President Barack Obama recently said Congress should “seize the moment” and summon a majority to push immigration reform. There is only one problem – Congress already did that.
Majorities in the House and Senate backed the DREAM Act, a bill creating a path to citizenship for young illegal immigrants brought to the United States as children, during Obama’s first term. The bill died, however, when a minority of Republicans filibustered it. So even if a new immigration majority materializes next year, Republicans can just filibuster again. Unless Erika Andiola gets her way.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia is due to hear arguments Dec. 10 in Andiola’s case – an ambitious and erudite lawsuit from Common Cause – which argues that a small band of senators have turned the filibuster into an unconstitutional assault on our democratic government.
Andiola is not a U.S. citizen, so you might wonder how she ended up in the middle of this debate. She moved with her parents from Mexico to Arizona at age 11. She was a quick learner, mastering English, graduating in the top five of her class and earning an academic scholarship to Arizona State University.
Andiola was stripped of the scholarship, however, after Arizona passed a law barring undocumented students from receiving educational benefits. Now she is one of the lead plaintiffs in Common Cause v. Biden, the legal element of an escalating campaign to combat filibuster abuse in the Senate.
