Pro-immigration groups decry 'shameful' vote; enforcement groups vow new push

An anti-illegal-immigration group said after Saturday's defeat of the DREAM Act in the Senate that "we look forward to moving aggressively to offense."

"Now, the next Congress can start to put unemployed Americans back to work by eliminating the ability for illegal aliens to hold jobs and by reducing the number of unnecessary permanent foreign workers we currently bring in legally every month," Roy Beck, president and founder of NumbersUSA, said in a statement minutes after the Senate voted 55-41 to end debate on the measure, failing to clear the 60-vote filibuster threshold.

Beck lauded a decade of "perfect defense" against "amnesty" initiatives.

"Now, we look forward to moving aggressively to offense," Beck said. "The next Congress has the strongest pro-enforcement membership since 1995 and probably since 1924."

But the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda decried senators' "shameful" failure to pass the DREAM Act.

"Today’s failed vote is an indication that an ugly current of nativism is alive and active in the U.S. Senate,” said Lillian Rodríguez López, chairwoman of the NHLA, in a statement.

"It would be an outrageous ploy if a yes vote on this bill was withheld for partisan gain in the next Congress," she said. "To those Senators who denied the American dream to so many worthy young people, we will not forget. We hope that those Senators will soon come to recognize how important the DREAM Act is to our nation's security and economy."