The subsequent lobbying for the DREAM Act taking place around college campuses (including ASU) calls for an examination of this proposed legislation.
What many are not being told about the DREAM Act is that, in many ways, it is amnesty extended to illegal immigrants who entered the United States before the age of 16. Through the stipulations found within the DREAM Act, an illegal immigrant who meets the criteria is rewarded a “conditional” permanent resident status.
This permanent resident status can then be easily converted into to a non-conditional green card. Some opponents of the DREAM Act, such as The Heritage Foundation, argue that these former illegal immigrants can eventually go about obtaining green cards for the parents who brought them into the country illegally.
As The Heritage Foundation puts it, “It is also a back door amnesty for the millions of illegal aliens who brought their children with them to the United States.”
What is even more frightfully unfair is that the DREAM Act would allow illegal immigrants to receive in-state tuition rates at public universities. For one, this is technically illegal by federal law after Congress passed and former President Bill Clinton signed what is known as the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA). The law strictly prohibits any state from offering in-state tuition rates to illegal aliens unless, of course, the state also offers in-state tuition rates to all U.S. citizens.
In November 2006, Arizona voters passed Proposition 300, which explicitly prohibited Arizona universities from offering in-state tuition rates to illegal immigrants. It becomes quite clear to all legal and law-abiding U.S. citizens that the DREAM Act is an unfair taxpayer-subsidized education because out-of-state U.S. students would still have to pay the full cost of their education.
The DREAM is going to costs taxpayers a great deal of money at a time when tuition rates are rising across the country, more people are losing jobs and student loans are becoming harder to come by. A recent lawsuit in California revealed the state pays more than $100 million annually to subsidize the college education of illegal immigrants.
It simply is not fair to force Americans to pay for a DREAM for some when millions of U.S. citizens have had to mortgage the rest of their lives in order to attend college.
Reach Joseph at jhermiz@asu.edu.
