{"id":8097,"date":"2018-02-02T07:13:30","date_gmt":"2018-02-02T13:13:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=8097"},"modified":"2018-02-02T10:01:13","modified_gmt":"2018-02-02T16:01:13","slug":"object-unconditional-dream-legalization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2018\/02\/object-unconditional-dream-legalization.html","title":{"rendered":"Why I object to unconditional “Dream” legalization"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/p>\n

To here the activists tell it, Congress ought to, indeed has the moral obligation, to pass a \u201cclean DREAM Act\u201d \u2014 a bill which gives permanent residence to individuals who were brought to the United States without legal authorization, as minors.\u00a0 (Here\u2019s the ACLU<\/a>, here\u2019s a Newsweek opinion piece<\/a>, here\u2019s a The Hill article<\/a> citing various Democratic leaders making that demand.)\u00a0 There should be no conditions of any kind \u2014 no wall, no e-verify or other enforcement increases, no cuts in the ability of immigrants to sponsor parents and siblings, nothing that \u201charms\u201d other illegal immigrants, now or in the future.\u00a0 Some activists (sorry, I don\u2019t have any quotes at the moment) go even further to demanding that it be an all-or-nothing and the parents and other family members of \u201cDreamers\u201d be given legalization as well.<\/p>\n

But consider the message of the \u201cDream Act\u201d and those arguing for its passage:<\/p>\n

Any person brought to the United States as a minor has a moral right to stay here.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is setting an incredible precedent.\u00a0 Does an minor-arrived illegal immigrant, who crossed the border or overstayed a visa, this year, or who will do so next year or the year after, have, in such a case, any less of a moral right?\u00a0 Would they not, upon reaching adulthood, and seeking to attend college with financial aid, or simply seeking to work legally, insist that they have just as much moral right to legal residence here as the prior cohort did?\u00a0 And what reasonable argument would persuade them otherwise \u2014 if, indeed, activists even wished to do so?<\/p>\n

Now, to be sure, I\u2019ve said that I support provision of legal residency for these minor-arrivals, but I\u2019ve always said that what I believe is this<\/p>\n

Any person brought to the United States as a minor, in a period of time when our own government\u2019s policy was de facto tolerance of illegal immigration and when the length of time since their arrival means they would face particular hardship in returning home<\/em>, has a moral right to stay here.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This means that there is a second moral obligation:<\/p>\n

Our government has the moral obligation to enforce its own laws uniformly and reliably, rather than arbitrarily or not at all.\u00a0 In particular, it is immoral for legislators to craft laws without suitable enforcement mechanisms and for administrators of the law to ignore legislation, in order to intentionally create a second-class set of individuals to meet the desires of the rich, and certain employers, for a low-paid, compliant workforce, or to create a second, uncontrolled immigration pathway.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If the government fails in its duty in this regard, while establishing as the norm via a \u201cDream Act\u201d that minor-arrived illegal immigrants get residency, then we\u2019ve essentially issued an invitation to anyone who wants to make a go of it, that they can obtain residency for their children, and invite them into the American Dream, by making their way here and working under the table or with false ID.<\/p>\n

And, yes, I know that there are claims that illegal immigration is a non-issue because arrivals have leveled off.\u00a0 I don\u2019t buy this; in the first place, there continues to be plenty of new illegal immigration; that the number of illegal immigrants (according to counts by Pew, for instance) remain steady is due to a combination of some returning home and others finding their way towards legal status, and, even if the number of illegal immigrants isn\u2019t growing, it remains a problem to have 12 million such people, living and working with forged IDs or under the table.\u00a0 But what\u2019s more crucial is that the number of new arrivals each year is likely to substantially increase when the popular belief among prospective immigrants is that we have, in our laws, openly stated that \u201ckids get to stay\u201d \u2014 because immigrants do pay attention to this, the ease of making one\u2019s way in the US is a real \u201cpull factor,\u201d and they\u2019re not going to buy politicians\u2019 protestations that \u201cthis was a one-time deal\u201d if nothing in our laws affirm this to be the case by any changes in how we operate our immigration system.<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s pass some sort of legalization for minor-arrivals; but we also need to pass something that will ensure that future arrivals will say, \u201cdude, I heard from so-and-so that the trip there isn\u2019t worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Image:\u00a0\u00a0https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/ret0dd\/5708625905<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To here the activists tell it, Congress ought to, indeed has the moral obligation, to pass a \u201cclean DREAM Act\u201d \u2014 a bill which gives permanent residence to individuals who were brought to the United States without legal authorization, as minors.\u00a0 (Here\u2019s the ACLU, here\u2019s a Newsweek opinion piece, here\u2019s a The Hill article citing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":8064,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[741,569,463],"class_list":["post-8097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dream-act","tag-dreamers","tag-illegal-immigration"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy I object to unconditional "Dream" legalization<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"To here the activists tell it, Congress ought to, indeed has the moral obligation, to pass a "clean 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