WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday he wants to attach an amendment to an upcoming defense-policy bill that would help young people in the country illegally become legal U.S. residents.
The Nevada Democrat, who is up for re-election, said at a Capitol news conference that the legislation known as the Dream Act is long overdue. But he wouldn’t say whether he has the votes. The act allows young people who attend college and join the military to become legal U.S. residents.
The young people must have come to the country when they were younger than 16 and have been in the country five years. They have to serve in the military at least two years and complete two years of college.
Democrats have also promised gay-rights groups an end to the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. That is in the bill that Reid said he’ll try to take up next week.
Republicans oppose both measures.
Asked whether he had the votes for the Dream Act, Reid responded: “I sure hope so.”
President Barack Obama has been under fire in the immigrant and Latino communities because Congress has failed to move an immigration-reform bill despite his promise to address the issue in his first year in the Oval Office.
A spokesman for the Nevada Republican Party declared Reid’s announcement a campaign stunt.
