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The Senate just voted down the Dream Act. In a vote for cloture the Dreamers went down in flames as 41 Senators chose not to grant a back door amnesty to the children of illegal aliens.
The law would have given the children of illegals the right to go to college on the American Tax payer's dime. They would have been eligible for Stafford loans which are paid for by tax dollars and they would have been eligible for work/study positions. This law would give those children, who are also here illegally, up to 10 years to earn two years of college or to complete two years of military service with no stated recourse against them if they failed.
Many advocates in their arguments for the passage of this Bill touted the CBO report that estimated that by allowing the Bill to pass, it would reduce the National Debt by $1.5 Billion dollars over the first 10 years of the program. However, those same Advocates do not mention the fact that the same CBO report estimates that the Bill will add in excess of $2-3 Billion dollars to the deficit over the following 10 years.
Some other facts the advocates for Dream leave out is that the CBO estimates that over 50% of these "best and brightest"will drop out of the program after the first five years. The CBO also estimates that only 15% of these "kids" will default on student loans even though the National default rate for student loans in two year colleges is over 31%. These Dream Advocates also overlook the fact that this Bill would have allowed the illegal alien parents of these children to benefit from their original crimes of breaking the immigration laws of the United States. The law applies to all children 12 years to 29 years of age., the parents of the younger children would have been allowed to stay due to their children needing supervision and a place to stay at least until the age of 18.
There are several other problems with this Bill including the fact that Janet Napalitano, the Chief of Homeland Security, had the power to waive many of the requirements in the Dream Act and that applicant could have up to three misdemeanor convictions and still be eligible.
This vote should put an end to any hope for this back door amnesty program especially since the face of the House of Representatives will change so much after the New Year and the Democrat majority in the Senate will be much smaller. With several of the States lining up with anti-illegal immigration laws, like Arizona's SB1070, the Congress may be forced to actually enforce the immigration laws on the books and deport all detained illegals instead of deferring action for years.
