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White House officials held the third conference call in less than a week to push for passage of the DREAM Act, arguing it will help boost America's military readiness.
The legislation would provide a path to citizenship for young people who were not responsible for immigrating illegally to this country and who want to go to college or join the military. Officials emphasized that it would be a lengthy process that would require a vigorous background check.
The call -- hosted by Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Dr. Clifford Stanley and Cecilia Munoz, the director of Intergovernmental Affairs at the White House -- came ahead of an expected Senate vote on the measure as soon as tomorrow.
"We believe that the prospects for the DREAM Act should be good if we move past politics and look at what's good for the country and what's good for our military readiness, what's good for our competitiveness, what's good for the law enforcement goals that we're trying to achieve," said Munoz. "The DREAM Act ultimately, as you've heard from multiple members of the Cabinet and Cabinet agencies, is good for the economy, it's good for security, it's good for the nation and we believe that if members of Congress put those interests at heart, we will have the votes to pass the DREAM Act this week."
Although President Obama has not spent much time speaking in public about the legislation, administration officials said a great deal of work was going on behind the scenes at the White House and across the country to get the bill passed this year. Officials said the president and Cabinet officials had been making calls to members of Congress and that op-eds from cabinet officials were "in the works." The Democratic National Committee's Organizing for America has also tried to boost the effort, recently sending out a Tweet from the president asking people to get involved in the fight to get the law passed.
The DREAM Act faces difficult odds in the few weeks before Congress breaks for the holidays, as Democrats and Republicans try to strike deals on pressing issues from funding the government, to ratifying the New START arms treaty with Russia, to extending the Bush tax cuts. A deal on the tax cuts appeared all but sealed early this week, but neither house has voted on the matter.
Officials stressed that the DREAM Act was written by Republicans and Democrats and that it has gotten GOP support in the past. It will need Republican support to pass this time around and that support is anything but a sure bet.
Stanley called the act "common sense" and said it would grow the field of potential military recruits by 50,000 to 65,000 each year, the number of undocumented aliens who graduate from high school annually. He said that would go a long way toward helping the military recruit the 300,000 new enlistees needed yearly.
Munoz, who said the bill was a "strong priority for the administration," cited a report by the Migration Policy Institute that estimated about 726,000 undocumented young people would be immediately eligible for conditional legal status and that of those, some 114,000 would be eligible for permanent legal status after a six-year wait because they already have Associate's Degree. According to the same MPI study, three-quarters of potential Dream Act beneficiaries reside in California, Texas, Florida, New York, Arizona, Illinois, New Jersey, Georgia, North Carolina and Colorado.
Renewed push
Twice last week, administration officials took to the telephone to tout the bill. On Friday, Munoz, Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, President of Regent University Dr. Carlos Campo, UCLA Chancellor Dr. Gene Block and the President of Miami-Dade College Dr. Eduardo Padron argued that passing the legislation was "critical" to the country's future and its ability to compete in today's global economy.
In that call, Munoz cited a Congressional Budget Office study saying the bill would generate $2.3 billion of revenue over 10 years and reduce the deficit over the same period and Locke emphasized the number of successful companies that were started by immigrants. Yesterday in North Carolina, President Obama himself brought up immigration -- albeit indirectly -- in hailing the work of a pioneering teenage chemist from Texas whose work using light to kill cancer cells has earned accolades, noting that she was "a child of immigrants."
Last Thursday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said passage of the bill would allow the Department of Homeland Security to focus its enforcement resources on removing dangerous criminal aliens from the country.
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I can see rewarding people with citizenship if they are fighting for their country or "after" college they volunteer or teach in an inner city. But why should (immigrant name inserted here) receive a higher reward than Billy or Jimmy, a third generation American? If citizenship has a value, & we award it to some, what do we provide to those who are already citizens doing the very same thing???
I went to college, what do I get if an immigrant also gets citizenship for doing the same thing???
We do not need illegal immigrants to join our military to increase our security. We need people to 1) obey our laws and stop entering the country illegally, and 2) our federal government to enforce our borders and our laws. That's how we will improve our security.
I am wondering after reading all of these "comments" how many of you have actually read the "dream act". If this bill passes then we will be putting these "illegals" (and yes, they are illegals, no matter what pretty words you use) into our public colleges and schools. Most of the state schools are already over crowded. So giving them a free passage to the schools will take away places that our own children are fighting for. Giving them entitlements, grants and scholarships is again taking away the help that our children would receive. Giving them citizenship ahead of the other children from around the world who have applied and are trying to come in the right way is like a slap in the face for justice. The cost of giving these illegals entrance to our colleges will far exceed any benefits that we will receive. We are spending billions of dollars on illegals now, giving these kids free citizenship will be like waving a red flag in front of a bull. It will be a stampede, why try to come in legally just crawl or row your way across our borders and you are home free. Amnesty will be yours.
"They do jobs that no one else will do" is a load of crap. Most "illegals" that work around here are in good jobs. Construction, office cleaning, child care, landscaping, and similar jobs. These are not low paying jobs. Since they pay no taxes or SS then they get even more. Oh, and if we give them citizenship, then who is going to do these jobs "that no one else will do", do we just let in a couple more million to do them?
The Dream Act is nothing more than an immigration bill. It is illegal to enlist in the Armed Services if you are not a legal citizen of the U.S or its territories. That is known as a fradulent enlistment. Plus all active duty members require security eligibility and illegal immigrants are not authorized for that. Our Armed Forces are manned by many service members from other countries who serve with honor and did it the legal way. Why provide another out for those who are not legally in the U.S. When is it going to stop? I for one am tired of footing the bill for illegal immigrants who have no respect for our laws and regulations. They entered the country illegally and should be cut off from all support of any kind. This is not only a slap in the face to the American people it is also a slap in the face to the millions of immigrants who did thing the old fashion way of following the rules and applying.
The Dream Act also allows the recipient of the Act to sponsor all of their siblings and parents after 6 years. One act of kindness can result in numerous illegals becoming legal. Call, email, or write your congressman and tell them to vote against the Dream Act in it's current form. I don't know why the author didn't include that in the article. I got it from Dick Durbin's web site where he attempts to downplay it as insignificant.
I like how everybody blames everything on illegals and feel so patriotic and so american about it! Its pure racisim! No matter what you say. That's all it is! If you were concerned about your country you'd be talking about the wars(illegal) and how your goberment is sending every single job to china. Why don't we start getting so passionate and technical about the wars or 9/11?you own goverment is screwing you over.
We do talk about those items.. This post happened to be about the Dream Act.
If the country needs more recruits in the military, the draft should be returned. Our presidents and congress might not be so eager to jump into wars if everyone had a stake in it instead of just the disadvantaged. Such as George (no show) Bush and Chicken Hawk Cheney (5 deferments) In addition, if you have never served, you shouldn't be allowed to become Commander in Chief.
I thought we were talking about the dream act! You see now???
So if DOD is so eager for the DREAM Act to pass because it's critical for military readiness, then why doesn't DOD use the legal authority IT ALREADY HAS to allow enlistment of the illegal aliens that would be covered by the DREAM Act? Under 10 USC 504(b)(2) the Defense Department is authorized to enlist any person, including illegal aliens, if it makes the determination that such enlistment is "vital to the national interest". Tomorrow morning, if he wanted to, Secretary Gates could announce that he is using the 10 USC 504(b)(2) authority to, for example, allow the enlistment of any alien who entered the U.S. under age 16, is under 30 years of age, and has a high school degree.