Reid will offer the DREAM Act as an amendment next week to the Defense Department authorization bill – thrusting the thorny, contentious issue of immigration reform back into the spotlight as Democrats struggle to blunt a Republican surge ahead of the November midterm elections.

“I think it is really important that we move forward on this legislation,” Reid said. “I know we can’t do comprehensive immigration reform. I’ve tried to; I’ve tried so very, very hard. I’ve tried different iterations of this, but those Republicans we had in the last Congress left us.”

The DREAM Act provides a path to citizenship for young undocumented immigrants if they were in the United States before age 16, and if they have been residents for five years before enactment of the law. Reid could not say whether he has 60 votes to overcome a filibuster but added, “I sure hope so.”

But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Democrats would make the defense authorization bill “needlessly controversial” if they added the DREAM Act.

Democrats need some Republican votes, yet it’s unclear if any will step forward. Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), a Republican co-sponsor, has not yet indicated whether he supports adding the DREAM Act as an amendment to the defense bill, his spokesman said Tuesday. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a target for Democrats, will not make a decision until he reviews the bill language, his spokesman said.

And Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who has co-sponsored the legislation in the past, will not vote for the DREAM Act next week, in part because he doesn’t believe it’s appropriate to add the measure to a defense bill.

“Senator Hatch doesn’t support cynical political stunts,” spokeswoman Antonia Ferrier said in a statement. “This defense bill shouldn’t be held hostage to unrelated measures that have no chance of becoming law. He believes we need to keep working to regain the American people’s trust by securing the borders.”

Nevertheless, the political calculation is clear: Democrats want to energize Hispanic voters, who have soured on President Barack Obama for failing to produce an immigration reform bill during his first year in office as promised. Reid has also wagered heavily on Hispanics turning out for him in his tough reelection fight against Sharron Angle, his Tea Party-backed Republican challenger

At the same time, however, making the DREAM act a priority would boost immigration to the top of the agenda, at a time when angry voters want something done about the shaky economy. The tough new Arizona law intended to stop illegal immigration by forcing suspects to show proof of legal residency — and the Obama administration’s decision to block it in court — has become a rallying cry for voters disenchanted with the direction of the country.

In an interview last week, Obama told the Spanish-language newspaper La Opinion that he supports the DREAM Act, and would take his cue from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus on whether it should move separately from a comprehensive immigration reform bill. But he raised concerns that would imperil the broader strategy of a more sweeping overhaul.

“I just don’t want anybody to think that if we somehow just do the DREAM Act, that that solves the problem,” Obama said. “We’ve got a bigger problem that we have to solve. We still need comprehensive immigration reform. The DREAM Act can be an important part of that, and, as I said, I’m a big supporter of that. But I also want to make sure that we don’t somehow give up on the bigger strategy.”

Supporters of the bill say young people who were children when their parents entered the U.S. illegally should be allowed to contribute to the only country they have known by attending college or joining the military. “Kids who grew up as Americans should be able to get their green card to go to college or serve in the military,” Reid said.

But opponents say the proposal is a back-door amnesty program that could entice more families to cross the border illegally.

There has been division within the Hispanic advocacy community over whether it made strategic sense to push the DREAM Act apart from a larger immigration overhaul. The proposal has drawn Republican support before, and could attract more GOP lawmakers to support larger reforms.

But the prospects for immigration reform have become increasingly bleak in recent months, leading advocates to lobby Democrats hard to pass the DREAM Act as a “down payment” on more expansive changes. The proposal had long been part of the immigration reform bill, which stalled in Congress and faces an uncertain fate after the midterm elections.

“It is time to pass this important stepping stone to comprehensive immigration reform and we commend Senator Reid for bringing this forward for a vote,” Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, said in a statement.

Alfonso Aguilar, executive director of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, criticized the move, saying Reid was motivated more by politics than good policy.

“It seems obvious that the only reason why he has decided to act now on the Dream Act is because he is in a dead heat with his political opponent in his bid for reelection and desperately needs to win back Latino voters,” Aguilar said. “While we support the Dream Act and hope that the Senate passes this important measure, it would have been much better to consider it as part of a broader discussion on immigration reform and certainly not in a divisive election year. But, then again, Reid is not looking to do what is right on this issue, but what is politically expedient.”

POLITICO reported Tuesday that advocates for the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the country could see as many as 17 seats change hands if Republicans retake Congress; senators who want a pathway to citizenship would almost certainly be replaced by those favoring a get-tough, law-and-order approach. In all cases, the Republicans running for the seats in play have vowed to fight any legalization program, at least until the U.S.-Mexico border has been certified secure.

This means the Democratic vision of immigration reform – which couples stricter border enforcement and a crackdown on employers who hire undocumented workers with a means to citizenship for the immigrants already here – would need to shift much further to the right to stand any chance in a closely divided Senate.

In the interview with La Opinion, Obama defended his administration’s handling of immigration reform. He said it stalled because the health care reform legislation took longer than expected, and Democrats lost their 60th vote when Republican Scott Brown of Massachusetts won the Senate seat held by the late Edward M. Kennedy, a liberal Democrat and an influential immigration reform advocate.

“I think that in some ways there is an unrealistic notion of what I can get done by myself,” Obama said. “The thinking seems to be that if I make a speech and if I am absolutely persuaded — or persuasive – that somehow the Republican leadership in the Senate is going to change their mind and they’re going to say, ‘You know what? The president is right and we should have done this all along.’ And that’s just not how things work.”

Obama also expressed frustration with the Hispanic press — and the Hispanic community at large — for criticizing his lack of progress on immigration.

“I know that within the Latino press, at least, there’s been this constant commentary, ‘Well, he had 60 votes for health care, why couldn’t he get 60 votes for immigration reform?’” Obama said. “And I just want to remind everybody: actually, after Scott Brown won in Massachusetts, I only had 59 votes. I didn’t have 60. I had 59 votes for health care. The only reason that we were able to get that passed was we had already had a vote in the Senate just barely to get it done; just barely were we able to get it done.”

Later in the interview, he added: “The only thing that I just ask is that within the community, people understand I can’t snap my fingers and make this happen. And so I think what has been interesting is the degree to which people have expressed frustration for me, somebody who supports comprehensive immigration reform, and less criticism sometimes of the people who oppose immigration reform. That doesn’t make sense. I am as strong an ally as anybody has ever been in this Oval Office when it comes to solving this problem.”

Scott Wong contributed to this story.