A Sleeper Amnesty: Time to Wake Up from the DREAM Act
By civil truth Posted in Immigration — Comments (5) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Several previous posters have posted an alert on this new legislations that may be coming up for floor action in the near future as an amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill. Others here have inquired for more information.
This is a serious problem worthy of attention, as the amnesty offered in this bill appears to be far, far more sweeping than anything in the justly-maligned immigration bill that was recently defeated.
On September 13, Kris W. Kobach, D.Phil., J.D. published a report on the Heritage Foundation site with the above title that articulately outlines the dangers of this bill.
Just three months after the Senate immigration bill met its well-deserved end, amnesty advocates in the U.S. Congress resumed their efforts. Recently, Senator Richard Durbin (D–IL) announced on the Senate floor his intention to offer the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act as an amendment to the defense authorization bill.
The DREAM Act (S. 774) is a nightmare. It is a massive amnesty that extends to the millions of illegal aliens who entered the United States before the age of 16. The illegal alien who applies for this amnesty is immediately rewarded with "conditional" lawful permanent resident (green card) status, which can be converted to a non-conditional green card in short order. The alien can then use his newly acquired status to seek green cards for the parents who brought him in illegally in the first place. In this way, it is also a backdoor amnesty for the millions of illegal aliens who brought their children with them to the United States.
What is less well known about the DREAM Act is that it also allows illegal aliens to receive in-state tuition rates at public universities, discriminating against U.S. citizens from out of state and law-abiding foreign students. It repeals a 1996 federal law that prohibits any state from offering in-state tuition rates to illegal aliens unless the state also offers in-state tuition rates to all U.S. citizens.
The author then presents a thorough history behind the actions of ten state who provide in-state tuition rates to illegal aliens and the efforts of citizens to seek redress in Federal courts against these actions. Mr. Kobach continues:
Now, just when it looks as if U.S. citizens might vindicate their rights under federal law and the wayward states might be held accountable, Senator Durbin and his pro-amnesty allies are seeking to offer the offending states a pardon.
The DREAM Act grants an unusual reprieve to the 10 states that have ignored federal law. The Act retroactively repeals the 1996 federal law that the 10 states violated, making it as though the provisions in the 1996 law never existed.
On top of this insult to the rule of law, the DREAM Act includes a massive amnesty... This amnesty opens a wide path to citizenship for any alien who entered the country before the age of 16 and has been in the country for at least five years. The guiding notion seems to be "The longer you have violated federal law, the better."
It is important to recognize just how sweeping this amnesty is.
There is no upper age limit...There is no requirement that the alien prove that he entered the United States at the claimed time by providing particular documents. The DREAM Act's Section 4(a) merely requires him to "demonstrate" that he is eligible—which in practice could mean simply making a sworn statement to that effect. Thus, it is an invitation for just about every illegal alien to fraudulently claim the amnesty.
The alien then has six years to adjust his status from a conditional green card holder to a non-conditional one. To do so, he need only complete two years of study at an institution of higher education...As an alternative to two years of study, he can enlist in the U.S. military and spend two years there. This provision allows Senator Durbin to claim that the DREAM Act is somehow germane to a defense authorization bill.
An illegal alien who applies for the DREAM Act amnesty gets to count his years under "conditional" green card status toward the five years needed for citizenship. (Section 5(e)) On top of that, the illegal alien could claim "retroactive benefits" and start the clock running the day that the DREAM Act is enacted. (Section 6) In combination, these two provisions put illegal aliens on a high-speed track to U.S. citizenship—moving from illegal alien to U.S. citizen in as little as five years. Lawfully present aliens, meanwhile, must follow a slower path to citizenship.
It would be absurdly easy for just about any illegal alien—even one who does not qualify for the amnesty—to evade the law. According to Section 4(f) of the DREAM Act, once an alien files an application—any application, no matter how ridiculous—the federal government is prohibited from deporting him. Moreover, with few exceptions, federal officers are prohibited from either using information from the application to deport the alien or sharing that information with another federal agency, under threat of up to $10,000 fine. Thus, an alien's admission that he has violated federal immigration law cannot be used against him—even if he never had any chance of qualifying for the DREAM Act amnesty in the first place.
The DREAM Act also makes the illegal aliens eligible for federal student loans and federal work-study programs—another benefit that law-abiding foreign students cannot receive—all at taxpayer expense. A consistent theme emerges: Illegal aliens are treated much more favorably than aliens who follow the law. There is no penalty for illegal behavior.
Read the whole article and then act accordingly.
I have a finite amount of time that I can spend on trying to influence policy issues. That time is generally bespoke on issues that are of primary importance to me; and this particular issue isn't. Now I'm being asked to take some of that time and spend it, not on issues that I consider [primarily*] important, but on ones that other people find [primarily*] important. Fair enough.
One wrinkle, though. Looking back on the history of this issue, I see two trends:
1). We seem to have spent a heckuva greater amount of time shooting down legislation that was deemed insufficient than we did promoting legislation that would have been deemed acceptable;
2). In 2006 we were offered a fairly bad bill on immigration reform. It was shot down. In the beginning of 2007 we were offered a notably worse bill on immigration reform. That was shot down. Now we are being offered a very bad bill on immigration reform. People are calling for it to be shot down.
I'm starting to see a pattern here.
So, before I commit to anything, I'd like to hear how doing so won't be a case of throwing good money after bad. Because right now it's a legitimate question to ask whether the DREAM Act is really the nadir of immigration reform.
Moe
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!
*Sorry; got edited out in the first draft somehow.
Civil truth, thanks for posting the information about the DREAM Act amnesty.
The DREAM Act is terrible legislation. It is yet another attempt to reward large numbers of illegal aliens with legal status.
Apparently, Durbin and others like him in Congress do not understand that a majority of Americans oppose amnesty.
Both the 2006 and 2007 Senate bill immigration reform bills were amnesty bills that thankfully were not enacted into law.
In 2005, an overwhelming majority of Republican House members supported H.R. 4437. That legislation passed the House in December 2005. It was "enforcement first" legislation that deserved support from the Republican Senate leadership that it did not receive.
I hope the DREAM Act amnesty legislation is killed.
"The defense of our nation begins with the defense of our borders." - Rep. Tom Tancredo
Dream Act???
Why the special treatment?
Some of us once had dreams of our own.
Back in the 60’s the Federal Government came into the public schools and brainwashed us as little children with the message that the children we were about to have were unwanted because the population was rising so fast. They launched a program called, “Zero Population Growth”. They pushed Family Planning and birth control pills. Now they call the same programs, "Safe Sex" but the results are the same. I think you and I both know that you only have to trick people for their few child bearing years and there is no going back.
Many of us never had a say in the future of our unborn.
I am the result of two living cells. One from each of my parents. They are the result of two living cells, one from each of their parents. I wasn't just born. I am a continuation of life. I am a living thing that reaches back into time perhaps 400 million years and the result of billions of joining of pairs of cells. It is possible that if you were to follow my cells back to my parent’s cells and beyond that my family tree touches every living thing here on earth. That is if we limit ourselves to believing life was created here on earth. If it rained down from the immensity of the universe it could reach back into that immensity of time and space, and who knows what relationships and who knows what species.
My family line succeeded, at least until I came up against the Federal Government and their plan to control the population.
I have seen the Federal Government do little else to control the population.
The open border, United States laws only apply to some, is a serious slap in the face. No, not a slap in the face, it reaches well beyond that. Maybe back to the beginning of time and stretch to the bounds of the universe.
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Reality: Thompson/Romney Dream: Santorum/Watts.
Call your member of Congress, United States Senate, and even the White House on this one. Even the current occupation might be able to overcome his myopia on this issue.