Dem predicts GOP will pass DREAM Act before midterms

by The Hill Staff - 09/06/17 1:26 PM ET

Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), who serves as a whip within House Democratic leadership, says he suspects Congress will pass legislation protecting immigrants who came into the country illegally as children.

Gallego told The Hill that Congress would likely pass the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act because vulnerable Republicans can’t afford to alienate Latino voters ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

“I hope that Speaker [Paul] Ryan [(R-Wis.)] and Senate Majority Leader [Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)] will listen to the majority of members of Congress and senators that are right now saying that they want to pass the DREAM Act,” Gallego said.

{mosads}”Going into an election year, the last thing you want to see is a galvanized Latino voter community as well as people that are not Latino but are generally supportive of the DREAM Act.”

The DREAM Act is a bipartisan bill first introduced in 2001 that would include protections for immigrants brought into the U.S. illegally as children as long as they meet certain requirements.

Democrats are threatening to attach the DREAM Act to any must-pass legislation this fall in the wake of President Trump’s decision Tuesday to eliminate the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which shielded young undocumented immigrants from deportation.