California DREAM Act (first half anyway) Passes Senate, Moves to Governor’s Desk

[pampango]

http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/07/half_of_california_dream_act_passes_senate_moves_to_governors_desk.html

One half of the California DREAM Act could become law after clearing the state Senate Thursday afternoon. AB 130, widely considered the less controversial half of the two-bill package introduced by Assemblyman Gil Cedillo earlier this year, was approved in a 25-10 vote. The bill would allow undocumented immigrant youth who qualify for in-state tuition to also be eligible to apply for privately funded scholarships that other students at the state’s public college and university system are allowed to access.

“If you think about who we’re talking about today under this measure, those students who benefit from this measure are the people who will help lead American in the next technological revolution, the next economic boom,” said state Sen. Lou Correa during the floor debate on Thursday. “These are kids, students who are eager to study, to work hard. This is nothing more than a common sense measure looking to benefit and strengthen this great country.”

“This is fundamentally a civil rights bill,” said state Sen. Darrell Steinberg during the bill’s floor debate. “And while we have our partisan differences on many, many things, this bill should not be a party line bill.” In the end, the bill garnered one Republican vote, from state Sen. Anthony Cannella.

The California legislature has approved versions of the state DREAM Act in the past. Cedillo has introduced versions of the DREAM Act every year since 2006, but former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s vetoed the bill multiple times. This year, Illinois and Maryland’s legislatures have advanced similar bills that would allow undocumented immigrant youth to pay in-state tuition, or access privately funded scholarships, similar to California’s AB 130.

It's nice to see progressive legislation like this come out of Democratic states like California, Maryland and Illinois, while Southern republican states like Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina and Louisiana pass their "get tough" legislation. We shall see which states are better off in the future, though I doubt the republican states will learn anything from that lesson.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

1. Have to wonder if this will trigger a referendum

[pampango]

2. Probably. The Maryland tea party led a signature campaign and got the Dream Act

to be voted on in a referendum. The California teabaggers will probably do the same.

Tea Party Victory… In Maryland

http://thegraph.com/2011/06/tea-party-victory-in-maryland/

No sooner was the final vote tallied, two conservative Delegates, Neil Parrott and Pat McDonough, were working tirelessly to have the law suspended and placed on the 2012 ballot as a referendum vote. They set up a website, MDPetitions.com, to drive for online petitions. Several volunteers including myself and Delegate Justin Ready, took to the streets to collect signatures in support of the referendum. And just as Maryland is known as a hot spot for liberals, the bluest state is equally dismissive of its rather small Tea Party influence.

However, on May 31, Delegate Parrott proudly announced that the petition drive had submitted over 60,000 signatures. By state law, in order to keep the petition alive, 18,579 valid signatures were required by that date, with the balance of 55,736 signatures due by June 30. With the Maryland Board of Elections charged with the task of verifying and validating the signatures, it is likely that some will be litigated out.

It is unclear as of yet how many of the submitted signatures will be accepted by the BoE, but a few things have become very clear. Maryland’s Tea Party movement is a force to be reckoned with.

Meanwhile, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, was busy complaining that Republicans and conservatives think that illegal immigration “should in fact be a crime.” Governor O’Malley fought for this bill and signed it so that “new Americans” would have a fighting chance. Perhaps Miss Schultz and Mister O’Malley should get out of their offices and spend some time with the good people of Maryland, liberals and conservatives alike, and find out the majority of Americans, including the newly vocal Maryland Tea Party movement, do in fact think that illegal immigration is a crime.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

3. There was also Prop 209, the "California Civil Rights Initiative"

Which took out just about any form of affirmative action