The Democrats are keen to push the DREAM Act through the lame-duck Congress. What urgent problem does the DREAM Act address? Permanent tax relief to spur job creation? Funding the government after the criminally incompetent House Democrats under Nancy Pelosi couldn’t even put a budget together? No, the DREAM Act is an amnesty program for illegal aliens.
Media reports speak of the DREAM Act as offering “a path to citizenship.” DREAM stands for “Development, Relief, and Education of Alien Minors.” The basic idea is to offer citizenship to young illegals in exchange for two years of military service, or working on a bachelor’s degree from an American university.
Specifically, the DREAM Act’s web site says applicants must enter the United States before the age of 16, and reside here for at least five years before the act is passed. They must graduate from a U.S. high school, or obtain a GED high-school equivalency diploma. They must also have “good moral character.” If they meet these conditions, applicants immediately obtain “conditional” green cards. Five and a half years later, if they put in two years of military service of university time, they get permanent citizenship.
We could have a field day discussing the “good moral character” requirement and how it will be judged, but let’s set that aside and look at the practical considerations. How can these applicants obtain high school diplomas or pass GED tests if they’re illegal aliens? How could they get through high school if enrolling caused their parents to be detected and deported by immigration authorities? Obviously it will be necessary to suspend all attempts to enforce immigration law immediately, against anyone who might be eligible to apply for DREAM Act protection, or their families. Once a young illegal gets through a couple of years of college and receives his permanent citizenship, he can use it to get green cards for his parents, in a so-called “backdoor amnesty.”
How are these young illegals going to afford tuition at universities to earn their citizenships, if they don’t go the military route? Not to worry – citizens already subsidize their education in many states, such as California, Texas, New York, and Illinois, where illegal aliens are able to pay in-state tuition rates, while legal residents of other states must pay much higher fees. The angry parents of out-of-state students recently tried to sue California over this practice, but the state Supreme Court told them to pound sand.
The DREAM Act would produce a surge of alien students into already overburdened universities. It would cost a lot to accommodate them, wouldn’t it? In fact, Representative Peter King (R-IA) says the Democrats have been suppressing an analysis that says the DREAM Act could cost north of $20 billion to implement. Just what a nation drowning in deficit spending needed: an expensive new program to import more dependents!
Besides the matter of college tuition – which will rapidly become a “human right” in the eyes of activists, since any refusal to fund the college education of illegal aliens will become an attempt to interfere with their sacred quest for citizenship – there’s the immense cost of processing all those new citizenships. It’s going to require a lot of manpower to verify the eligibility requirements listed on that DREAM Act web page. I wonder how much the Good Moral Character Analysts will make.
The Florida state Senate just introduced a bill to adopt immigration policies similar to those of Arizona, an idea strongly favored by newly elected governor Rick Scott. This is going to make Democrat pandering to Hispanic populations very dicey. Obama can’t afford to write off Florida, which he would certainly do by savaging the state, Arizona-style. On the other hand, he would enrage alien activists by quietly letting the Florida law slide, not to mention looking ridiculous. That means the Democrats need something very juicy to wave in front of the illegal alien lobby.
Thanks to its eligibility provisions, the DREAM Act would essentially overrule Arizona and Florida’s attempts to get serious about immigration law. Even as famously soft Lindsey Graham (R-SC) joins the stiffening Republican resistance to this amnesty program, you can expect the Democrats to push it harder in the lame duck session, because circumstances are beginning to make it look more like a necessity to their political future than a daydream.
