What a relief. It’s a shame that loyal Americans had to go to such efforts (i.e., a million faxes sent, plus a gazillion phone calls) to make the government do its job, just a little, but at least American sovereignty won.

It helps to have a few good leaders inside the Senate, like Jeff Sessions.

A lot of media reports were one-sided or hostile, but ABC was more balanced than many and has nice Roy Beck quotes. Apparently at least one reporter was watching The Roy Show over internet TV early this morning.

Senate Republicans Block DREAM Act for Illegal Immigrants, ABC News, December 18, 2010

Senate Republicans today blocked a controversial immigration measure that would have provided a conditional path to legal residency for hundreds of thousands of young, undocumented immigrants first brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents.

By a vote of 55 to 41, the bill – the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors, or DREAM Act – failed to win the 60 votes needed to break a GOP filibuster, even though the measure passed the House last week.

The defeat was the second for the legislation since 2007, when it last was brought to the Senate floor. Opponents have argued that the bill amounted to an ”amnesty” that could cost taxpayers and encourage continued illegal immigration.

”We are declaring a 10-year victory,” said Roy Beck, president of Numbers USA, an advocacy group that has lobbied against the DREAM Act. ”Since 2001, there has been an attempt to pass giant amnesties every year. And we have been on defense, we have fought every single year. And now there’s not going to be any amnesty in this new Congress. It’s over.”

Supporters of the DREAM Act had said it would bring out of the shadows a fraction of the country’s estimated 12 million illegal immigrants who have known only the United States as home, enhance military recruitment and give American employers access to a talented and highly-motivated pool of young workers.

Only immigrants younger than 30 who entered the United States before age 16, have lived here five years without a serious criminal offense, graduated high school or earned a GED and attend college or join the military among other requirements, would be eligible for legal residency.

”There are some compelling cases out there that deserve to be considered. But there are also 22 million Americans who have compelling cases, who want a job and can’t find a job,” Beck said. ”What the DREAM Act does is add at least a couple million more workers to legally compete against the 22 million unemployed Americans.”

”I realize these kids did not personally decide to break the law. Nonetheless, they represent law-breaking. How do you keep parents from doing this to their kids in the future? The DREAM Act does nothing about that,” he said.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., one of the leading sponsors of the DREAM Act, had said opponents of the measure are breeding ”hysteria” and that lawmakers must not overlook the costs of doing nothing.

”Let us consider the alternative to legalizing DREAM Act-eligible young people,” he said last week. ”The young men and women eligible for the DREAM Act will still live here but can only take jobs in the black market, probably cannot afford the high costs we charge foreign students for a college education, and are barred from serving in the military.”

Gutierrez said Saturday that the Senate vote will hurt Republicans politically among Latinos, and that Democrats won’t give up on the issue.

”This was a setback to the core values of liberty and the pursuit of happiness in the United States,” he said. ”These Senators hid behind lame procedural excuses to thwart the hopes and aspirations of the best and brightest of our families and communities, which is both a tragedy and a call to action.”

The Senate vote was a last-ditch effort by Democrats to pass the measure before Republicans take control of the House and gain seats in the Senate come January. The bill will likely not receive another shot at passage for at least two more years.

But Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, insists the fight for the DREAM Act will continue.

”I just don’t think the GOP is ever going to see the inside of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue without the support of immigrants, and this legislation is very important to them,” he said. ”It’s not over.”

Three Republicans supported the bill today: Dick Lugar of Indiana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Robert Bennett of Utah. But five Democrats voted against it: Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Jon Tester of Montana, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Max Baucus of Montana and Kay Hagan of North Carolina.