Good reason to not accept the Dream Act?

Question

Is there one?

There is nothing I've read that includes their parents.So what seems to be the REAL problem with these kids joining the military or going to College?Seems to me people just think it's entitlement for their own kids.Maybe we should reinstitute the draft or be like other countries and demand 2 years military service for ALL citizens.You know...step up and do YOUR part type of thing? Should we do that?

Answer 1

I think all citizens should do some kind of civil service, not necessarily just military, after high school. I also think that the service they do should be transferred to actual capital to be applied to college education.

So you serve in the Army, or the conservation core, or helping in a hospital, whatever, collect a basic stipend like military pay when you do... and also an equal amount of the stipend is put in account for use in college tuition.

We can as a country afford it, and it would make every young person more involved in their country.

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I will confess to answering without knowing the detailsof the dream act. And having researched it, it made me think the illegal problem anew.

Generally speaking I have considered the illegal immigrant issue to be a bit hysterical... designed to work up peoples anger against the Mexicans rather than the business interests who are actually being served quite well by the existance of the cheap labor pool. I still feel that is true, and at every opportunity will point out that President Bush, provisional leader of the Republican Party, really has never taken any of the stands of the angry Republican base. In fact, HE proposed the ten year amnesty that so many of his followers hate so much. And he, and other wealthy Texans, benefit from the Mexican labor pool. All that remains true.

However, given the miserable state of public education in America, I believe that if President Bush is going to take this position, a pro-illegal position as it seems, he should know that it doesn't help that he has NOT helped public education in the ways he so lavishly promised when he took office.

He should at least increase the support for public ed... and I don't think that this would be economically harmful. Better investments in schools (which is largely a state and local issue anyway) could make the presence of immigrant children a moot point.

Once again I will not blame the immigrants or their children for the problem. I have lived all over the US, and I know the public short changes the schools systems everywhere. They would rather build sports stadiums than science labs. It's the plain truth and the resulting failure to educate their own, let alone the immigrant kids, is their own fault.

Answer 2

Last I knew, foreign citizens were already permitted to join the military as a fast track to citizenship. I don't think that's new.

What's new is paying for their college with my money. I'm not interested in that part of it.

The logic is to not punish the children for the crimes of the parents, but this ignores the fact that the children in question are also illegal, and this constitutes a reward.

The proper analogy is pulling over a stolen car, arresting the driver, and allowing the passenger to drive it home.

Answer 3

It automatically includes their parents because once legal they can apply for them under existing law. Since the law exists, it doesn't have to be in the Act. In addition, the Act puts in waivers for people who would usually be forbidden from being legalized (deportees, convicted criminals, failure of 'moral character' etc.) for 'humanitarian' or 'family unity' reasons. If a kid is legalized, you could easily say EVERY parent has 'humanitarian AND family unity' reasons for the waiver. This is a major change of existing law.

I wish they were capable of drafting a straightforward bill, but the temptation to hide something in the boilerplate always seems to get the better of them.

I have sympathy for the kids truly of college age, but these waivers dwarf current immigration law provisions. I think the question isn't who WOULD be covered by the waivers, but who WOULDN'T, including gang members, criminals, adults who came illegally and lived off the system, etc.

P.S. If you REMOVE the waivers entirely, I could be ok with it, for those already here, if they add federal funds to cover the new people so it isn't more people competing for the same volume of benefits now going to our own children.

Answer 4

S.774 rewards law breaking; not a good incentive for an orderly society. The U.S. taxpayers are already liable for 9 Trillion dollars in bonded debt and over 40 Trillion dollars in unbonded debt. The so-called DREAM act is simply another attempt at backdoor amnesty. To the best of my knowledge there has never been a draft that required service from *all* citizens. Females have always been exempted, for instance, as well as many others who, for different reasons, were not considered as either acceptable or desirable for military service.

Answer 5

The truth of the matter is that if we allow the children of become citizens, the parents will soon become citizens too. Once the children are citizens then you’ll hear how terrible it is that the parents are forced to go back to their own country leaving their children behind, sniff, sniff, sob, sob. So we really need to let the parents stay, etc. Or the children will sponsor their parents. It’s called chain migration.

And this bill will allow a lot more people then you think will get to stay in the country.

“Under DREAM 2003, most students of good moral character who came to the U.S. before they were sixteen years old and at least five years before the date of the bill's enactment would qualify for conditional permanent resident status upon acceptance to college, graduation from high school, or being awarded a general equivalency diploma (GED).”

So you could have a 50 year old illegal alien say I came to this country when I was 15 and I graduated from high school back in the 19XX so I get to stay here.

According to the bill they could, they were in the country before they were 16, and it was more then five years ago. So according to the bill they can stay for 6 years.

“At the end of the conditional period, regular lawful permanent resident status would be granted if, during the conditional period, the immigrant had maintained good moral character, avoided lengthy trips abroad, and met at least one of the following three criteria:

1.Graduated from a 2-year college or a vocational college that meets certain criteria, or studied for at least 2 years towards a bachelor's or a higher degree; or

2. Served in the U.S. armed forces for at least 2 years; or

3. Performed at least 910 hours of volunteer community service”

So all they would need to do is volunteer for less then 3 hours a week for six years and for that, they would be eligible for regular lawful permanent resident status.

And that requirement could be waved if “exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to the student, or to the student's spouse, parent or child.”

I have three children and I just can’t take time off to volunteer, because who would take care of my children. Sob.

It would also restore state option to provide in-state tuition benefit. So I can’t send my son to another state and pay in state tuition, but an illegal alien, someone who has no right to be in the US can, is that fair?

This bill has too many flaws to be acceptable.

Answer 6

I have a good reason not to accept the Dream Act and as long as my son is at home rather than getting the public education he is entitled to, I will never accept children of illegals using those resources. Americans are being denied their rights because of these stretched budgets and overcrowding. They need to go to Mexico...their own country...to have their needs met. This country is supposed to take care of it's own. Why don't all of the Dream Act supporters seem to care about the destruction of American's education? It's not all about them...unless they are in their own country. Why are you fighting for these people when you could be fighting for Americans whose rights are being denied? No offense on that...I'm just saying.

Answer 7

Drixinot raised an interesting question earlier: If it's really about an education, go to Mexico, get educated and immigrate legally. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ao0o77Gqr4zyNhnYQW_WS6Psy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20070922073730AAhOO20&show=7#profile-info-eHjk9di0aa

I am all over the military service option for illegals. If we needed a mandatory draft, I would not be against it. But so far, yes we have sufficed with a volunteer military for some time.

Answer 8

Its a dishonor to our military. People should enlist because they are patriotic Americans who wish to serve our country, not use it as a means to an end. There are families irate as it is, saying "but my child only wanted the education" when something happens to them. I truly, from the bottom of my heart, feel that those who choose to join the military are doing an honorable thing, and I do not want it to become just another loophole in our governments' apparent inability to enforce our laws.

Answer 9

There still illegals and the uneducated farm workers will be going to school on our dime> And the military need educated men & women> How about all the supportes of illegals sponcer 1or 2 pay there medical> schools>food> house them>and all expences for them to be here and if there arrested for what ever you pay there attorneys fees & jail expences>Like you want the citizens of the USA to do>Hello where did you go>>>

Answer 10

The draft costs us more money and produces a less than desirable product. I've already done my thing, what have you done lately to help my country other than give it away to criminals. If the parents are illegal, the kids need to be deported right along with the parents. Life sucks and its not the first time kids have paid for their parents screw up and it won't be the last. We have enough whiners and government teet suckers of our own without expanding to supporting those that have not earned a citizenship.