Countdown to repatriation: Illegal immigrants face the boot in the US

The so-called Dream Act is a top priority of Democrats and politically active Hispanic groups.

The chance for hundreds of thousands of foreign-born youngsters brought to the country illegally to gain legal status is dwindling as time runs out on the Democratic-controlled Congress.

Senate Democratic leaders will try on Wednesday to advance legislation that would pave the way for legalising the young immigrants,over opposition by most Republicans and several in their own party.

The so-called Dream Act is a top priority of Democrats and politically active Hispanic groups,who call it a crucial down payment on a broader immigration overhaul. Critics regard the measure as backdoor amnesty for lawbreakers.

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With the Republicans taking control of the House of Representatives and cutting into the Democrats’ Senate majority next year,failure to enact the legislation by year’s end would virtually kill the last chance for years for any action by Congress to grant a path toward legalisation for the millions of undocumented immigrants in the US.

President Barack Obama’s team has made an intense public push for the bill,under pressure from Hispanic activists angry that the White House has not pressed harder for a broad immigration overhaul to give several million illegal immigrants a shot at legal status.

In recent days,the administration dispatched officials from the Departments of Defense,Homeland Security and Commerce to argue vociferously in public that the legislation would boost national security and economic growth.

Rep Steny Hoyer of Maryland,the No. 2 House Democrat,said he expected to bring the measure to the House floor this week,but leaders have held off on scheduling action since it’s unclear whether it would have the votes to prevail.

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Obama’s drive to enact the legislation and congressional Democrats’ determination to vote on it before year’s end reflect the party’s efforts to satisfy Hispanic groups whose backing has been critical in elections and will be again in 2012.

The legislation would give hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants brought to the United States before the age of 16,and who have been here for five years and graduated from high school or gained an equivalency degree,a chance to gain legal status if they joined the military or attended college.

Hispanic activists have described the Dream Act as the least Congress can do on the issue. It targets the most sympathetic of the millions of undocumented people those brought to the United States as children,who in many cases consider themselves American,speak English and have no ties to or family living in their native countries.