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| Curtis Coleman |
According to POLITICO, “The DREAM Act would provide a path to legalization for immigrants who were brought to the country illegally as children, if they go to college or serve in the military for at least two years.
“The latest version, filed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) late Tuesday night, would bar illegal immigrants from receiving in-state college tuition; drops the age of eligibility to 29 from 34; would not grant permanent legal status to anyone for at least 10 years; would restrict eligibility for those who commit certain misdemeanor crimes; and would limit individuals from being able to sponsor family members for U.S. citizenship, among other changes.
“Those who receive conditional legal status under the DREAM Act also would be ineligible for Medicaid, food stamps and other government-funded benefits.”
Arkansas Senator Blanche Lincoln (D) is a co-sponsor of the DREAM Act. Senator Mark Pryor (D) said recently he believes that it is appropriate to make military service a path to citizenship for children who were brought into the U.S. by their illegally immigrated parents. He is, nevertheless, planning to vote against the act, he said, citing his belief that “most Arkansans have a problem with the educational aspects” of the proposed legislation. Will the “educational aspect” changes in version 5 be enough to change Sen. Pryor’s mind and win his support regardless of the wishes of most Arkansans?
Based on reports of illegal aliens dying in Iraq while fighting as members of the U. S. military, I posed this question a few days ago: “Is the federal government knowingly hiring and paying illegal aliens to serve in the U. S. military?
“Reportedly, the military is already actively recruiting young illegal immigrants. How many? “Nobody knows,” says Flavia Jimenez, an immigration policy analyst at the National Council of La Raza. “But what we do know is that recruiters may not be up to speed on everybody’s legal status. … We also know that a significant number of [illegals] have died in Iraq.” The recruitment of illegal immigrants is particularly intense in Los Angeles, where 75 percent of the high school students are Latino. “A lot of our students are undocumented,” says Arlene Inouye, a teacher at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles, “and it’s common knowledge that recruiters offer green cards.” Inouye is the coordinator and founder of the Coalition Against Militarism in Our Schools (CAMS), a counter-recruitment organization that educates teenagers about deceptive recruiting practices. “The practice is pretty widespread all over the nation,” she says, “especially in California and Texas. … The recruiters tell them, ‘you’ll be helping your family.’”
A little more research has turned up these answers:
According to 10 U.S.C. § 504,
(1) A person may be enlisted in any armed force only if the person is one of the following:And 8 U.S.C. § 1440 states…
(A) A national of the United States, as defined in section101(a)(22) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C.1101(a)(22)).
(B) An alien who is lawfully admitted for permanent residence, as defined in section 101(a)(20) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(20)).
(C) A person described in section 341 of one of the following compacts: [see original text]
(2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), the Secretary concerned may authorize the enlistment of a person not described in paragraph (1) if the Secretary determines that such enlistment is vital to the national interest.
Any person who, while an alien or a noncitizen national of the United States, has served honorably in an active-duty status in the military, air, or naval forces of the United States during either World War I or during a period beginning September 1, 1939, and ending December 31, 1946, or during a period beginning June 25, 1950, and ending July 1, 1955, or during a period beginning February 28, 1961, and ending on a date designated by the President by Executive order as of the date of termination of the Vietnam hostilities, or thereafter during any other period which the President by Executive order shall designate as a period in which Armed Forces of the United States are or were engaged in military operations involving armed conflict with a hostile foreign force, and who, if separated from such service, was separated under honorable conditions, may be naturalized…The federal government already has the authority to naturalize an illegal alien who serves in the military. As The Heritage Foundation points out, “The military component of the DREAM Act is a complete red herring.”
According to The Foundry, “One bill would even grant Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano the power to waive the college and military requirements if the illegal immigrant can demonstrate “compelling circumstances” and the immigrant’s removal would cause a hardship to the them, their spouse, their parents, or their children. When exactly would removal from this country not cause a hardship? What other loopholes are in these bills? As Speaker Pelosi might say: ‘You have to pass this amnesty so that you can find out what is in it.’”
“The real goal of the DREAM Act is to make it even harder for our nation’s law enforcement agencies to enforce any immigration laws,” The Foundry concludes.
Sen. Pryor and Harry Reid claim “the [immigration] system is broken.” They are wrong. The system is being ignored by the very people who took an oath to uphold it. It is abused; so badly abused that the federal government is suing the State of Arizona for attempting to enforce the very laws that the Obama Administration is ignoring – while Americans are dying in the guerilla warfare on our southern borders.
Passage of the DREAM Act will be a nightmare for the United States, sending “a clear message to parents that violating U.S. immigration laws will result in eventual citizenship and access to expensive taxpayer-financed benefits for their kids.”[1] It is one matter to fail to enforce our nation’s laws. It is another entirely to reward those who break them.
Here’s the real DREAM Act: Get the federal government out of our faces, out of our pocketbooks and now (in airport security lines) out of our pants.
[1] Dan Stein of the Federation for American Immigration Reform
Curtis Coleman is the President of The Curtis Coleman Institute for Constitutional Policy and contributing author to the ARRA News Service.
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