September 17, 2007

Senate Preparing to Dress a Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

The DREAM Act Would Grant Amnesty to Millions of Illegal Aliens at the Expense of Middle Class Americans Trying to Get an Education

Washington DC — Having been soundly repudiated by the American public in their effort to enact an amnesty program for millions of illegal aliens, Senate backers of the program are likely to attempt to sneak an amnesty bill proposal past the American people. Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois, the Democratic Whip, is expected to offer the DREAM Act as an amendment to the FY 2008 Defense Authorization bill next week.

The DREAM Act, which has been introduced and failed in each of the last three sessions of Congress, is designed to evoke sympathy from the American people. It would grant green cards and in-state tuition benefits to illegal aliens who arrived in the U.S. as minors and who graduate from high school. In reality, it would reward illegal aliens who brought their kids to the U.S. at the expense of law-abiding residents whose own kids would be forced to compete with illegal aliens for limited access to state universities.

“The DREAM Act amounts to a massive amnesty, under the guise of being sympathetic to kids,” stated Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). “Unfortunately, sympathy for one group of illegal aliens would come at a huge cost to other people’s children who would have to give up their opportunities for a taxpayer-funded higher education in order to accommodate illegal aliens granted amnesty and tuition breaks under the DREAM Act.

“While the kids may not have made the decision to break the law, the reason most parents migrate illegally is ‘to do better for their families,’” noted Stein. “What better inducement could there be for illegal immigration than a green card and a subsidized college education for their kids?”

The version of the DREAM Act likely to be offered as an amendment to the defense bill is reported to be far more expansive than earlier version. Under the revised version, people who are no longer minors or students would qualify. Illegal aliens who meet other requirements could also benefit from the DREAM Act amnesty.

“The DREAM Act on its own merits does not deserve to be passed and the American public has made it very clear that they reject amnesty for illegal aliens,” said Stein. “Attaching this amnesty to a bill authorizing the funding of our military is nothing more than an end run around accepted congressional procedures and an attempt to sneak an unpopular provision past the American public. What does granting amnesty to illegal aliens have to do with funding our armed services?

“The advocates of an illegal alien amnesty attempted to shove the whole chicken down the throats of the American public earlier this year, and the public refused to swallow it,” Stein said. “Now their strategy appears to be to break it up into bite-sized pieces, in the hope that the public won’t notice they are being fed an amnesty. If Senator Durbin and others think that they will be able to enact amnesty by stealth, they are sorely mistaken.”

Read FAIR's DREAM Act Legislative Summary.