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Mr. KYL. Could I be advised after I have spoken for 5 minutes.
Mr. President, the DREAM Act is an attempt to cure a symptom of a problem. The symptom is that some children have been brought here illegally and they are suffering the consequences of being illegal aliens under American law. The problem is illegal immigration, which causes all manner of other bad results or problems. There are huge costs to society and any number of personal tragedies as a result of illegal immigration, the DREAM Act problems being only one subset.
Just a few days ago, another Border Patrol agent was killed in the State of Arizona, illustrating again another kind of personal tragedy from illegal immigration. Unfortunately, treating symptoms of the problem might make us feel better because we are doing something for a particular group of folks, but it can allow the underlying problem to metastisize. Unfortunately, that is what is happening at our border.
In some respects, the problems are getting worse, not better. Our citizens have a right to be safe and secure. Right now that situation, at least in my home State, does not pertain. So the first point I make is that we have to secure the border and stop illegal immigration. When we do, there will not be more problems for people associated with education that would be solved by the DREAM Act or other problems associated with illegal immigration. We will have excluded or we will have limited the nature of the problem to simply those who are here now and then, obviously, we can deal with that problem. That is the first point.
Second, this bill is brought to us with no hearings or markup in a committee. It is the sixth version of a DREAM Act. I worked with Senator Durbin on another version of the DREAM Act in connection with the comprehensive immigration law. There are problems with this bill. Those problems need to be dealt with. But the bill comes before us under a condition in which there can be no amendments. There needs to be amendments.
In the remaining 3 minutes or so I have, let me simply identify 10 particular problems we need to deal with and can only be dealt with by getting together and working it out by having amendments, which we can't do in the short time we have.
The bill would immediately put an estimated 1 to 2 million illegal immigrants on a path to citizenship, a number which will only grow because there is neither a cap nor sunset in the legislation. These people would then have access to a variety of other Federal programs, Federal welfare programs, student loans, Federal work study programs, and the like.
Third, the entire time such individuals are in conditional status, they are not required to attend college or join the military. That is a common misperception. Only when such individuals seek to get lawful permanent resident status do they then have to proceed to complete the requirements for education or military.
Fourth, the education and military requirements can be waived altogether, including for criminal activity--in other words, people who have a serious criminal background.
Five, chain migration, which is something we dealt with in the legislation in 2009, would result from this legislation because once the citizenship is obtained, the individuals would have the right to legally petition for a green card for their family members. That means the numbers could easily triple from the 2 million plus estimated right now.
Sixth, the bill has no age limit for aliens in removal status. This is supposed to be for children, but there is no age limit for people who are in removal proceedings and simply file an application for status under the DREAM Act to stay their removal. That has to be fixed.
Seven, the bill forbids the Secretary of Homeland Security from removing any alien who has a pending application for conditional nonimmigrant status regardless of age or criminal status. In other words, it provides a safe haven for illegal immigrants, some of whom we would not want to allow to stay in the United States and should be subject to removal.
Eighth, the DREAM Act as written provides that applicants who are currently ineligible under current law for status of a green card could nevertheless be eligible under this act. The reason is because some of the grounds of waiver that exist in this act do not exist under current law, but they could be waived for DREAM Act aliens--things such as document fraud, alien absconders, and marriage fraud.
Nine, the act does not actually require that an illegal alien finish any type of degree other than a high school GPD. To receive green card status, the bill requires only that the alien complete 2 years at an institution of higher education. There is not a requirement that they ever receive a degree of any kind. The requirement is that they needn't receive a degree of any kind. This is important.
For those who want to go into the military, there is the requirement for 2 years of service in the uniformed services. When you enlist in the service today, you are enlisting for a commitment of 4 years.
Finally, removal, if it can be demonstrated as resulting in a hardship either to the applicant or to a spouse, the requirements for education can be waived altogether. So a sympathetic Secretary of Homeland Security could obviously create a situation in which there is essentially just a waiver for people to come into the United States.
For these reasons, I urge colleagues to vote against cloture on the DREAM Act.
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