Dick Durbin Dicks America, Again.

Hatip: Bobalharb
The Return of the American Nightmare:
A.K.A. The DREAM Act

By Michael Cutler

Once again, in a continuing effort to sneak measures past the American public that will empower and grant amnesty to illegal aliens, Stealth Senators are now actually – and amazingly - willing to slide an immigration amendment to a Department of Defense authorization bill (HR 1585) that will accomplish just that, and they are poised to vote on it this week. This amendment is sponsored by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and is officially Senate Amendment 2237, otherwise known as the DREAM Act…as in (for most Americans), I must be dreaming.

The Senate is now operating in "stealth" mode, having felt the wrath of thousands of Americans who made so many phone calls on the day the Senate voted on that previous “shamnesty” bill. They are attempting to slide the provisions past us in a piece-meal fashion – rather than all at once - by adding only a few measures, here and there, for which the original bill called. They are betting that the American public will tire of the fight.

Each time these Stealth Senators and other politicians do this, we must do two things:

1. We must get to the telephones, once again, and have our voices heard.
2. We must note the positions that our senators and Congressmen take on these issues. Anyone who votes, or doesn’t vote, for these bills should understand that there are consequences, good and bad, for their actions the next time s/he comes up for reelection.

And, by the way, campaign contributions matter.

So what would the provisions of this amendment provide?

1. In-state tuition for illegal aliens, a benefit that even our own US citizen college kids do not have.
2. An expansion of guest worker VISAs that would be provided to agricultural workers.
3. An expansion of guest worker VISAs that would be provided to high tech workers.

There are two things to keep in mind when considering these benefits to illegals. First is the case of Mahmud Abouhalima, a citizen of Egypt who entered the United States on a tourist visa, overstayed his authorized period of admission and then applied for amnesty under the agricultural worker provisions of IRCA. Five years later, although he never worked on a farm, he participated in the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993 that left 6 people dead, hundreds of people injured and an estimated half billion dollars in damage. America had opened its doors to him so that he might participate in the “American Dream.” He turned that dream into our worst nightmare.

Then there is the absolute fact that the importation of many thousands of high-tech workers will depress the salaries and job security for many Americans for high tech jobs that many of them have held for years.

An additional problem is that even after the reported expenditure of more than one billion dollars, US VISIT is still unable to determine if aliens who are admitted for a temporary period ever depart the United States. This debacle shamefully exists six full years after the 9/11 attack, even though the departure component of US VISIT was highly recommended for implementation by the 9/11 Commission.

Moreover, there are only a few thousand special agents at ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) to carry out the vital missions of that beleaguered agency. There is no way that there are adequate resources to police the current temporary worker programs today. How would our government deal with having many more such "temporary" workers enter our country? Who would make certain that these aliens work at the jobs they are being admitted to do? How would we know if they did not leave the United States when they were supposed to?

Now the Senate is poised to pass the provisions of the Amnesty Bill that they called "Comprehensive Immigration Reform" but that I refer to as the "Terrorist Assistance and Facilitation Act of 2007." If you want your voice heard on Washington, DC, here are the (bipartisan) names and numbers of the stealth senators who are co-sponsors of the bill:

Sen Bayh, Evan [D-IN] - 202-224-5623
Sen Boxer, Barbara [D-CA] - 202-224-3553
Sen Cantwell, Maria [D-WA] - 202-224-3441
Sen Clinton, Hillary Rodham [D-NY] - 202-224-4451
Sen Dodd, Christopher J. [D-CT] - 202-224-2823
Sen Feingold, Russell D. [D-WI] - 202-224-5323
Sen Feinstein, Dianne [D-CA] – 202-224-3841
Sen Hagel, Chuck [R-NE] - 202-224-4224
Sen Kerry, John F. [D-MA] - 202-224-2742
Sen Leahy, Patrick J. [D-VT] - 202-224-4242
Sen Lieberman, Joseph I. [D-CT] - 202-224-4041
Sen Lugar, Richard G. [R-IN] - 202-224-4814
Sen Menendez, Robert [D-NJ] - 202-224-4744
Sen Murray, Patty [D-WA] - 202-224-2621
Sen Obama, Barack [D-IL] - 202-224-2854
Sen Salazar, Ken [D-CO] - 202-224-5852
Capitol switchboard: 202-224-3121

Democracy is not a spectator sport!

Lead, follow or get out of the way!