As the House is set to vote on the DREAM Act, right wing commentators and politicians are going into overdrive to disparage and vilify the bill. The DREAM Act provides a pathway to legal status to students and military servicemembers to the children of illegal immigrants who were not born in the country. Individuals considered for citizenship under the latest proposal cannot be older than 29; must have lived in the US for at least five consecutive years, have a clean record, and “would limit individuals from being able to sponsor family members for U.S. citizenship, among other changes.” According to the National Immigration Law Center, the bill won’t lead to preferred treatment for illegal immigrants, affect tuition rates, or have an impact on college admission rates.
Michelle Malkin blasted “the entitlement mentality” of students supporting the DREAM Act, as only in the world of right wing fear-mongers like Michelle Malkin can students who lack legal status be considered privileged and entitled:
Open-borders radicalism means never having to apologize for absurd self-contradiction.
The way illegal alien students on college campuses across the country tell it, America is a cruel, selfish and racist nation that has never given them or their families a break. Yet despite their bottomless grievances, they’re not going anywhere.
And despite their gripes about being forced “into the shadows,” they’ve been out in the open protesting at media-driven hunger strikes and flooding the airwaves demanding passage of the so-called DREAM Act. This bailout plan would benefit an estimated 2.1 million illegal aliens at an estimated cost of up to $20 billion.
Like Malkin, radio talk show host Roger Hedgecock used bogus figures and claims in his WorldNetDaily tirade against the DREAM Act:
With “comprehensive immigration reform” dead because of voter awareness that this is code speak for blanket amnesty for “undocumented Democrats,” the new amnesty is called the DREAM Act. Democrats are determined to push for congressional votes on the DREAM Act this week.
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As WND reported last week, the cost to taxpayers for the “student amnesty” could reach $44 billion. That’s because the estimated 2.1 million new “students” (and it will be many more than this administration estimate) qualify for student assistance under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965.
Republican lawmakers tempted to follow the liberal ethnic group playbook and vote for the DREAM Act to placate Latino radical groups need to look at the actual election results, too.
Iowa Congressman Steve King, who will soon chair the main subcommittee on immigration policy, called the DREAM Act an “affirmative action program for illegals” and said Congress should oppose the law since “sitting in the classroom next to some of them if the DREAM Act passes, will be inevitably a widow or a widower or a son or a daughter of someone who has lost their life in Iraq or Afghanistan defending our liberty and our freedom.”
