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President Obama’s political arm vowed to revive the DREAM Act on Monday after the Senate jettisoned the issue in a weekend vote.
Mitch Stewart, the director of Organizing for America (OFA), the president’s political arm within the Democratic National Committee (DNC), sought to reassure liberal and Hispanic voters that they would look to pass the immigration bill again in the future.
"This fight isn’t over — and when it comes up in the next Congress, we need to be on the record saying that Republicans can’t hold reform hostage to political games," Stewart wrote.
The Senate failed to end debate on the DREAM Act, which provides conditional pathways to citizenship for illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, in a Saturday vote. 55 senators voted to end debate, short of the 60 votes needed to end a filibuster.
Five Democrats from conservative or swing states joined with Republicans to vote against the measure.
Stewart lashed out at Republicans, though, for having blocked the bill, and said it would be GOP senators (some of whom had supported previous iterations of the legislation) who would need to be convinced to vote otherwise.
When President Obama was in the Senate, he was a cosponsor of the DREAM Act. It remains a major priority for him today.
"OFA supporters like you — along with advocates across the country — have done the important organizing work in our communities to build support for this crucial measure," Stewart wrote. "But the fight ahead of us will be difficult."
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