Statement From Senator Kevin Parker on the Senate Vote on the New York State Dream Act

(Brooklyn, NY) - “Today, I stood with 29 other New York Senate Democratic Senators to vote in favor of the NYS DREAM Act.

This piece of progressive legislation was brought to the floor earlier this evening and if passed, would have ensured immigrant children, in search of the American dream through educational access and financial aid, the road map to success.

Senate Republicans failed our young people. Not a single member of the Republican Conference voted yes. Not a single member of the Republicans voted yes for opportunity or yes for equality.

Instead, the Republican Conference stood up and implied that the Statue of Liberty no longer stood for an open door.

They stood up and argued that our great state of New York has limitations on who should succeed. They argued that there was a time the Statute of Liberty stood for opportunity for all, but even though they were all descended from immigrants, that was then and this is now.

Sadly, the DREAM Act failed under the weight of the Republicans’ unanimous No votes.

We called it a dream because the goal of the DREAM Act is the American Dream -- education, equality, and success.

We called it a dream because so many young men and women hoped with all their hearts that the Legislature and Governor would do the right thing for them, as they had promised, and give them a chance at an education.

We called it a dream because we hoped, but did not dare believe, that the DREAM Act might someday be passed on this Senate Floor.

Today, those dreams were deferred, but there is still a possibility the Governor can put it in his Executive Budget, as I have already urged him. Tomorrow, we link arms, and shoulder to shoulder we begin the process of advocating once again, so that we can bring the DREAM Act back for another vote, with a different result.”

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About Senator Kevin Parker

Senator Kevin S. Parker is intimately familiar with the needs of his ethnically diverse Brooklyn community that consists of 318,000 constituents in Flatbush, East Flatbush, Midwood, Ditmas Park, Kensington, Windsor Terrace, and Park Slope.  He is the Ranking Member of the Senate Energy and Telecommunications Committee and the Committee on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, Assistant Democratic Leader for Intergovernmental Affairs, Founding Member of the New York Caucus of Environmental Legislators, and Chair of the Democratic Task Force on New Americans.