Gutierrez Willing to Work with Rubio on DREAM Act
By late May, after months of vague statements about a watered down version of the DREAM Act amnesty, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) had still not produced a bill. What has been produced is an apparent alliance with Rep. Luis Gutierrez, Congress’s arch advocate for amnesty for illegal aliens.
According to a blog written by Juan Williams of Fox News, Gutierrez “told me he is working with [Rubio] on a version of the DREAM Act that will halt deportation of young, undocumented immigrants who are currently in school or serving in the military — but will not grant them citizenship.” The absence of a provision that puts DREAM Act beneficiaries on “a pathway to citizenship” has been the fig leaf Rubio has employed to deny that his proposal amounts to amnesty. However, in numerous statements, Rubio has said that he would not rule out citizenship at some later point.
“I think [Rubio] is sincere” about allowing millions of illegal aliens to live and work in the U.S. legally, Gutierrez told Williams. Notwithstanding the fact that the Obama administration has publicly stated it will not deport illegal aliens who might qualify for amnesty under the DREAM Act, Rubio reportedly told Gutierrez, “’You know, Luis, you want to end the deportations…I want to end the deportations.’” Gutierrez also revealed himself to be a political pragmatist, willing to take what he can get and come back and fight another day. “Who am I to say, ‘Oh, I’ve got to have something perfect,’” said Gutierrez.
The involvement of Gutierrez in drafting legislation indicates that when a bill is finally unveiled it is likely to be far more generous to illegal aliens than Rubio suggests. There is also the strong likelihood that the Democratic majority in the Senate, under the leadership of Harry Reid and Dick Durbin, will offer amendments that would expand the scope and breadth of Rubio’s version of the DREAM Act.
Even without the involvement of Gutierrez, the legislation Rubio has been promoting would unnecessarily reward illegal immigration and encourage millions more people to bring children to the United States in the expectation that they too will be allowed to remain. Moreover, as Rubio has conceded, it is likely that beneficiaries of the DREAM Act he is proposing will eventually gain citizenship under subsequent legislation.
The protracted media campaign being waged by Rubio and the backroom negotiations with Gutierrez are reminiscent of the so-called “Grand Bargain” hatched by Democratic and Republic leaders in 2007, which included a comprehensive amnesty for nearly all illegal aliens in the U.S. That “Grand Bargain” amnesty was a featured topic in FAIR’s Hold Their Feet to the Fire 2007 and it subsequently went down to defeat.