Monday, October 22, 2007

Under the Cover of Darkness: Here Comes the DREAM ACT

Hat tip again goes out to Numbers USA. The DREAM Act stands for Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act. What it does is legalizes illegals who came here as minors and also stayed out of trouble after they came here. If you ever wanted an illegal immigration bill that pulled at your compassionate heart strings, this one is it. Here is a great example of the sort of tug at your heart string story you will see. This one is about a 24 year old college student from the state of Washington.


After graduating in June with a degree in social work from Eastern Washington University, a 24-year-old Tacoma woman — the first in her family to go to college — returned to the campus this week to begin pursuing a master's degree.

After that, she'll probably seek her doctorate.

She acknowledges that she's only delaying the inevitable, knowing that as an illegal immigrant she won't find employment as a social worker.

Going to school is a way to "kill time, while I wait for something to give," said the woman, who asked that her name not be used.



The break she seeks could come this week, if the U.S. Senate votes on an amendment to a Department of Defense spending bill allowing illegal immigrants to earn legal status by enrolling in college or entering the military for two years.

This is exactly the sort of bleeding heart bills the Democrats are famous for. It is in the same mold as minimum wage, SCHIP, and Title IX. They pick a victim, someone that is sympathetic, and they make a bill that sides with the victim. This is a tried and true political strategy and DREAM is no different.

Make no mistake folks. Once there is a path to citizenship for illegals, any illegals, more of them will flood in. I have long ago compared illegal immigration to Pavlov's work with mice. It all comes down to motivation. If illegals think their kids can get citizenship, more of them will be motivated to come here. Any bill, any act, that creates more motivation for future illegal immigrants to come to this country is one that furthers this crisis. This is just such a bill.

There is more though. According to Numbers USA, the bill is being brought for a vote under the cover of darkness. Here is how Numbers USA described it in their email.


Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has invoked Rule 14 on the new stand-alone DREAM Act amnesty! That means he is setting up Senate procedure to spring the amnesty at any time without hearings or committee action.

For the Majority Leader to invoke Rule 14 means that he can bring a bill to a floor without it going through the debate and markup of a committee.

Rosemary Jenks, our NumbersUSA Director of Government Relations, says, "Generally when Rule 14 is invoked, it means the leadership intends to have a vote on the bill in fairly short order."

Under the rule, the amnesty bill (S. 2205) can be brought up as early as Tuesday.

The rule also allows Sen. Reid to wait until our forces are distracted and bring it at any time in the future at the spur of the moment.

So, we need all of you hitting up your Senators' offices all over again starting Monday with phone calls and faxes.

Besides Reid, the chief culprits in this mess are Senate Assistant Majority Leader Durbin (D-Ill.), Sen. Hagel (R-Neb.) and Sen. Lugar (R-Ind.). I hope you will feel free from anywhere in the country to let these four Senators know how you feel about their aggressive leadership to pass this amnesty.

As anyone reading this, the forces for unfettered illegal immigration are Dick Durbin, Chuck Hagel, Richard Lugar, and Harry Reid. These Senators need to hear from the American people. Expect the forces of illegal immigration to call those of us that favor the rule of law: racist, heartless, nativist, and Anti Hispanic.

It is very easy to take the compassionate position, but it is also, in this case, the worst kind of policy. In this case, it is also politically astute. Whoever gets this law passed will also be able to pick up millions of new voters to register and vote for them. Bad policy can be exposed for what it is. There are exponentially more people hurt by the cancer that is illegal immigration and we all need to be aware, alert, and most importantly active. It has been a bad couple of weeks for all of us that want the cancer of illegal immigration to be dealt with. The bill to end sanctuary cities was defeated in the Senate (with only one Democrat voting to end sanctuary cities). In my homestate, Illinois, there is a bill going through the State Senate that will allow illegals to get driver's licenses. Now, we have a bill that will give millions of illegals a path to citizenship.

That is why I am asking everyone that reads this to go to the link and write each of the Senators. Tell them it is unacceptable to make a path to citizenship for any illegal alien, no matter how they became illegal. It is bad policy, that perpetuates the problem, and you won't stand for it. Here is the link.

UPDATE: Here is my letter to Senator Durbin

Senator Durbin,

I understand that you are heading up the movement to find a pathway to citizenship for millions of illegal aliens. I guess you didn't get the message in the last debate over amnesty.

I have no doubt that you think you can trot out a bunch of poor helpless people who came here illegally along with their parents. You can probably make the case that being illegal isn't their fault. You probably think you have another issue like SCHIP.

You are wrong. People despise the concept of illegal immigration, and they despise anything that makes it more prevalent. You were one of forty plus Democratic Senators last week that voted against making sanctuary cities, among which Chicago my hometown is one, illegal. That is shameful. Sanctuary cities make it easier for CRIMINAL illegal aliens to continue to operate in our country.

Now, you want to give millions of people who aren't legally in this country a pathway to being legal. That is no less shameful and all of us that still believe in the rule of law will not forget.

About 26 years ago, I came here with my parents from the Soviet Union. My parents applied for emigration the day after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979 and we didn't finally make it out of the Soviet Union until almost two years later. In the meantime, we were shunned, my dad lost his job, and we nearly went broke, but my parents never broke any laws. They waited patiently through the process despite their own hardship.

By proposing such an abhorrent law you spit in the face of those like my parents who went through the process honestly and fairly. By passing the DREAM Act, you tell my parents, and everyone else that came here through the legal process, that their struggle was unnecessary and stupid. They all could have accomplished the same thing by merely breaking the law.

Our nation has laws and it has sovereignty. We cannot allow people to enter illegally and we cannot reward illegal behavior with citizenship. If we do, we only encourage more of it. I hope you think about this when you continue with your DREAM Act proposal.

All right everyone, now follow my lead and write these Senators yourself and then post what you wrote in the comments.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I faxed my Senators and Representative early this morning and told them that if they desire re-election, then they better vote NO on this pathetic piece of legislation.

mike volpe said...

If you have a copy of this fax, I would love to have it posted on the site so that everyone can see how they should approach their Representatives.

Gabriel said...

i disagree with you on several points. the dream act is not a spitting in the face of people who've come into the United States legally, as it is not granting amnesty to the parents of these children but to the children themselves. notwithstanding, the bill does have its problems, but do you have a better solution? deporting every single illegal alien would cost FAR more than it would to provide them with instate tuition and the opportunity to receive federal funds for college. not to mention, it would finally put them on a path to paying taxes for the luxuries of this country that they already enjoy. it's not the greatest solution, but you've got to be kidding me if you think it's feasible to send them all back to their countries - or worse yet, to suggest to them that they go on their own--like THAT is going to happen...

mike volpe said...

It sounds as though you disagree with me on one point, Gabriel. It is a point that I acknowledged and addressed in my piece. While the children of illegals may be innocent, they still came here illegally. Once you reward illegal behavior, even by the innocent, you are still encouraging more of it. It is that simple. Compassion is nice, but it is also totally counter productive when it comes to illegal immigration.

You asked a valid question? What would I do?

First, I would make all sanctuary cities, those that don't report criminal illegal aliens, themselves illegal and cut off federal funding to those cities.

Second, I would have a commitment from ICE to hunt down and deport all the criminal illegal aliens that are currently roaming our streets. There are about half a million.

Third, I would build a fence. We already have the money set aside supposedly and now it needs to be built. The arguement against it is ludicrous. They say that for every fifty foot fence there is a fifty one foot ladder. A migrant would look awfully suspicious walking around the desert with a fifty one foot ladder.

Fourth, I would put about fifty thousand national guard folks to back up the border patrol.

Fifth, I would try and implement a tamper proof ID card. This is of course easier said then done. This is what the SAVE Act is attempting to do and I hope it does. This is fraught with potential problems however it can certainly be accomplished.

By implementing these steps we wouldn't need to deport anyone because illegals would have no jobs here anyway.