Effort to repeal California Dream Act comes up short

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Critics of illegal immigration announced Friday that they were unable to obtain the needed 500,000 petition signatures to ask voters to repeal the California Dream Act signed into law last year by Gov. Jerry Brown.

In an email to supporters, Assemblyman Tim Donnelly (R-San Bernardino), the public face of the initiative drive, said petitioners had netted only 447,514 signatures to submit to the secretary of state by the deadline on Friday. They would have needed to submit well above the 504,760 threshold because some signatures are inevitably found to be invalid.

The law allows illegal immigrants to qualify for taxpayer-funded scholarships at California’s public university systems.

‘This is disappointing news,’ Donnelly said in his email, but he added: ‘It is no less of a warning to Governor Brown, and every Democrat legislator who voted to create a new entitlement program for illegals while the state still has a budget deficit over $9 billion, and cannot even meet it’s obligation to legal California students.’

It’s been a rough week for Donnelly, the Assembly’s only tea party legislator. On Wednesday, he was detained by police for trying to board a plane with a loaded handgun in his briefcase. Donnelly said he forgot the weapon was there.

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-- Nicholas Riccardi in Sacramento