Latin America: Week in Review, United States
DREAM Act Immigration Bill Passes In U.S. House; Senate To Vote Thursday
December 9, 2010 By Staff
Photo by Neil Rivas.
Today in Latin America
Top Story — The United States House of Representatives narrowly voted Wednesday to approve the DREAM Act immigration bill, which offers a path to citizenship for undocumented young people who attend college or join the military.
The Democratically-controlled House passed the bill 216 to 198, but there are doubts about whether or not the bill will pass through the Senate, which votes on the measure Thursday.
“The DREAM Act symbolizes what it means to be American,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, according to Politico. “It’s about equality. It’s about opportunity. It’s about the future.”
The DREAM Act has become a partisan battle within the U.S. Congress, as Democrats call the bill a civil rights issue, while Republicans deride as it an amnesty plan that would encourage illegal immigration.
The legislation, which is backed by U.S. President Barack Obama and Hispanic rights groups, provides legal residency to undocumented immigrants who came to the country before the age of 16, complete two years of college or military service and have no criminal record.
“This vote is not only the right thing to do for a group of talented young people who seek to serve a country they know as their own by continuing their education or serving in the military, but it is the right thing for the United States of America,” Obama said in a statement, according to Reuters.
Republicans claim that the act ignores the rule of law and would take jobs from legal American workers during a time of high unemployment. They also say that the DREAM Act could lead undocumented immigrants to submit fraudulent academic records in the hopes of attaining legal residency.
The bill would “open the doors, yes, to criminal aliens attaining permanent status to the detriment of legal immigrants,” said Rep. Phil Gingrey, a Republican from Georgia, according to the Kansas City Star.
Despite Republican opposition and a slim chance of passage in the Senate, supporters of the bill were pleased with Wednesday’s vote.
“This is a historic vote, a major victory for thousands of students who want to serve our nation and theirs by going to college or by military service, said Julien Ross, executive director of the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, according to The Denver Post.
Just Published at the Latin America News Dispatch
- Allegations of human rights abuses have followed ex-president of Colombia Álvaro Uribe to Washington, where he is a visiting scholar at Georgetown University. While conclusive evidence of criminal wrongdoing has not surfaced, Georgetown students and the attorney for Colombian plaintiffs in a civil lawsuit against the Drummond Company are determined to force a showdown.
- Puerto Rican officials and businesses are partnering to launch a new campaign to boost the island’s economy through tourism. Von Diaz has more.
Headlines from the Western Hemisphere
North America
- A reputed leader of Mexico’s La Familia drug cartel appears on the Mexican government’s 2010 teacher payroll as a staff member of a school in the rural town of Arteaga in the Michoacan state.
- A Mexican government helicopter crashed in eastern Mexico and killed 11 people, including the two prisoners that it was transferring.
Caribbean
- The Cuban government invited The Associated Press to visit a recent meeting between workers and Communist Party leaders to discuss upcoming economic changes. Read the writeup here.
- Protesters disputing the results of the Nov. 28 presidential election paralyzed cities throughout Haiti Wednesday.
- Federal officials may require cruise liners, tankers and other large ships traveling in waters around Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands to reduce their emissions.
Central America
- Gunmen in Guatemala have stormed a prison near the Mexican border and freed a suspected murderer.
- WikiLeaks cables published this week in El Pais newspaper, recount the growing tensions between El Salvador’s first leftist president, Mauricio Funes and the more hard-line wing of the leftist FMLN coalition of former guerrillas.
- Traffic through the Panama Canal – which connects the Pacific and Atlantic oceans – has been temporarily suspended because of heavy rain.
Andes
- Colombia’s FARC rebels say they plan to release five captives and will deliver them to trusted go-between Piedad Cordoba once the government offers security guarantees.
- Rescuers have said they have recovered 46 bodies from a massive weekend mudslide in northwestern Colombia, which was under a local state of emergency to cope with the massive catastrophe.
- President Hugo Chávez threatened to take control over the local unit of Spanish bank Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria and other large financial institutions if they don’t ensure that homes and apartments they finance are occupied immediately.
- As OPEC prepares to meet again this week in Ecuador, some oil-market watchers are pointing to the latest gains in prices to raise an important question for the group: When will the time be right to open the spigots again?
- Bolivian Vice President Álvaro Garcia Linera has posted all U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks that pertain to his country on his official website.
Southern Cone
- Brazilian President-elect Dilma Rousseff Wednesday picked five cabinet members from from her most important coalition partner.
- A prison fire in the Chilean capital of Santiago killed at least 81 people. The cause of the fire is still being investigated.
- Moody’s Investors Service raised Uruguay’s foreign currency credit rating two notches, which leaves the country just below investment grade.
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