Lynn Woolley: Why the Dream Act should fail
07:32 PM CST on Friday, December 3, 2010
By some strange quirk of fate, the initials of the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors legislation now being considered by our lame duck Congress spells "DREAM." It should spell "AMNESTY," but that wouldn't have sent the right message to compassionate taxpayers who are being asked to give away the store.
The "store" in this case is a big prize: The act offers legal status to immigrants younger than 35 if they arrived in the United States before age 16 and if they complete two years of military service or college.
The Dream Act is the brainchild of liberal members of Congress, championed by Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, who for years has been attaching it in some form to various pieces of legislation. It is a key component to the so-called "path to citizenship" that various immigrant groups have been demanding.
One of those groups is the Immigration Policy Center, which has issued a long list of reasons the Dream Act should be passed. Mostly, the IPC argues on humanitarian grounds that it's simply the right thing to do: "[Undocumented youth] have the potential to be future doctors, nurses, teachers and entrepreneurs, but they experience unique hurdles to achieving success in this country."
The argument is a non sequitur. Most of the students who are in the country legally have such potential, so what is the compelling reason to replace them in the pecking order for tough-to-get slots at the University of Texas or Texas A&M with students who are undocumented?
The other side of the argument often comes from the Center for Immigration Studies, which has published a new study claiming that each student who attends a public institution under the Dream Act will receive a subsidy from taxpayers of nearly $6,000 for each academic year. The CIS says that comes out to about $6.2 billion annually.
The biggest problem with the Dream Act is not its gargantuan price tag; it's the issue of basic fairness and the manipulation of our laws. As things stand now, a pregnant woman from south of the border can sneak into the country and make her way to Parkland Memorial Hospital just in time for Dallas taxpayers to pick up the tab on her new baby. Under our current court interpretation of the 14th Amendment, that baby is a citizen and doesn't need the Dream Act.
But say another mother – or father – sneaks a child across the border at the age of 5. That toddler is not a citizen, but the Dream Act provides the same privileges, especially because Texas law gives in-state tuition to illegal aliens. Meanwhile, a graduating senior in Lawton, Okla., who wants to cross the state border to attend college at UT at Austin has to pay the out-of-state rate.
In other words, the more of our laws you break, the better deal you get.
Victor Davis Hanson of the Hoover Institution questions the morality of rewarding illegal immigration. He asks whether citizens should also have the right to pick and choose which laws to obey and which to ignore – and whether the influx of mass illegal immigration removes the ability of the citizen-poor to bargain with employers.
But those who support the Dream Act often see it as a civil rights issue. In late November, several protesters were arrested for blocking Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's San Antonio offices in support of the act. Some had even been participating in a hunger strike. If they are Americans, they have every right to protest. Taxpayers also have a right to stand up for the Constitution, the rule of law and fairness to our own citizens.
Lynn Woolley is a Texas-based radio talk show host. His website if
www.BeLogical.com and his e-mail address is
lynn@belogical.com.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...1.335d2a0.html
Steve King: DREAM Act is a Multi-Billion Dollar Amnesty Nightmare
Washington D.C.- Congressman Steve King (R-IA), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Immigration, issued the following statement after the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released an analysis showing that the illegal alien amnesty bill known as the “DREAM Act” will increase federal spending and deficits by billions of dollars if it becomes law. A report prepared by the Center for Immigration Studies claims that passage of the DREAM Act would have a similar negative effect on state and local government budgets.
“With the release of the CBO report, we now have two studies showing that the DREAM Act will break budgets on both the state and federal level,” said King. “These budget-busting numbers occur even though amnesty advocates scaled back the scope of the legislation.”
“On Tuesday, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) released a report showing that giving in-state tuition discounts to illegal aliens under the DREAM Act will place an annual cost of $6.2 billion on state and local taxpayers. These costs will not be subsidized by the federal government, meaning that the bill sends a multi-billion dollar unfunded mandate to the states that will result in tuition increases, tax increases, or both.”
“Yesterday, the CBO report revealed that, beginning in 2021, federal deficits would swell by at least $5 billion as those who received amnesty gain access to federal welfare programs. What’s worse, CBO has suggested this number could rise well beyond their published estimate.”
“Taken together, these two studies show that providing illegal aliens with amnesty under the DREAM Act places a costly burden on federal, state and local taxpayers. The DREAM Act amnesty bill is a nightmare for Americans who want the federal government to balance its budget, and it will result in Americans paying higher taxes and tuition fees.”
http://caffeinatedthoughts.com/2010/...sty-nightmare/