Let there be no mistake about this. The “DREAM” act, S 3992, the latest revision of this act introduced in the US Senate in September of 2010 is dead. And dead for the foreseeable future. Dead, dead and dead.
You can thank the nativistic branch of the Republican Party for killing it. This bill has quite a history. Originally introduced in 2001, it has been bouncing around with various amendments and tries to get it passed since then. The latest version (S 3992) was defeated in the lame duck session of the Congress in December 2010. The nativistic branch of the Republican Party labeled it as a “amnesty”. Again, these pinheads should look up the meaning of amnesty. The meaning is forgiveness. This bill was nothing like forgiveness. Let’s look at some of the changes that have accumulated since originally submitted.
In the first draft, there were five categories of requirements for prospective applicants. The latest version is ten.
After changing (tightening) the age restrictions, there is now a two year delay on granting conditional legal immigrant status, lived in the US for at least 5 years, undergoes a “good moral character” check, submits biometrics data, medical examination, and registers to the Selective Service. Also has paid any back taxes and demonstrates the ability to read, write and speak in the English language. And must be included with the application a high school diploma or GED certification.
In addition, the applicant is rejected if there has been a conviction on one felony or three misdemeanors. Or has engaged in unlawful voting, likely to become a public charge, committed marriage fraud, abused a student loan, or poses a health risk. And rejection is subject to immediate deportation.
After jumping through all of these hoops, the applicant is given a conditional residency status that gives him the opportunity to either successfully complete a minimum two years of college education or of military duty.
The applicant is denied, for the six-year conditional residency period of receiving “ObamaCare”, food stamps and other entitlement programs. And as for sponsoring family members they are limited to only sponsoring siblings or parents AFTER a 12-year wait. And if the sponsored individuals would have entered the US illegally, they would have to leave the US, and could only renter AFTER a 10-year wait. These are only the highlights of the latest revisions to this bill.
This is amnesty? The nativivist Republicans say so. But let’s get real. Nothing in thing is going to satisfy them short of total deportation of anyone that even looks Hispanic. The Republican Party has written off the entire Hispanic population of the US. And the voting record of this segment of the US, now gaining the largest minority sector of the country, is truly amazing. A minority that traditionally has given the Republicans a 30 to 40 percent of their vote.
But there is another side of this situation. The Democrat side. As Ruben Navarrette points out in his 22 December 2010 column, the Democrats play a part in this too. As he says, “Who is the culprit? Elementary, my dear Watson” . . .
Disregarding the empty promises of both the candidate and the president Obama to back immigration reform, he has had two years to live up to that promise. Obama had the power of a solid Democrat lock on the Congress to get almost anything he desired passed. That included passing laws that were clearly rejected by a majority of the voting public. Re: ObmaCare. And also noted is the five Democrat votes that killed it.
In my opinion, part of this ignoring the Hispanic sector is that this sector is not given to being a solid one-party voting block. As noted above, they have historically given as much as a 40% vote to the Republican Party in presidential elections. Without that 40% vote in 2008, George W. Bush would not have been reelected.
So, Obama gives empty promises and lets the voting slide until the lame duck session. And after the 2010 election for congressional seats and the Republican trounce, there is not the chance of a snowball in hell of getting any immigration reform passed for at lest two more years. And the outlook for even after that is grim. This is not forgetting that Obama has helped his African-American voting block that much either. But with the Republican performance on this issue, Obama can blame the failure of DREAM on them. Maybe not so dumb.
But both parties should realize that in the near future, even without any increase in migration or legalization of the Hispanic sector, they are due to be the largest voting sector in the country in 20 years or so. This is due to the fact that this sector is younger and of more child producing age than the “graying” “white” population.
The DREAM act was only one tiny step toward immigration reform and I am much in favor in truly securing the border, but there is much more to be done about this sorry mess. A mess that is the responsibility of both political parties in the US.
And as a final thought, the illegal immigrant contributions to the faltering Social Security system were reported by the Social Security System as late as two years ago. These contributions, by using phony SSN data, have delayed the tipping point of insolvency by about four years. Even though the illegals have contributed, they can never collect these benefits. The Social Security Administration easily identifies these illegal contributions, but it is in their interest to collect them and keep them.
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Richard N. Baldwin T., a HispanicVista.com (www.hispanicvista.com) contributing columnist, lives in Tlalnepantla, Edo de México. E-mail at: [email protected]