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Rubio Proposes DREAM Act To Realize Dream Of Mitt Romney Losing

Evan McMurry
PoliticOlogy
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Florida Senator Marco Rubio is proposing a watered-down version of the DREAM Act as an attempt to gain at least a sliver of the Hispanic population currently abandoning the Republican Party in droves.

The old DREAM Act, a bipartisan bill that would allow undocumented immigrants who graduate from high school to seek a path to citizenship through college or the military, had its bipartisan balloon burst in 2010, the year when even across-the-aisle support was not enough to overcome a Republican filibuster.

Since then, however, the GOP has suddenly realized it has a massive Hispanic voter problem, so they're asking for the DREAM Act back, just without the "Dream" part. Rubio's proposal doesn't put immigrants on the path to citizenship but creates a third level of legal residency, greater than alien but less than citizen. In what world creating an unprecedented extra sub-tier of citizenship is considered "conservative" is beyond me, but the bill's not going to pass, so I'll let the GOP Patron Saint of Hypothetical Morality worry about that.

Natch, anti-immigration groups just look at this bill and see amnesty, because they look at anything that's not a twenty foot border wall and see amnesty, and hardline GOP legislators like Jim DeMint aren't biting. "A lot of us lean towards compassion, but my focus is still on getting a legal system that works," DeMint said. That's code for "no."

Until the bill fails, it's a huge thorn in the side of Mitt Romney. During the GOP primary, Romney staked out extreme positions on illegal immigration, calling Arizona's SB 1070 "a model," collecting an endorsement from professional mellow-harsher Joe Arpaio and decrying the DREAM Act. Having spent months alienating a Hispanic voters, Romney now needs to find a way to distance himself from his own primary positions, a process that began in earnest with the demotion of Kris Korbach, one of Romney's immigration advisors and the author of SB 1070.

But any change of policy by Romney on the DREAM Act is going to lead to reactions like this one. One could argue that the benefits of Romney playing to Hispanic voters greatly outweigh the costs of losing anti-immigration hardliners, especially as Hispanic voters matter in swing states like Colorado, where Obama is already making a huge push. But this assumes he can win an appreciable portion of the Hispanic vote at all. The Hispanic community is not thrilled about Obama's first term, in which he failed to realize comprehensive immigration reform and increased deportions. But Obama pushed hard for the DREAM Act, and was only defeated by a stalwart Republican legislature; it's hard to imagine voters turning against him over the defeat of the DREAM Act only to go to the very side that caused that defeat.

Meanwhile, if Romney appears as abandoning his conservative principles (ahem) to appeal to the Hispanic population over immigration, he may depress his base so much that they stay home on election day. It might be worth it for Romney to stick to his immigration guns, as he probably won't win many Hispanics anyway, and he needs a motivated base to get even close to beating Obama.

By the by, don't expect all this immigration baggage to do much for Marco Rubio's vice presidential chances. Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, a tea party hire, and a rising star in his party, is on everybody's Veep shortlist. But even his proposal of an attempt to square the GOP's circle over immigration looks primed to backfire; instead of helping Romney and the Republicans hop over their immigration policy problem, Rubio's bill steps right on its tail. 

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Related: Obama Releases Spanish Language Ads In Swing States (VIDEO)

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Dave profile picture
Dave Francis: ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION AND POPULATION GROWTH

It is Forty years after a multi-year bi-partisan government commission recommended slowing U.S. population growth and eventually stabilizing it. Americans still would like to see it happen, according to poll results to be released this weekend at the 2012 Earth Day Dallas festival. In the past three decades we have had a population explosion, caused by the arrival of millions of 40 percent of illegal aliens by overstaying expired temporary visas and even as many numbers crossing our sovereign border without permission. The misgivings shown by Americans today are similar to what Americans indicated in a national poll by “The Commission on Population Growth and the American Future,” which was created just before the first Earth Day (1970) and issued its closing report in spring of 1972.

Leaders from labor, business, civil rights and environmental activists, religion and academic contributed to the report. In 1972 a poll found 57% of Americans believed U.S. population growth was environmentally harmful, with 66% disapproved of adding another 100 million people, 56% said government should try to do something to slow down population growth, 57% said people should limit the size of their families even though they can afford a large number of children and 50% said the number of immigrants should be reduced, with only 3% saying the numbers should increase.

The Census data show that our population would be stabilizing at around 250 million if the American people had controlled things, given that their average family size has been at a zero-population-growth level ever since 1972,”


The new poll found only 10% of U.S. voters approve the current rate of growth that the Census Bureau states will double U.S. population from 313 million today to over 600 million by the end of the century. Of course not too many people believe the official number of 11.million foreigners who have illegally settled here. Very few organizations trust this numbers and think a more logic figure would be around 20 million and up.


In today's polls 68% of voters said immigration should be reduced in order to slow U.S. population growth; 19% prefer to keep immigration the same and let it double the U.S. population; 4% prefer increasing immigration so that population would more than double this century. Even Hispanic voters and other minority were similar to all other voters in their opposition to high population growth and in preference for a stabilizing population size.

Illegal Immigrants who are constantly pouring across our borders and entering America as international tourists are adding to this population growth. Because of this uncontrolled travesty, our energy supplies are under constant strain as is our health care system, public education and a the erosion of our once admired freeways and highways. Underground our sewer systems, is crumbling, with some pipelines over 50 years old. 30 years of indifferent administrations have allowed this incompetency to flourish and now our grandchildren are facing a 16 Trillion dollar deficit. Unquestionably we need an ultra strong Congress, which must dismiss incumbents that are not doing their job. Not just the do-nothing law makers in Washington, but hard core leftists, Democrats, Republicans and the state Governors, Mayors, and all those involved in pampering illegal aliens at the state, county and local elected officials. These people who are filling their pockets with campaign contributions are sole to blame and ignorance for the Sanctuary City ordinances, the Chain Migration adding to even larger population and other regulations such as making the public pay for Dream Act children and any new secret visa’s for people, that is really just another Comprehensive Immigration Reform known as Amnesty.

As for the controversial issue of the ‘DREAM ACT’ for granting a quick passage of illegal alien’s children will not be Fair? Thousands of people wait patiently for years, sometimes as much as 10 years to receive an entry visa.

One of the greatest menaces to our immigration laws is the ‘unfunded mandates’ forced on every taxpayer by the U.S. courts. All 50 states are held accountable to pay for the large populations of illegal aliens, where taxes are taken to pay for their medical health, children’s schooling and under the birthright citizen law, allocating food stamps, low income housing and numerous other benefits that citizens are denied. Many welfare programs have been crippled because of females who arrive here illegally by any means, with an unborn child can apply for natal care and other subsidies. The fact that our borders are still not secured, that women are able to enter here pregnant, in the years that followed we have children of illegal aliens smothering our public schools. In 20 years the populace of foreigners coming here are directly affecting any chance of slowing population growth through each prior and post administration are responsible for not enforcing immigration laws and not the absconder from their own country? And still over a million new imported legal immigrants are allowed to come here. What are these so called legislators thinking, when they are cutting off welfare for U.S. born American or resident aliens?

The U.S. public are generous and passionate and the biggest philanthropist in the world. But we cannot continue to fight distant wars and take in every desperate pauper from any corner of the world. We must stop printing money and make a giant effort to remove illegal aliens by ATTRITION BY ENFORCEMENT.

This America is the land of opportunity, but only if you come here with permission and a work visa. For farmers and agricultural communities, there must be a well regulated system of arrival and departure, not the mess provided now. In furtherance special visas should be expedited for top professionals in Science, Engineering and a whole range of high technology, given us the brain power for a futuristic U.S, but we must spend the money to check on females who are carrying an unborn infant, with new detection systems at entry ports, as 400.000 arrivals are ready to conceive annually and apply for welfare. Just calculate the uncompensated cost to hospitals that have to pay for this delivery? By the Congress just amending the Birthright Citizenship Act of 2011 (H.R.140) the country could discontinue this billion dollar soaking of individual states?

Then just as viable and with a high success rate is the introduction of Verify (H.R. 2885) – Chairman Lamar Smith's 'Legal Workforce Act'. Every worker hired would be eligible, if they are not flagged by the employers hook-up to the Social Security and Homeland Security databases. Those declined can fortunately travel to the SSA to get clearance for their new job. Foreign illegal workers would not go to any government agency anyway. Mitt Romney already stated that unauthorized workers would “self Deport” when employment cannot be located. Businesses owners and management that don’t follow the law could lose business licenses, profits, be fined and even end in a prison cell.

The best hope with have is to elect TEA PARTY leaders who have a different approach to every issue, who believe in the free competitive business enterprise, self reliance on our own abundance of oil, natural gas and clean coal. Huge deposits await us that are so plentiful, we can supply it to Europe and other friendly countries.
April 20, 2012