Thread: Here's what the Dreamies are citing in their amnesty push

Know your enemy:
Below is the document that the DREAMIES are citing as their facts in their push for amnesty and the DREAM Act. Obviously, it's highly biased as it's from the "Immigration Policy Center of the American Law Immigration Foundation".


IMMIGRATION POLICY CENTER
…providing factual information about immigration and immigrants in America

September 25, 2007
Dreams Deferred: The Costs of Ignoring Undocumented Students

The political debate over undocumented immigrants in the United States has largely ignored the plight of undocumented children who, for the most part, have grown up and received much of their primary and secondary education in this country. As a forthcoming report from the Immigration Policy Center (written by Roberto Gonzales) makes clear, without a means to legalize their status, these children are seldom able to go on to college, cannot work legally in the United States, and therefore cannot put their educations to good use. This wasted talent imposes financial and emotional costs not only on undocumented students themselves, but on the U.S. economy and U.S. society as a whole. Below are excerpts from the soon to be released report.

Undocumented School-Age Kids: How Many? Who Are They?
􀂾 Children account for 1.8 million (or 15 percent) of the roughly 12 million undocumented immigrants now living in the United States.1 Of these undocumented children, roughly 65,000 who have lived in the United States for five years or longer graduate from high school each year.2

􀂾 These children, born abroad yet brought at an early age to live in the United States by their parents, have some association with their countries of origin, but their primary identification is with the United States. Many of them have been in this country nearly their entire lives and have attended most of their K-12 education here.

􀂾 These children are honor roll students, class presidents, valedictorians, and aspiring teachers, engineers, and doctors. Nevertheless, because of the numerous legal and financial obstacles confronting undocumented students, many are unable to apply to college. It is estimated that only between 5 and 10 percent of undocumented high school graduates go on to college.3

Access to Higher Education: Wages Increase and the Tax Base Deepens
􀂾 The economic advantages of a higher education for both workers and the economy are clear. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, workers who lacked a high-school diploma in 2006 earned an average of only $419 per week and had an unemployment rate of 6.8 percent. In contrast, workers with a bachelor’s degree earned $962 per week and had an unemployment rate of 2.3 percent, while those with a doctorate earned $1,441 and had an unemployment rate of only 1.4 percent.4

􀂾 Studies of undocumented immigrants who legalized their status through the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986 reveal that legal status brings fiscal, economic, and labor-market benefits to individual immigrants, their families, and U.S. society in general.5 The U.S. Department of Labor found that the wages of those immigrants who received legal status under IRCA had increased by roughly 15 percent five years later.6 Given a chance, now-undocumented students will improve their education, get better jobs, and pay more in taxes.

918 F STREET, NW, 6TH FLOOR • WASHINGTON, DC 20004 • TEL: (202) 742-5600 • FAX: (202) 742-5619
www.immigrationpolicy.org

􀂾 A 1999 RAND study found that, although raising the Hispanic college graduation rate to the same level as that of non-Hispanic whites would increase spending on public education, these costs would be more than offset by savings in public health and welfare expenditures and increased tax revenues resulting from higher incomes.

• For instance, a 30-year old Mexican immigrant woman with a college degree will pay $5,300 more in taxes and cost $3,900 less in government expenses each year compared to a high-school dropout with similar characteristics.7

Experience Shows That Access to Higher Education Helps Kids Without Burdening Institutions of Higher Learning

􀂾 Ten states—Texas, California, Utah, Washington, New York, Oklahoma, Illinois, Kansas, New Mexico, and Nebraska—have passed laws permitting undocumented students to qualify for in-state tuition if they attended and graduated from high school in the state. In addition, New Mexico and Texas allow undocumented students to compete for financial aid.

• The experience of these states reveals that the number of undocumented students is far too small to deprive native-born students of college admission slots or financial aid. For instance, three years after Texas passed a law allowing undocumented students to qualify for in-state tuition rates, the total number of students paying in-state tuition under the new law amounted to only 0.36 percent of all students attending public colleges and universities in the state.8

1 Jeffrey S. Passel The Size and Characteristics of the Unauthorized Migrant Population in the U.S. Estimates Based on the March 2005 Current Population Survey. Washington, DC: Pew Hispanic Center, March 7, 2006.
2 Jeffrey S. Passel, Further Demographic Information Relating to the DREAM Act. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute, October 21, 2003.
3 ibid.
4 Bureau of Labor Statistics, Spotlight on Statistics: Back to School, August 2007 (http://www.bls.gov/spotlight/2007/back_to_school/)
5 Mary G. Powers, Ellen Percy Kraly & William Seltzer, “IRCA: Lessons of the Last U.S. Legalization program,â€

I will read this and find out what the Dream Crew is talking about.

Psalm 91

If you send them home...Minimal Cost... but bus fare...and good walking shoes

Nice avatar, RedBadger! I like it. And just in time for Halloween, too!

Originally Posted by redbadger

If you send them home...Minimal Cost... but bus fare...and good walking shoes

That's right. Sending them home makes the most financial sense. Once you let the dreamies stay, they will sponsor madre and padre, who will sponsor aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents and so on, none of whom have completed the 6th grade. No matter how much a dreamie pays in taxes, it will not offset the cost of dragging their entire Third World family over here.
Send them home.

These children are honor roll students, class presidents, valedictorians, and aspiring teachers, engineers, and doctors.

Now, this is the most amazing thing..............where I come from the illegals are not exactly known for their intellectual prowess. During the past 10 years our hispanic population has exploded. Almost all are from Mexico and almost all are illegal. Anyhow, about a year ago the newspaper published the results of one of these No Child Left Behind 'tests' that everybody had to take. The only group that scored lower than the hispanics was the special ed students (I have no idea why they even made the special ed students take the test but they did). And if the student couldn't speak English, the test was given in Spanish, so it was not because they did not understand the questions. They simply did not know anything. It is like this througout the entire country. Send them home.

More of their "weapons." They are too naive to realize the "true" motives behind their proponents, and are convinced that altruism and compassion are the primary catalysts. They actually believe their supporters are driven by a sincere desire to help the poor innocent illegal alien children.

Clearly, out of desperation for the Hispanic vote and military recruits, these "supporters" are pushing for the passage of this amnesty bill. In addition, due to the teacher shortage, their union will probably lobby for special incentives to be included to encourage the DREAMies to pursue careers in teaching.

Our troops will remain in Iraq for years. The glaring motivation, (IMHO), is to provide troops for war.

The following are arguments they have posted under their thread "Weapons of Mass Information." I have inserted the red highlighted info based on my opinion.


Weapons of Mass Information

WE ARE SUPPORTED BY THE WORLD'S MOST RESPECTED PUBLICATIONS. USE THAT. DO NOT LET THEM USE THEIR SELF WRITTEN SOURCES TO ARGUE AGAINST US.

This thread is devoted entirely to building an irrefutable argument for DREAM. There is nothing more fun than to completely shut down someone else's argument with one pertinent quote.

There is a reason why all our arguments go like this:

OPPOSITION: DREAM gives illegals special in state tuition.

DREAM ACT: No it doesn't, who said that?

OPPOSITION: It does, I said that.

DREAM ACT: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says it doesn't, who is more credible? You or him?

OPPOSITION: eh eh eh, illegal is illegal.

Use these everywhere, when calling, when writing, when talking to your mother. Nothing says "sit down and shut up" like a quote from the thirty-three time Pulitzer Prize winning Wall Street Journal.

Wall Street Journal - By MIRIAM JORDAN September 21, 2007
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1190341 ... lenews_wsj

New York Times - Editorial 9/20/07
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/20/opinion/20thur2.html

TIME Magazine 8/2/07
http://www.time.com/time/politics/artic ... 83,00.html

USA Today 9/7/07
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/200 ... htm?csp=34

Supporters mentioned in these quotes:

Bill Carr, deputy undersecretary for military personnel policy (Iraq War Recruits)
Margaret Stock - West Point professor who studies immigrants in the military (Iraq War Recruits)
Beth Asch - a RAND economist who specializes in military manpower. (Iraq War Recruits)
RAND Corporation (per above) (Iraq War Recruits)Pentagon spokesman (Iraq War Recruits)
Senator Dick Durbin (Iraq War Recruits)
Center for Naval Analysis (Iraq War Recruits)
David Chu, the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness (Iraq War Recruits)
Max Boot - a conservative military scholar (Iraq War Recruits)
Bishop Thomas Wenski of Orlando, speaking for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (Church Tithes and Offerings)
Largest teacher's union in the US (Teacher Shortage)
Senator John McCain (Politics: Hispandering)
Senator Richard Lugar (Politics: Hispandering)
Senator Barack Obama (Politics: Presidential Campaign Hispandering)
Senator Hillary Clinton (Politics: Presidential Campaign Hispandering)
Senator Harry Reid (Politics: Hispandering)
Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (Politics: Hispandering)


“It would be tremendously beneficial to the military. It gives the opportunity to enlist hundreds of thousands of high-quality people. They will be encouraged to join the U.S. military."

^Margaret Stock - West Point professor who studies immigrants in the military, Wall Street Journal 9/21/07

Ms. Stock said Dream Act candidates are especially attractive because they aren't school dropouts, boast a clean record and will have been fully vetted by the Department of Homeland Security "before even coming to the recruiter's door."

Wall Street Journal 9/21/07

"The military would love to recruit more qualified noncitizens...This is a potentially very recruitable group."

^Beth Asch, a Rand economist who specializes in military manpower. Wall Street Journal 9/21/07
Quote:
A Pentagon spokesman confirmed that Defense Secretary Robert Gates had been briefed on the bill. Declining to comment on the proposed legislation, the spokesman said, "We would never want to deny any qualified person the opportunity to serve our nation."

Wall Street Journal 9/21/07
Quote:

"It turns out that many in the Department of Defense believe, as I do, that the Dream Act is an important part of making certain we have talented young men and women ready to serve in our military."

^Senator Dick Durbin, Wall Street Journal 9/21/07
Quote:

Bill Carr, deputy undersecretary for military personnel policy, cited the Dream Act's role in addressing shortfalls in recruitment during a June telephone conference with representatives of veterans groups, according to the Defense Department's internal news service.

Wall Street Journal 9/21/07
Quote:

A recent study by the Center for Naval Analysis concluded ``non-citizens have high rates of success while serving in the military--they are far more likely, for example, to fulfill their enlistment obligations than their U.S.-born counterparts.''

The study also concluded there are additional benefits to enlisting noncitizens. For example, noncitizens ``are more diverse than citizen recruits--not just racially and ethnically, but also linguistically and culturally. This diversity is particularly valuable as the United States faces the challenges of the global war on terrorism.''

Senator Dick Durbin speech 9/18
Quote:
Bill Carr, the Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Military Personnel Policy, recently said the DREAM Act is ``very appealing'' to the military because it would apply to the ``cream of the crop'' of students, in his words. Mr. Carr concluded the DREAM Act would be ``good for [military] readiness.''

Senator Dick Durbin speech 9/18
Quote:
Last year at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the contributions of immigrants to the military, David Chu, the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, said:

There are an estimated 50,000 to 65,000 undocumented alien young adults who entered the United States at an early age and graduate from high school each year, many of whom are bright, energetic and potentially interested in military service. They include many who participated in high school Junior ROTC programs. Under current law, these young people are not eligible to enlist in the military ..... Yet many of these young people may wish to join the military, and have the attributes needed--education, aptitude, fitness and moral qualifications. .....

The Under Secretary went on to say:

..... the DREAM Act would provide these young people the opportunity of serving the United States in uniform.

Senator Dick Durbin speech 9/18

Quote:
It's a substantial pool of people and I think it's crazy we are not tapping into it.

^Conservative military scholar Max Boot, Senator Dick Durbin speech 9/18


SACRIFICE
Quote:
Passing the Dream Act would do more than give deserving young people a path beyond dead-end jobs and lives in the shadows. It would honor the thousands of immigrant soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. The lengthening list of those who have given their lives includes Cpl. Juan Mariel Alcántara, a 22-year-old New Yorker who was born in the Dominican Republic. The official date that he became an American was Aug. 6, the same day that a bomb killed him and three fellow soldiers in Baquba, north of Baghdad. He was the 103rd immigrant to become a citizen posthumously in this war.

New York Times 9/20/07

Quote:
Do you know what, an amnesty is a giveaway. Amnesty is a card to pass ``Go'' and collect $200 in America. Do you think those who would volunteer for the military, who are willing to risk their lives for our country, are going to receive amnesty? Is this a gift? It is a gift to America that they are willing to risk their lives for our country. It is a gift to America that once having served, they will come back as proud Americans, voting and living in this country. It is a gift to America that they will use their skills and talent to make this a greater nation. For my colleagues to come to the floor and call this amnesty is to, in some ways, denigrate the fantastic sacrifice these young people would be willing to make, who serve in the military to become citizens.

Senator Dick Durbin speech 9/18

JUSTICE
Quote:
It would show that the country has not entirely lost its ability to recognize, with grace and gratitude, the great potential in the immigrants among us.

New York Times 9/20/07
Quote:

"They talk like Americans; they think like Americans.We ought to let them dream like Americans."

^Bishop Thomas Wenski of Orlando, speaking for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, USA Today 9/7/07

REASON
Quote:
The idea is modest and smart, but modest and smart usually don’t get very far these days.

New York Times 9/20/07
Quote:

But backers say it's a sensible response to a growing national dilemma — and one that rewards "the cream of the crop, the kids who are genuine college material and those who really want to contribute to American society," says Mary Gundrum, FIAC's managing attorney for immigration.

TIME magazine, 8/2/07
Quote:
But the case's sudden and remarkable high profile — even CNN immigration grouch Lou Dobbs suggested this week that an exception might be in order for the brothers — has raised hopes that the DREAM Act could get a vote in both chambers as early as this fall.

TIME magazine, 8/2/07

WIDE SUPPORT
Quote:
The Catholic bishops are among several religious groups lobbying for the bill. Democratic leaders in the House and Senate support it. So do senior Republican senators such as Arizona's John McCain and Indiana's Richard Lugar, as well as the nation's largest teachers union.

USA Today 10/7/07

ON THE OPPOSITION
Quote:
Their hostility to nurturing a new cohort of American citizens, their reflexive “noâ€

Here's a link to some facts to counter the OBL amnesty spin:

____________

http://www.heritage.org/Research/Immigration/bg2069.cfm