The Dream for Some, A Nightmare for the Rest

Many leaders of both parties in Congress are pushing for the DREAM Act, which would grant reduced tuition and legal permanent residency to possibly millions of students who have been in the United States illegally. Why is the DREAM Act unfair, irresponsible and disastrous if it is adopted?

College tuition has skyrocketed in recent years. Many Americans cannot afford college or have taken out student loans. Should the United States neglect its own citizens and subsidize the education of students who are here illegally? Proponents of the DREAM Act argue that parents of illegal students have paid taxes and that the United States should invest in them. The hard truth is that most illegal workers, due to their low-incomes, do not pay enough taxes to offset the cost of educating their children in American public grade schools. This cost can exceed $9,500 per child per year if the student receives the so-called bilingual education, not to mention the costs of other social services.

Furthermore, rewarding illegal foreign nationals can only lead to higher illegal immigration. The misnamed “Immigration Reform and Control Act” of 1986 granted amnesty to 3 million illegal migrants. Presently, we have an estimated 12 to 20 million illegal migrants in the United States, without counting their children born here who are U.S. citizens. There were “1.8 million undocumented children in local school districts” across the United States, according to a report published by Business Week Online April 7, 2006. Billions of bonds in recent years have been passed to fund our schools. Is borrowing into the future a responsible solution?

Open border advocates claim that money spent on the Iraq war and taxing wealthy individuals in the United States could generate plenty of resources to pay for costly services provided to foreign-born newcomers and their U.S.-born children. But the impact of exploding immigration-driven

population growth is more than fiscal. If we grant amnesty to millions of illegal students, once naturalized, they could petition for their parents and siblings to immigrate to the United States. In addition, they will have children born here. Those newcomers will consume energy and water, like all other residents, thus exacerbating our energy and water shortages.

We cannot ignore the political impact of the DREAM Act. Many Hispanic activists pushing for amnesty have publicly stated: “Today, we march. Tomorrow, we vote.” During last year’s massive demonstrations across the United States, many protestors were waving Mexican flags and pressuring the United States with demands identical to Mexico’s. Considering that in recent years, our national elections were very close, it is unlikely that our immigration laws will be seriously enforced in the future if millions of newly naturalized citizens promoting open borders are able to vote in our future elections. Should we allow migration to strongly influence our elections and policies?

The U.S. population has quadrupled since 1900, from 76 million to 303 million. In the last 15 years alone, over 50 million people have been added to the United States mostly due to immigration-derived growth! If our population continues to grow at the rate of last decade, by 2100—within the lifetimes of today’s children’s children—the United States will have India’s current population. Do Asian and Hispanic legal residents really want the United States to become another Latin America, India or Philippines, the corrupt, overpopulated and impoverished nations that they or their ancestors left? Latin America has 37 billionaires. Why shouldn’t they and other countries work to improve life for their own citizens?

Congress must realize that the United States is now the greatest debtor nation in human history, while China holds the world’s largest foreign currency reserves. We owe China $450 billion in federal debt. We also have the highest budget and trade deficits in the world. The Euro, weaker than the dollar 10 years ago, is now worth over $1.40. American students fall behind their counterparts in many countries in Asia due in part to an explosion of immigration-related enrollments: Many grade schools are overwhelmed with children speaking little to no English. Can this country remain prosperous if we have a growing semi-literate student population?

Nationwide, over 75 percent of our adult cash welfare recipients are 20 to 39 years old. Some growers in Idaho and Colorado are using non-violent prisoners to replace illegal migrants. Isn’t it in the interests of Hispanic and other Americans to oppose the DREAM Act and other amnesty proposals, and to demand that our immigration laws be enforced as strictly as Mexico so that we can put all adult able-bodied welfare recipients and non-violent prison inmates to fill positions currently held by illegal migrants?

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