Reid’s DREAM, Our Nightmare
By Raymond Pratt
September 15
www.beatreid.com
Now that congress is back in session, one item on the itinerary is another Defense Authorization bill. And, as usual, Republicans are vexed by the over-used tactic of Democrats sliding un-related bits of their agenda under the radar, knowing that the chance of any Defense bill not passing is very slim. The two that are creating controversy this time is an attempt to kill former President Bill Clinton’s “Don’t Ask-Don’t Tell” policy, designed to cloak the sexual preference of gays serving in the military, and a piece of legislation pioneered by Sen. Orin Hatch [R-UT] and Sen. Richard Durbin [D-IL] called the DREAM Act.
As if the “Don’t Ask-Don’t Tell” law wasn’t enough to heat up Senate Republicans, the DREAM Act is begin called “needlessly controversial” by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. What’s the DREAM Act? It’s the Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors Act. It grants younger illegal immigrants legal status dependent upon background checks, college attendance or military service. “Students” who arrive in America before the age of 16, and have been here for five years or more, would be eligible for their green card upon attending college or entering the military.
Arguments against the Dream Act typically focus on the economic factors. Attending college in the twenty-first century is a colossal financial burden. There are enough American families competing for space in Universities as it is without incentivizing illegal immigrants, who are unfortunately often quite poor, to do the same. The big question is how will they obtain the money to pay for the mounting cost of higher education, something even well-to-do families have difficulty with? One answer is through scholarships, grants and other funds that legal citizens will be struggling to compete for.
Those in favor of the DREAM Act state that the qualifications are stringent enough so that only the highest performers among immigrant youth have a chance to take advantage of the legislation. Anyone who has become a public charge is pretty much out of luck. Also, non-citizen students attending college cannot qualify for a federal Pell grant. That leaves scholarships, which are between the educational institution and the family of the student, and student loans.
Will the DREAM Act and Don’t-Ask-Don’t-tell legislation be a bitter enough pill to sink the Defense Authorization bill? It’s unlikely, but not totally clear. Politicians on both sides of the aisle are usually adverse to voting down major defense legislation. For instance, last year Senator Carl Levin was able to add language that expanded protection for hate crimes to the Defense Authorization bill. Republicans were none too pleased, but approved it anyway.
And while issues regarding gays in the military and the DREAM Act are bound to be controversial, the attaching of these types of bills to defense legislation is what’s really distasteful to committee Republicans.
“This is an all-time low for me being in the Senate and that’s saying something,” committee member Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told The Cable in an exclusive interview. “The one area that has been kept off limits from partisan politics has been the defense of our nation. To say that you’re going to bring up a defense bill and put the Dream Act on it … to me is very offensive.”
“Obviously it’s about politics,” Graham continued. “You’re trying to check a box with the Hispanic voters on the Dream Act … this is using the defense bill in a partisan fashion that hasn’t been done before.”
Although Senator Graham makes a good point, the tactic has been used all too often in the past, and is something Democrats revert too often when they want to pass dubious legislation without going through the usual process. Playing partisan politics with the nation’s defense is just the kind of thing that voters are frustrated with, and just another reason to vote Harry Reid out of office in the upcoming November election.
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