Senator Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) has announced that he is again going to introduce legislation to provide amnesty to illegals who entered the United States as children (under age 16). Called the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, the bill could be voted on this week as an amendment to the defense authorizations bill.
In its original incarnation, the DREAM Act required that illegals who receive amnesty under the legislation likewise be granted in-state college tuition. At the same time, the bill would have repealed a current federal law that prohibits states from granting illegal immigrants in-state tuition unless these states also extended the same tuition break to all U.S. citizens. Notes a recent Heritage report:
What is less well known about the DREAM Act is that it also allows illegal aliens to receive in-state tuition rates at public universities, discriminating against U.S. citizens from out of state and law-abiding foreign students. It repeals a 1996 federal law that prohibits any state from offering in-state tuition rates to illegal aliens unless the state also offers in-state tuition rates to all U.S. citizens.
As currently written, Durbin’s amendment would permit illegals to “earn” their citizenship through either enrolling in college or entering the military. If the amendment passes — even without the mandatory tuition break for illegals — expect many states to act on their own to extend in-state tuition to illegals. As Heritage reports, 10 states are already granting such benefits to illegals — in blatant violation of federal law.
As for earning citizenship through military service, this is a noble idea that has been used to great success in the Philippines, for instance. Any such program for citizens of other countries, however, will have to be designed so that it does not reward people for breaking U.S. immigration laws. Under the DREAM Act, not only would we excuse illegal immigration, we’d reward it with a subsidized college education.
Finally, none of this will do any good … until we Secure the Border.
[…] that states will still be able to deny undocumented immigrants in-state tuition if they so choose. The John W. Pope Civitas Institute promotes this nonsense, but it’s outright wrong. The DREAM Act actually upholds states’ […]