DREAMers To Dems: Don't Count On Our Vote In 2012

The Huffington Post reports:

WASHINGTON -- Six months after the Senate voted down a bill to provide legal status to some undocumented students, DREAM Act supporters are mobilizing for 2012, hoping to hold Democrats accountable for failing to pass the bill last year.

Immigration activists say they are tired of Democrats assuming they have support from immigrants, particularly after the failure of the DREAM Act in December. The bill, which would have provided paths to legal status to undocumented youth in exchange for two years of college or military service, failed to pass a filibuster in a 55 to 41 vote.

Five Democrats -- Sens. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), Jon Tester (D-Mt.), Max Baucus (D-Mt.) and Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) -- voted against the DREAM Act, while Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) did not vote on the measure.

"Since North Carolina is playing host to the convention, being shy of our criticism for the Democratic approach is not something we plan on doing," Domenic Powell, a member of the North Carolina Dream Team, a group of student supporters of the DREAM Act, said Thursday. "They're crazy to think that we're loyal to them at all."