Reid reviving 'amnesty' for illegals
'DREAM' grant of legality to millions on fast track for vote tomorrow
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: October 23, 2007
1:30 p.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is reviving and fast-tracking plans to grant amnesty to millions of illegal aliens already within U.S. boundaries, and a vote is expected as early as tomorrow, according to opponents.
Just a few months after intense pressure from U.S. citizens triggered the rejection of President Bush's comprehensive immigration plan, a compromise supported by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. – the DREAM Act proposal by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. – is being rushed through the Senate.
Durbin's office refused to return a WND call requesting comment.
"In many ways this bill is worse than Bush-Kennedy because this is blatant deception on the part of the Senate to get a massive amnesty passed," asserted Steve Elliott, president of Grassfire.org.
Some of the provisions of the plan, called DREAM for Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors, include:
Conditional legal status for any illegal alien who claims to have arrived in the U.S. prior to age 16.
Any illegal alien can apply for the program.
Those who gain legal status then can sponsor any family members, allowing additional millions to access the program.
There would be a ban on deportation for anyone who applies.
Illegals would be granted taxpayer-funded in-state tuition rates for college.
In a commentary, Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly said it creates the circumstances where the violation of U.S. immigration law is rewarded.
"The illegal immigrant who applies for the DREAM Act can count his years under conditional green card status toward the five years needed to attain citizenship. That's a fast track to citizenship that is not available to aliens who are lawfully present in the United States," she said. "Giving in-state college tuition to illegal immigrants is so unpopular with many Americans that the only way a congressman could support this bill is by hoping it passes before the public discovers how bad it is. Arizona's Proposition 300, which specifically bars Arizona universities from giving in-state tuition rates to illegal immigrants, passed in 2006 with a majority of 71.4 percent."
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58290