Dream Act: backdoor attempt to grant amnesty to illegal aliens

By James Lambert

It is anticipated that this week Democrat Senator leader Harry Reid will once again introduce legislation to provide a way for illegal aliens to get citizenship. Many opponents are calling this just another incremental attempt by Democrats to grant legal status to illegal aliens.

The Dream Act (Senate bill # 3827) would grant "illegal immigrants in the country amnesty by offering them a college education or the option of to join the military as a means to join the legal immigration ranks." (Dvorak/ Examiner.com) The committee that summarizes legislation for the Senate says that the bill, if passed, will do the following: It will "authorize the Secretary of Homeland Security to cancel the removal of, and adjust to conditional permanent resident status, an alien who (1) entered the U.S. before his or her 16th birthday and has been present in the United States for at least five years immediately preceding this Act's enactment; (2) is a person of good moral character; is not deportable under specified grounds of the Immigration and Nationality Act; (4) has been admitted to an institution of higher education or has earned a high school diploma ... and was under the age of 35 on the date of this Act's enactment."

The White House has already had meetings with Democrat members of the Latino caucus who desperately want the bill to be passed. Heading up the effort for the Obama administration is the Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan. In a teleconference call held last week, Duncan declared in his opening statement that these (illegal alien) "residents" should be given a passage to citizenship because they've "played by the rules..."

Coming from a state that has severe budget deficit ($20+ billion) problem, like California, I had to question Secretary Duncan's assertion. It is con-servatively estimated that there are over 3 million illegal alien "residents" in our state alone. If only 15% (or 450,000) of this total are getting free public education, this means that already over-burdened California taxpayers are picking up the tab.

Do the math yourself: 450,000 illegal alien "residents" x $7,571 (per student cost of public education as provided by the California Federation of Teachers — CCFT.org) amounts to $3,415,950,000 in taxpayer funded expense. Taxpayers from California can not afford this!

The statement claiming that illegal aliens have "played by the rules" is a blatant lie. Anyone who misrepresents their citizenship status, falsifies their (or their children's) birth place, social security numbers, drivers licenses, along with breaking our immigration laws is not "playing by the rules." Apparently, the Secretary of Education does not understand this. I questioned him on this and reminded him of the results of the most recent election. The Secretary responded by saying that there will always be 1 or 2 cases out of 50,000+ that do not adhere to the law. Hello?

Don't believe these proponents of the Dream Act. They tell us that the Dream Act "would aid the ailing economy and generate tax revenues" ... (and) "will prepare the country for the new global economy." (NILC.org) Hogwash! The Act will, in fact, allow these "newly amnestied aliens to be eligible for numerous taxpayer-funded student loan programs." (F.A.I.R.) Neither the states nor the federal government can sustain this new expense.

Already, California taxpayers are supporting the community college education of illegal immigrants — thanks to the Democratic controlled state legislature. Jeff Schwilk, founder of www.SanDiegoMinutemen.com recently said, passage of the Dream Act "would just encourage more illegal immigration and lead to a massive chain migration from family members. The American people do not support more amnesty for illegal aliens at this time."

Finally, I encourage each of you to call both of your Senators (by phone: 202-224-3121 or www.Senate.gov ) & voice your opinion today.

© James Lambert