Durbin Predicts Senate Floor Battle Over Immigration
CHICAGO (CBS) -- U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin predicted lawmakers in Washington would ratchet up the fight over immigration on Monday.
Last week, Senate Democrats were able to fend off a Republican attempt to force the Obama administration to stop delaying deportations - a practice known as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
Durbin said that is by no means the end of the debate.
"The battle is on on the floor of the Senate, as I return tomorrow, about whether DACA will surivive," Durbin said Sunday.
The senator said it's been 14 years since he introduced the DREAM Act to reform federal immigration laws, and his party is still working to make it law.
The DACA policy allows certain undocumented immigrants to avoid deportation for two years.
The Obama administration's policy is not to deport people who came to the U.S. illegally as children, and have graduated high school, or received their GED, without being convicted of a felony or a "significant misdemeanor," according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Durbin said 35,000 the 600,000 people affected by DACA are in Illinois.
Senate Republicans tried to strip funding for the DACA program last week, but Democrats blocked the maneuver.
"We are in a battle now over the future of immigration in America. We are going to be tested – our generation, like other generations – about whether or not we are going to have a just and fair approach to immigration," Durbin said.