SNEAKY DEMS ATTACH E-VERIFY TO DREAM ACT

New try for illegal-immigrant student bill

May 12, 2011
BY CINDY CARCAMO
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

The Senate's top Democrats have reintroduced a bill that would give thousands of students who are in the country illegally a pathway to U.S. citizenship.

While the bill has met defeat several times since 2001 – most recently late last year – legislators said Wednesday that they hope this time will be different, according to news reports.

The legislators believe the bill may have a better chance of passing if they attach it to a piece of legislation that would require employers to use E-Verify, a free online federal program that is supposed to weed out employees without authorization to work in the country, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said in a Washington Post story.

Currently, the E-Verify program is voluntary except for federal contractors and subcontractors.

Republicans want to require more employers to use E-Verify as a way to battle illegal immigration.

The Development, Relief and Education for Minor Aliens Act would allow students who are in the country illegally and have finished at least two years of college or military service to apply for legal status. The bill would also protect them from deportation and make them eligible for student loans and federal work study programs.

Students would need to have lived here at least five years before the bill were enacted into law and have arrived before they were 16. Applicants would also need to be younger than 36.

Still, the bill's opponents call it a provisional amnesty, stating that it's flawed and contains major loopholes. Others say that people would be rewarded for breaking the law.

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-New Jersey) told EFE news service that most of these students were children when they were brought over by their parents.

"We should not punish children for their parents' past decisions. The students who would be helped by the DREAM Act did not make the decision to enter this country in an undocumented fashion," Menendez said in a Fox News story. "They've followed the rules, worked hard in school and now they want to serve this country in the military or get a higher education."

The bill, however, has a very slim chance of passing because the Republicans have taken a harder line against illegal immigration and now have control of the House, several Hispanic organizations told EFE, according to a Fox News story.

http://www.ocregister.com/news/-300205--.html