Connecticut Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Chris Dodd filed a bill on behalf of brothers Juan and Alex Gomez Kendall, Columbian-born students’ who have battled deportation orders, according to The Miami Herald.  The bill introduced by the senator would allow them to remain legally in the US until 2009, the end of the current congressional term.  Dodd first learned of the Kendall teens plight after meeting them while he was in town on Sept. 9 to participate in a candidate forum for Univision.  Republican lobbyist Ana Navarro was told by Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-Miami), a proponent for the Kendall brothers that she should enlist a senator’s help, and that she knew several Democratic candidates would be staying in nearby Coral Gables for the presidential forum.  

"I asked Lincoln , ‘What do you think about me pitching this to any senator who walks through the door?’ and he said, "Run with it, Ana,’" said Navarro, who was able to arrange a meeting between Dodd and the brothers.  Navarro added: "I don’t agree with him one bit on Cuba policy," referencing Dodd’s advocacy to lifting the Cuban trade embargo, but conceded that they both agreed that "what was happening to these two boys was wrong."   

Miami lawyer and Dodd supporter Alfredo Duran said he was not surprised to see the senator intervening on behalf of the Kendall brothers, noting that Dodd "has always been supportive of resolving the immigration problem in this country.  These boys have been living in the U.S. all their life and have not nexus whatsoever with their home country…It’s a fairness issue."