Can the DREAM Act be Revived?

In voting on the DREAM Act on March 17, the New York State Senate took the rare step of bringing to the floor a bill with an uncertain outcome. As the roll was called and several potential swing votes went against the legislation, the passionate pleas of Democratic lawmakers gave way to pessimism. The bill, which would make young undocumented immigrants eligible for state financial aid for college, ultimately fell short in a 30–29 vote, just two votes shy of sending it to the governor for his signature.

Now, with time running out in the budget negotiations, the DREAM Act’s supporters are mounting a desperate push to include the bill in the state budget. They face long odds: Gov. Andrew Cuomo, despite calling the issue a priority this week, never included it in his executive budget in the first place. Supporters in both houses say it Cuomo had not reached out to them until after the Senate vote. And the governor, along with Senate Coalition Leaders Jeff Klein and Dean Skelos, shrugged his shoulders and pointed to opposition in the Senate before finally meeting with key supporters. 

But this being Albany, and with plenty of deal-making yet to be done, could the DREAM Act still wind up a dream come true this session?

“If the governor’s statement is that it’s a priority, we haven’t seen that up until this point,” said Assemblyman Francisco Moya, one of the bill’s lead sponsors. “If he’s saying that this is a priority, we’ll take him at his word. Because we are looking for the governor’s leadership on this—the same way he went out for marriage equality, the same way he was calling people for the SAFE Act, making those phone calls—that’s the same thing we need to see from the governor now.”

Of course, the most probable outcome is that the legislation goes nowhere this year. The Senate Democrats and the Independent Democratic Conference simply do not have the 32 votes between them to send the bill to the governor. One Democrat, Sen. Ted O’Brien, voted against it, and not a single Senate Republican—or even Sen. Simcha Felder, a Brooklyn Democrat who caucuses with the Republicans—voted for it. What’s more, some Republicans are staunchly opposed to the measure. State Sen. Mark Grisanti said he could not vote for a bill that spends “tens of millions of taxpayer dollars” annually to pay for tuition for “illegal immigrants” while “so many legal families are struggling with the high cost of a college education right now.”

“I made a promise that I was going to bring this very important piece of legislation to the floor, and we did that,” Klein said immediately after the vote. “I’m disappointed with the outcome, but at the same time I think it’s important that we actually have a vote, especially on an important issue like this.”

Assemblyman Moya said that the timing of the Senate vote hurt the bill’s chances going forward. “But you live to fight another day,” he said. “The fight’s not over. We have time to work it in the budget. We have until June to see if we can get it back to the floor.”

Another possible outcome is that the state Legislature passes a compromise bill. The DREAM Fund, which was passed in the Assembly in 2011 but made no headway in the Senate that year, would set up a more limited pool of money that provides undocumented immigrants with school aid through private donations. Unlike the more comprehensive DREAM Act, it would not include state taxpayer dollars. The DREAM Fund is now included as a component of the DREAM Act, but it could be reintroduced as a stand-alone measure. That approach may be more appealing to Cuomo, who earlier this year pressed DREAM Act supporters for a compromise, according to the Daily News.

However, supporters insist they are unwilling to accept scaled back legislation. When Republican gubernatorial candidate and Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino said recently that he could support a DREAM Fund, Latino lawmakers rejected the idea. If Cuomo floated the idea, lawmakers say, he would not have any better luck.

“Absolutely not. Absolutely not,” Moya said. “It’s the DREAM Act or nothing. We’re going to stand firm on that. This is not a heavy lift. We’re not asking for a special handout. We’re not asking for anything out of the ordinary here. This is a moment where we need leadership in our state to rise up to the occasion and really lead the way for us to get this done.”

Passage of the DREAM Act is not outside the realm of possibility. As backers note, the bill came within two votes of passage, even with little advance warning that it would be taken up on the floor. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has made it a top priority. At least in his public statements Cuomo has warmed to the legislation, declaring recently for the first time that he would sign it if it reached his desk. The growing electoral clout of Latinos gives him incentive to support the bill, especially since he is up for re-election and appears to be dead set on securing another landslide win at the polls.

Some Republican senators could also stand to benefit if the bill passes. It was notable that two GOP senators who were excused from the vote, Sen. Phil Boyle and Sen. Kemp Hannon, have sizable Latino populations in their districts. Some advocates even claimed that Boyle was planning to vote in favor of the bill if it got to the floor, although the lawmaker said publicly he would have voted “No” had he been in the chamber. The timing allowed both senators to justify skipping a vote that could have political consequences for their re-election campaigns. At the same time, if the DREAM Act does pass by being included in the budget, the Republicans can tout their unanimous opposition to it as a stand-alone measure, giving cover for other members of the conference in whose districts it would be unpopular.

One longtime Albany observer speculated that Felder, who cast a conspicuous “No” vote, might use the issue as leverage to secure passage of an education tax credit that has passed the Senate but has yet to find enough support in the Assembly.

“Each of those issues are important for different houses,” the source said. “The Senate clearly wants to push the Senate tax credit bill. And clearly the Assembly has placed a top priority on the DREAM Act. It would not be the first time that a major priority of both houses that doesn’t look to pass the other comes out in what one might call a trade in the budget.”

State Sen. Rubén Díaz Sr., a longtime backer of the DREAM Act, said he does not know what to think. For years, he said, key officials had indicated they would support the bill, only to let it die. But this time, his fellow supporters had made a mistake in pushing for a vote in the Senate, he said.

“There’s too many games, too much hypocrisy going on now,” Diaz said. “I’m not even going to blame the governor. I’m blaming this on all the people.”

Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect that Gov. Andrew Cuomo met with DREAM Act supporters on March 21.