At dinner recently here in Washington D.C., one of our good friends—bright, well informed, and politically active—advised my wife and myself that she and her friends have recently been up on Capitol Hill lobbying for the Dream Act. "Those poor kids who are the children of illegal aliens should be educated", she opined. [VDARE.com note: That is, of course, the children, born outside the US, who are illegal aliens themselves. For the citizen children of illegal aliens, see Washington Watcher's piece tonight.]
This legislation, introduced by Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), is a broad amnesty measure, disguised as an educational initiative, that would allow millions of illegal aliens who meet a very loose definition of "student" to qualify for green cards. In addition, it provides in-state tuition benefits for illegal aliens who will displace legal residents competing for a fixed number of college admission slots.
What we have here is the perfect example of how 45 years of bad policy has festered in our body politic and exacerbated our sagging observance of the precious rule of law.
Of course, there are many attractive, law-abiding offspring of illegal alien parents who should be educated. Ignored by well-meaning Americans, like our dinner companion, are the DREAM Act's certain consequences. They include rewarding parents who violated our laws and giving powerful incentive for more illegal immigration—as well as plus cutting out spaces and tuition for our own kids!
Instead of doing something about the failure of the 1965 immigration legislation, which was apparent decades ago, our elected Federal officials, paid heavily by lobbyists the powerful business, religious and ethnic lobbies whose goal is cheap labor and more memberships, ignored the problem, then tried to patch it over with an ill-fated major amnesty bill in 1986. That fiasco only encouraged the then-only 2 million illegal aliens allowed to stay here to morph into the 12-20 million we now have!
Now the present Democratic (alas) Congress and White House want us citizens to stand still for yet another amnesty a.k.a. "comprehensive immigration reform".
This coming lawsuit against Arizona's new immigration law by the US Justice Dept is frankly a blessing! Polls show that about 60% of Americans in favor AZ Governor Jan Brewer's signing that law this April. The Justice Department's lawsuit will give visibility to the long standing immigration invasion which may finally wake up American citizens to take political action.
We could stop this illegal immigration foolishness now if:
The Mexican border fence could be finished and massive troop deployments were made to the border.
We ceased offering the myriad benefits now available to illegal aliens and their citizen children;
We made employment of illegals impossible, including stiff fines for employers who break the law;
We deported all criminal aliens picked up by the police;
We legislate or pass a Constitutional Amendment to remove the "anchor baby" interpretation of the 14th amendment.
Mexico wants to send people to us, but has no mercy at all on any illegal aliens there (and precious little on would-be legal immigrants).
As some wag recently suggested on a bumper sticker: "Adopt Mexican Immigration Laws Now!"
Donald A. Collins [email him], is a freelance writer living in Washington DC and a former long time member of the board of FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform. His views are his own.
