Mickey Kaus has been covering in Newsweek the maneuvering to pass the DREAM amnesty by the lame duck Senate (after it was passed by a lame duck House this week). First, DREAM is potentially a huge amnesty:
because there are no penalties to lying on a DREAM application, and because once you file the application you get a work permit good for 10 years (while you comply with the Act's requirements), DREAM is basically a 10 year free pass to any illegal in a broad under-35ish age range who either qualifies or is willing to say he qualifies even if he doesn't.
Second, that Harry Reid postponed a vote today shows he's not just going-through-the-motions to prove his good intentions to Hispanic activists. Instead, he's trying to keep it alive in case it can become part of the tax cut extension compromise:
Delay offers the hope that something will break in his favor, that the ongoing big negotiations on taxes and spending will offer a moment of leverage to pry a recalcitrant Republican (or, more likely, Democrat) or two over to the DREAM side. At the very least, it offers the prospect that, once the big tax-cut-extension deal is done, Republican senators will consider themselves released from their "Wall of No" pledge not to give any other legislation priority.
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the maneuvering to pass the DREAM amnesty by the lame duck Senate (after it was passed by a lame duck House this week).
Wouldn't it be nice if legislation was not being made by legislators who were recently defeated in the election? The US political system makes Third World countries seem like models of how to conduct representative government. Can we start taking lessons from Honduras and Taiwan?
First, DREAM is potentially a huge amnesty...
No it isn't. It's a windfall. A jackpot. A bonanza. A blank check. Christmas in January (February, March, etc.)
But an "amnesty" it isn't. We have to stop using this weasel word. It works against us.
This should be called the REAM ACT.
If they pass this piece of shite - a reward for breaking the law, at a time of 10% unemployment and $1.3 trillion deficits, and by a Congress who lost its mandate over a month ago - civil disobedience will be my mantra. I will stop paying my taxes. It's clear that the government no longer gives a shit about what the people want, or what's in their best interests. They're just pillaging what's left of this country before they toss it into the trash.
I wrote about the DREAM Act and the dangerous power it gives to liberal academia:
DREAM Act and Liberal Universities
The status quo is fine with those who don't wish to restrict the flow of illegal immigrants. BTW, what happened to that biometric ID that Senator Schumer was touting a few months back?
This is SWPL-ness to a laughable extreme. Illegals are by definition desperate people, so to expect them to go through the rigors of college enrollment and graduation when they've already proven they lack the minimal planning skills and patience necessary to be a legal alien in this country is beyond ludicrous. So what happens when they fail to meet the 2 years college requirement at the end of the DREAM Act's probationary period (and it's not like hundreds of diploma mills aren't gearing up to water down even this measly standard)? "OK, that's strike two! Either this time you graduate from Harvard Medical School or you're outta this country, and I mean it this time!"
Anonymous: "Can we start taking lessons from Honduras and Taiwan?"
Taiwan is not a third world country.
The Dream Act isn't so bad. Jeez, people. An illegal would either have to go to college or join the military.
Plus, it is not even a sure thing it will pass. There would have to be a lot arm twisting still to get it through the Senate.
Fortunately, Obama's hard left allies are throwing a temper tantrum over the Tax Deal, so you can expect pretty much nothing to pass.
Collins voted for the DREAM Act, after Harry Reid told her to basically go away when she raised a point about some cover she needed. She's guaranteed a primary challenge, and Maine is now totally Republican: State Legislature and Governor. If she pulls an Arlen Spector she won't even elect a Dem. Sestak lost.
Already, the "Silverado Moment" (deport illegals and kids, balance state budgets without new taxes) is upon many. Arizona is pushing that, so is Florida. Meanwhile the Dems are lurching ever left.
The Republican play is to wait till taxes are raised, and everyone feels the bite. THEY take office late Jan, fix it (lower taxes even further) and force Obama (weak) to sign it. Dems get tax raises and Reps get the credit. Without the ire of the Tea Party against them.
Yeah Reid will raise this again, and RINOs cannot be trusted, but the useful example of Collins self-defeating idiocy will hopefully bury this for now.
Aubrey is right: one set of laws for Whites, another for Mexicans, is a recipe for massive law breaking.
Any kind of amnesty, earned legalization or as I would say citizenship for free is bad. Even with 3-4% unemployment, it would be bad. With 10% unemployment, it is lunacy. Tell them to go back to their country and apply for U.S. residency at a U.S. embassy. We let them wait 30 years and then say no.
I wonder if anyone has serious modeled how the last (1986) amnesty affected demographics in California and the nation. California was trending Mexican anyway, but has anyone sat down and figured how that trendlines changed?
As an immigration lawyer, I expected to read the bill and correct the bloviating linked links Steve refers to.
But, I was shocked. That the summary was correct.
All you need is proof you were here before you were 16 and you can sign up for any institute of higher learning and get a work permit that lasts for 10 years.
I will say this, submitting to biometrics is pretty risky because the federal government (this year) actually is fairly diligent about deporting people who are arrested for deportable offenses.
If the steve-o-sphere actually read the Homeland Security memos that us immigration lawyers read, you guys would be pretty happy with Obama.
"Wouldn't it be nice if legislation was not being made by legislators who were recently defeated in the election?"
No kidding. In Canada, Australia, the other Anglosphere states with the Westminster model, don't the winners of an election form a government within a few weeks, instead of two and a half months?
My state grants in-state tuition to illegals who attended high school here for at least 3 years. A few years ago they reported on the number of illegals using the benefit, and iirc it came to about 250. The vast, overwhelming majority were attending community college. Fewer than 10 were attending a university.
The numbers have grown since then, to around 600 taking advantage of the benefit. Meanwhile, it's estimated that the state's largest community college had to turn away about 5,000 students this year due to budget cuts.
The Dream Act isn't so bad. Jeez, people. An illegal would either have to go to college or join the military.
Or simply be one of the millions who would choose to complete one of the qualifying 1-year vocational programs after lying about the age at which they came to the U.S.
"Wouldn't it be nice if legislation was not being made by legislators who were recently defeated in the election?"
I think we're at the point where we need an amendment that would put an end to lame duck sessions, except for certain emergencies, and an end to last minute presidential pardons. The law should require a 3/4ths supermajority to convene any lame duck session, and should give a bare majority in congress the right to overturn a presidential pardon.
Newly elected congressmen need time to get their staffs in place, but the country can survive with a congress that meets only 22 months of every 24.
Can we start taking lessons from Honduras and Taiwan? -- anon
Yes-- on immigration. Honduras had an explicit Australian-style white-immigration policy when I read about the place in the '70s. Maybe they still do. Even if this is no longer in effect, you never hear of them apologizing for it, as the Aussies can't stop doing.
...don't the winners of an election form a government within a few weeks, instead of two and a half months? --Mac
It used to be four and a half months. But that was in slower times.
I think the current VDARE fundraising page says it all.
There is something weird in LAPD's Top Ten Most Wanted
Just how is it that no African American made it into the Top Ten Most Wanted?
Whiskey: "The Republican play is to wait till taxes are raised, and everyone feels the bite. THEY take office late Jan, fix it (lower taxes even further) and force Obama (weak) to sign it. Dems get tax raises and Reps get the credit. Without the ire of the Tea Party against them."
Yes. Exactly. Are you available for Michael Steele's job?
But an "amnesty" it isn't. We have to stop using this weasel word. It works against us.
Yes, that's why all the pro-"path to citizenship" folks don't like to use it to describe their aims.
Even though it isn't an amnesty, but only because it's worse than one. An amnesty means no punishment for crimes committed. It doesn't mean you get to keep what you stole.
US Congress is not intelligent, they are easily deceived by pro- amnesty groups. Democrats are working fot illegals and are blind to high risks of amnesty. Amnesty will be a giant step towards destruction of USA.
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