Durbin: December Is Best Chance For DREAM Act
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Illinois U.S. Senator Dick Durbin met in a classroom at Juarez High School with students and teachers who could face deportation if Congress authorizes continuation of the DREAM Act.
He told the room full of "dreamers" that this month is the best chance for passage of a measure that would maintain DACA and that the two months leading up to March 5th deadline are far less likely to yield a successful bill.
Durbin says he's lobbying potentially amenable Republican senators daily. And is trying to find ways to accommodate items they'd like to see in exchange for their votes.
"These kids who are fighting to do well in school and understand life are battling terrible demons inside about losing their parents to deportation and being deported themselves," says Durbin. " I can't imagine living with that fear but it is a real fear in their lives every single day."
Durbin says the DREAM Act is the most important legislation he's ever authored.