Posted by
The Hermit Crab on Friday, December 03, 2010 7:36:04 AM
My home received a robocall touting the DREAM Act as a mere act of justice that will offer young illegal immigrants who crossed the border illegally "through no fault of their own" a chance to make a future in our country. The reality is rather different. I offer this, from an e-mail I received from Eagle Forum:
Supporters of
the Dream Act tout it as an innocent plan that would allow “children” brought into the U.S.
illegally to obtain legal status and a path to citizenship, if they complete
educational requirements or a specified length of military service. This
simplistic and misleading explanation fails to reveal the true nature of the
legislation. In truth, the Dream Act is fraught with serious problems, as it
will
- Allow
illegal aliens to apply for amnesty even if they are in their 30s when the bill
is enacted. Two versions of the bill require that an applicant be under 35
years of age when the bill is enacted; and the third version requires that an
applicant be less than 30 years of age.
- Not require
illegal aliens to obtain any degree or serve in the military to be granted
amnesty. The bill’s educational requirement is so squishy that even high
school dropouts would qualify, as long as they obtain their GED and complete a
mere 2 years at “an institution of higher education,” including a community
college or a vocational school.
The
“military service” requirement is also a pretense, since it would allow illegal
aliens to obtain amnesty for enlistment in the “uniformed services,” which would
include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or the Public Health
Service.
Worst
of all, an illegal alien who is unable to complete either the educational or the
military service requirement can still be granted amnesty, if he shows that his
removal would result in a hardship to himself or his U.S. citizen or Legal
Permanent Resident spouse, child, or parent.
- Provide a
“safe harbor” for any alien who
has a pending application for conditional status. This restriction on the
Secretary of Homeland Security’s ability to remove an illegal alien would lead
to fraud and abuse, as illegal aliens attempting to delay their removal would
inevitably apply for conditional status, regardless of their eligibility.
Such
fraudulent applications would increase the financial burden on the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS),
who are tasked with processing such applications. Fraudulent applications would
also delay processing for aliens who are actually trying to enter America in a
legal manner.
- Allow
amnestied aliens to apply for citizenship and petition to bring family members —
including their parents who brought them here illegally — to the U.S. as soon as
they become citizens.
- Grant
in-state tuition to amnestied aliens, even as U.S. citizens and legally present
aliens attending school across their state lines are denied the same tuition
rates.
- Allow
amnestied aliens to qualify for other federal student assistance, including
federal student loans, federal work-study programs, and other federal
educational services. American taxpayers already foot the bill for these
programs. Since an estimated 1.3-2.1 million illegal aliens will qualify for
amnesty under the Dream Act, taxpayers can expect the cost of providing these
benefits to skyrocket!
- Tie DHS’s
hands in removing illegal aliens whose applications for amnesty are denied.
The Dream Act prohibits DHS from using information from an illegal alien’s
amnesty application to initiate a removal proceeding, or to investigate fraud
that has occurred in the application process. As a result, applicants who
intentionally try to commit fraud against the system will effectively be safe
from prosecution. The Dream Act unacceptably puts DHS in a more difficult
position than an illegal alien, as it requires DHS to “prove a negative” (that
is, prove it did not use information obtained from an unsuccessful amnesty
application) before it can even begin investigating and prosecuting
abusers.
Call your representatives and tell them no DREAM Act and no amnesty!