Barack Obama Responds vis a vis the Dream Act

A few days ago, I received an email from Senator Durbin regarding my inquiry about the DREAM Act. I thought it was an instructive email because it gives everyone a glimpse into the perspective of those that do not take illegal immigration seriously. Obama just responded as well and his email is quite similar.

Dear Michael:

Thank you for contacting me to share your views on the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act (S. 2205). I appreciate hearing from you on this important issue.

As an Illinois State Senator and a United States Senator, I have worked hard to improve our nation's immigration laws. For example, I strongly supported legislation before the Illinois State Senate that would have helped honest and hard-working immigrant students attend college by providing them with government loans to pay for tuition. In the U.S. Senate, I am an original cosponsor of the DREAM Act when it was first introduced in the 110th Congress as S. 774. This legislation would allow certain immigrant students to attend college and obtain legal permanent residency.

In order for an undocumented student to qualify and apply for conditional legal status under the DREAM Act, he or she would have to: have arrived in the United States at age 15 or younger; have been continuously present in the U.S. for at least five years; have good moral character; graduated from high school or obtained a GED in the U.S.; not have a history of criminal or terrorist activity; and be age 29 or younger when the DREAM Act is signed into law. The undocumented student would then be required to either serve in the military or attend college for at least two years within a six year time frame. If the undocumented student is able to meet all of these requirements within six years, he or she could then apply for legal permanent residency; if the student fails to meet all of these requirements, he or she would revert to illegal status and become deportable. This legislation offers hope and opportunity to young people who have chosen the right path and who want to become contributing citizens of the United States.

Unfortunately, in October, the DREAM Act failed to receive the necessary 60 votes in order to cut off debate on the measure. Failing to pass the DREAM Act only compounds the immigration crisis by continuing to drive thousands of young people every year into hiding.I will be sure to keep your views in mind if the DREAM Act makes it before the Senate floor for another vote.Again, thank you for writing, and I look forward to hearing from you in the future.

Sincerely,
Barack Obama

The first thing that should be obvious is the terminology for illegal immigrant. Obama will call an illegal anything before he will call them illegal. At one point, he simply refers to them as immigrants and at another point he refers to them as undocumented. Those are all euphimisms used by the writer to try and minimize the situation. Referring to illegals as illegal is a stigma that would rather not face. It is, unfortunately for the Senator, the truth however. Anyone that can't even bring themselves to call an illegal illegal is already suspect.

Now, when this bill was first introduced, I warned opponents that proponents would immediately try and appeal to our sympathies. At least Obama doesn't find an illegal and try and tell their sad tale. Instead, he tries to create empathy through generalization. He points out that the DREAM Act only affects those that came here illegally with their parents. He points out that it allows them to go to school and join the military, and he even tries to appeal to our reasonable side by pointing out all of the hoops they have to go through as well as the "severe" punishment for non compliance. The simple fact of the matter is that he is for a bill that gives legal status to those that came here illegally. That encourages more illegal immigration.

I notice that while Senator Obama was listing through the accomplishments he thought he had in regards to illegal immigration, there weren't any that involved enforcement or anything that would actually discourage illegal immigration. By doing a lot of work on illegal immigration, the Senator means doing everything he can to cater to law breakers. I have sympathy for those that came here illegally with their parents as well. That is why I would be more than happy if before they were deported, they also met with someone that would show them how to fast track their re entry. I would be all for a bill that absolves them of their crime when we look at their application upon re entry. I understand that it wasn't their fault that they entered the country illegally however they still did. Rewarding them with legal status only encourages more illegal immigration.

I would frankly be more than happy to revisit the DREAM Act when I am confident that the border is sealed and we have cut off employment access to illegals. At that point, the DREAM Act is the right thing to do and the compassionate thing to do. At this point, it puts compassion above reason and it is ultimately bad policy. Obama cannot get around that.

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.