DREAM Act Could Evolve Into Educational Nightmare, Says Immigration Reformer
by Jim Brown
April 26, 2004
(AgapePress) - An immigration reform group is criticizing a bill in the U.S. Senate that would allow illegal aliens who graduate from high school to gain legal residency and receive tuition breaks at public colleges and universities in their home state.Last week, illegal alien students took part in a mock graduation ceremony on Capitol Hill to bring attention to the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act -- sometimes referred to as "the DREAM Act." At the demonstration, they dressed in caps and gowns and received fake diplomas signed by Senators Orrin Hatch, Dick Lugar, and Dick Durbin, who are all sponsors of the legislation.
Jack Martin with the Federation for American Immigration Reform believes all students who have entered the country illegally should be removed by immigration officials. This bill, he says, sets a dangerous precedent.
"If you reward people who have come into the country illegally, you will be encouraging more people to follow in their footsteps," Martin says. "We saw this with the amnesty provision that was given in 1986 when we had about three-million illegal aliens in the country. Now we have an estimated nine-to-eleven-million illegal aliens in the country. The numbers have increased rapidly."
According to Martin, the DREAM Act forces U.S. taxpayers to subsidize the education of young people who should not be in the U.S. anyway. "In addition to that, they are taking up limited numbers of spaces in the university and making claims on limited resources, so it works to the disadvantage of American students and legal immigrants here," he explains.
The Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Senator Hatch, passed the DREAM legislation in the fall, but it is now stalled in the full Senate.
