Strong words, student attendance mark Senate DREAM hearing
WASHINGTON |
(Reuters) - Strong words and hundreds of students, a number of them undocumented immigrants, kicked off the first Senate hearing on the DREAM Act on Tuesday.
Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and experts from the Department of Defense, military, and outside groups testified in support of the immigration bill at the hearing Tuesday morning.
Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, a long-time DREAM Act supporter, chaired the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border Security hearing. He noted estimates that passage of the act could make some 2 million people eligible for citizenship.
The bill would give young people who are illegal immigrants but have lived in the United States for at least five years, graduated from high school,