Posted on 11/23/2010 9:20:06 AM PST by Qbert
Senate Republicans and their conservative allies are sharpening their attacks on the proposed DREAM Act that would provide a path to citizenship for some illegal immigrants, declaring it would give “amnesty” to millions — some of them criminals.
The legislation, which would apply to undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, has been overshadowed by other big-ticket items on the lame-duck congressional calendar. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) are now pushing for votes on it this year.
Already, GOP staffers have begun circulating to senators and conservative groups a white paper outlining what they see as the social and financial costs of passing the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act.
“In addition to immediately putting an estimated 2.1 million illegal immigrants (including certain criminal aliens) on a path to citizenship, the DREAM Act would give them access to in-state tuition rates at public universities, federal student loans and federal work-study programs,” said the research paper, being distributed by Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The paper adds that those who obtain legal status under the DREAM Act would have the right to seek naturalization for their family members, including the parents who illegally brought them to the U.S. as children.
“In less than a decade, this reality could easily double or triple the more than 2.1 million green cards that will be immediately distributed as a result of the DREAM Act,” the paper states.
The Heritage Foundation, one of many conservative groups that have received a copy of the paper, is also pumping out information about what it sees as flaws in the proposed law. The foundation is sending out research papers to its 700,000 members and posting blogs written by its analysts.
“People do not want to degrade our immigration laws further, and that’s what the DREAM Act would do,” said Jena Baker McNeill, a homeland security policy analyst at Heritage. “We’re just being honest what the bill is: It seems like a good bill until you look and see it’s very much an amnesty bill that will encourage people to come here illegally.”
The bill’s backers, though, say it outlines a “rigorous and lengthy process” for legalization, hardly the amnesty plan that opponents have depicted.
Eligible immigrants must have entered the U.S. before age 16, lived in the country at least five consecutive years before the bill’s enactment; been younger than 35 at the time of enactment; admitted to a college or earned a high-school diploma or GED certificate; and should have no serious criminal record.
Those who receive conditional resident status would need to attend college or serve in the military at least two years.
“This is about accountability, not amnesty,” said a White House official who’s been closely monitoring the DREAM Act. “It will take a few Republicans to get this through Congress, but they have to realize we can’t keep kicking the can down the road. They have to help govern and to solve some of the problems.”
In the absence of any broader immigration reform, President Barack Obama reiterated his support for the DREAM Act after Reid vowed last week to bring it to the Senate floor in December as a stand-alone bill. Republicans had blocked the measure in September after Democrats tried to attach it to the defense authorization bill.
To build broader support for the bill, its chief sponsor, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), has rolled out new versions of the bill that would keep in place a ban on in-state tuition for undocumented students. One version would lower the age of eligibility to 30.
Indiana Sen. Dick Lugar is the only Republican who has signed onto the Durbin bill. But more GOP support will be crucial to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to thwart a filibuster given that some Democrats have already voiced their opposition.
“I’m not going to support any act that I don’t think adds to jobs, or military or to the economy. Consequently I won’t support any motion to proceed or any kind of cloture on the DREAM Act,” Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) told POLITICO. “In addition, I think that has to be part of an overall comprehensive solution to immigration once we have the border secured, not until then.”
Reid has argued to the contrary, saying the legislation recognizes that immigrants are a critical component to a thriving economy and rewards those fighting to defend America’s freedom.
“This bill will give children brought illegally to this country at no fault of their own the chance to earn legal status,” Reid said.
The Republican research paper tries to correct 10 perceived misperceptions about the bill, including that the bill would not require immigrants to obtain a college degree or even serve in the military. The bill also is not limited to just children, the paper says. The age cap could be as high as 35, meaning some immigrants could be as old as 41 by the time they gain full permanent resident status.
The four-page document also points out that undocumented immigrants with misdemeanor convictions, including DUIs, could still be eligible under the act. And it argues that the bill provides “safe harbor” for criminal aliens, barring the Homeland Security Department from deporting “any alien who has a pending application for permanent status” under the DREAM Act.
“This loophole will open the floodgates for applications that could stay pending for many years or be litigated as a delay tactic to prevent the illegal aliens’ removal from the United States,” the document reads. “The provision will further erode any chances of ending the rampant illegality and fraud in the existing system.”
Ping!
THEY had been held to the requirement of learning English, and to learn it passably... so they could vote.
What the h&^% is anyone doing in this country, calling him/herself American if they can't even speak English well enough to understand a ballot or printed information about issues and candidates. It makes NO sense.
yes and that dog stopped hunting in nov/10
It wont pass and Dirty Harry knows it. He has too many RATS against it.
This is all for show, nothing more.
I thought Demint would put a “hold” on all of this?
With any luck at all, the Pubbies will showcase the LEGALITY part of this issue, and the entitlements part. We cannot continue down the path of continued entitlements to all.
Most people get this ~ especially in these times.
Many latinos (citizens) do not want amnesty.
They should just say no to the Nightmare act.
Every perk given to illegals and their children causes more people to think sneaking into the U. S. pays off.
And of course it does. That has got to stop.
What makes the DREAM Act so aggravating is that it is “half reasonable”.
That is, there are lots of illegal alien minors who were brought here as infants and young children. Many have no memories of Mexico, attended primary and secondary school, speak mostly English, and are culturally Americans.
To send them “back to Mexico” is as traumatic and cruel as to send a legal American child to a non-English speaking third world country. Race does not matter in this situation, because it is throwing a child to the wolves.
Recognition as “de jure” Americans instead of just “de facto” Americans, means that they continue to live the life they have been leading, that they were trained for, and to which they want to be productive citizens.
Of course there should be preconditions to this. Such as criminal activity of their own volition outside of their state of being. Certainly this is grounds for deportation. Likewise, after living here many years, if they have not mastered the English language, graduated from secondary school, and/or have lived extensively on government benefits, it is not in our societal interest that they remain here.
This is not difficult discrimination to make. Most of what matters is public record.
The end result is that if you demonstrate you have acted like a good citizen, you can become a citizen. But if you have not, you should no longer live here.
But this is not in the DREAM Act.
In practice, the normal path to citizenship is intolerable, and it means excluding good potential citizens to make way for less desirable citizens. It should be simplified specifically for the good potential citizens, with an emphasis on discriminating against the bad ones.
Gang membership should mean immediate deportation, if there is no other outstanding criminal penalty to be taken first. Other criminal activity is fine justification for rapid deportation as well. Living on public assistance more than a bare minimum of time should also act as a discriminator—we do not need social parasites. And ignorance and unwillingness to integrate likewise.
It is not hard to distinguish such people from those who offer our society far more than they consume.
| The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence. |
And the killing-blow:
| US Code, TITLE 18, PART I, CHAPTER 13, § 241 Conspiracy against rights |
|---|
| If two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same; or If two or more persons go in disguise on the highway, or on the premises of another, with intent to prevent or hinder his free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege so secured— They shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and if death results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, they shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death. |
| US Code, TITLE 18, PART I, CHAPTER 109A, § 2241. Aggravated sexual abuse |
(a) By Force or Threat.— Whoever, in the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States or in a Federal prison, or in any prison, institution, or facility in which persons are held in custody by direction of or pursuant to a contract or agreement with the head of any Federal department or agency, knowingly causes another person to engage in a sexual act—
(d) State of Mind Proof Requirement.— In a prosecution under subsection (c) of this section, the Government need not prove that the defendant knew that the other person engaging in the sexual act had not attained the age of 12 years. |
“There is enough in the Constitution to repudiate BOTH the TSA and this DREAM ACT;”
Yes, there is. But,,, better that the Dream Act is never passed, than to have to try and repudiate it in Congress or the Courts. If it passes, and the young illegals are given citizenship, that will not be able to be undone. Ex Post Facto will prevent taking their citizenship away. Better that it fails now, rather than latter!
NO - NO Compromise on the Dream Act - just stiff arm it and DARE any Republican Senator to waver. Report any wavering Senator to the army of Tea Party members and have them chastised from the Senate Floor...
Mount a massive Tea Party - phone - fax and email campaign - even D.C. protest in mass to stop this craziness.
It was important in the southwest and California.
Let’s hope. Entitlements, including Obamacare, will cause us to slide into socialism.
They are DESPERATE for votes for '12.
The problem with that strategy is that stopping the DREAM Act, without using the tactics I proposed to make it clear that the left really wants to open up a covert blanket amnesty, hands the left a propaganda coup with independents and moderates by letting them trot, out the stories of kids brought into the U.S. at the age of two-months or five-years who have grown up completely Americanized, but legally are Mexicans or Guatemalans or whatever, who can’t really be sent “back” because psychologically and socially their home has always been here.
The compromise of a DREAM Act with a cut-off to chain-immigration to legalize parents who broke U.S. law (or other relatives for that matter) and enforcement provisions with teeth has to be offered to unmask the left’s true intent.
How can the repeal of “citizenship” ‘given’ by a law that is invalid due to its contraryness to the Constitution be Ex Post Facto?
Don’t you know that the Supreme Court, in 1798’s Calder v. Bull case, ruled that the prohibitions against Ex Post Facto laws apply ONLY to criminal laws? [/slight-snark]
That declaration, that such prohibitions apply only to criminal law, is the basis for Congress being able to make Ex Post Facto changes to the “administrative”/”regulatory” law, the violation of which is prosecuted in *CRIMINAL* court, obviously shows that “ex post facto” only applies “when convenient.”
I’m ALL in favor of making the Government choke on its own words/rulings.
Sorry - I have no concern about any illegal alien - young or old... I only have concern for American Citizens - whether they have a job and their family is safe.
Any Republican Member of the House or Senate who Votes for the Dream act is a traitor to the USA and will be treated accordingly.
No Amnesty - no way - not for anyone young or old -— too damn bad.
I still am convinced that the number of illegals is much closer to 50-55 million here - counting also the ones who came YEARS ago & never got legal.
NObama is pulling the National Guard off the Southern Border, also.
He JUST SENT them a couple of months go.
What a dog-pony show he is.
Then, he is moving NORTHERN Border Ptrol agents to the Southern Border-—for an unknown time frame.
Smoke & mirrors—
Walnut shells & the pea-—
There is nothing solid about this empty suit!!
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