By now, you must have heard that Senator Rubio is working on his own version of the federal DREAM Act. There are many versions of the same concept floating around the Hill, but none as divisive and dangerous as this one.
The Miami Herald reports some of the details of Rubio’s alternative to the DREAM Act:
Rubio’s proposal allows young people who came to the United States with their parents to have access to a non-immigrant visa that allows them to study, and after their studies are complete, allows them to work legally in the United States. Eventually, Rubio said, they gain the same status of other non-immigrant visa-holders and are eligible to apply for residency. Three to five years after they obtain a green card, they’re eligible for citizenship.
“It’s a non-immigrant visa, so it doesn’t put them on a path in and of itself to residency and then citizenship,” he said. “But it does legalize their status, it wipes out any of these immigration penalties that they might be facing, and it allows them to go on with their lives with some level of certainty.”
Who is threatened by this proposal? This sounds like an incredibly dangerous bill for Democrats. It’s a sharp retort to Senator Harry Reid who has stated that he would bring the DREAM Act up for a vote before elections to show Latinos that the GOP loathes them. It’s also a slap in the face to Senator Durbin’s dream, who has wanted the DREAM Act to be his legacy. And it may prevent our honorable President Barack Obama from sending out any more fundraising emails about how he supports the DREAM Act, despite the fact that he did virtually no heavy-lifting for it when it was put up for a vote in 2010. All in all, it is super-scary because it means that the Democrats need to pull it together and work with Republicans on this proposal rather than continue to use the DREAM Act as a wedge issue and short-change our communities.
A way to still win on the issue would be to force a vote on the DREAM Act, and after that loses due to GOP opposition, take up Rubio’s proposal. Another would be to pass it in the Senate, and hope that the Republican-controlled House votes it down. If the Democrats avoid debate or discussion, they come out looking like the party that wants to use immigration as an election-year issue but not do anything to provide relief for our communities. A polling of undocumented youth shows that while many are skeptical of the Rubio alternative, they are even more tired of people playing politics with their lives, and open to compromises from the GOP. After all, even Senator Reid admits that under the last version of the DREAM Act, it would have taken 13 years for beneficiaries to get citizenship.
Friend of the blog and ally, Marisol Ramos, provides us with 6 reasons why the Rubio bill matters:
#1 Rubio’s alternative to the DREAM Act is politics as usual but then its not because it breaks the Democratic stalemate (10 yrs in the making) on DREAM Act. While the DREAM Act was a GOP endeavor back in the day, the GOP has steadily abandoned their support on the Hill. It has become an increasingly partisan bill in Congress, with a bad reputation amongst congressional aides and staffers. During lobbying visits, we’ve been told time and again that we need to bring the GOP to the table. Now we have them at the table. What next?
#2 Rubio’s alternative to the DREAM Act also reminds us that while the GOP’s rhetoric is absolutely nasty towards immigrants (especially Latinos), it is the party with pantalones in Congress. If there is any policy change, this is the opportunity we’ve been waiting for to reach a bipartisan compromise. After all, least we forget, it was a Republican President who passed the last amnesty.
#3 Democrats and weak progressive groups always react rather than act pro-actively with progressive immigration proposals. As a group, they do not seem to have a moral compass on the issue. This is the opportunity to stop dickering and act. Least we forget, the last anti-immigrant bill came from Senator Schumer (D-NY) virulently pushing a $600 million “border security” bill down the throats of taxpayers. President Obama has deported more people in his first term than President Bush did in two terms. And his administration plans to extend the so-called “Secure Communities” program nationwide by 2013.
#4 Changing the rhetoric: Will this new GOP Dream Act change the rhetoric for Republicans towards Latinos? Would it open up non-xenophobic discourse on the issue? It is definitely a new page in their playbook. In the least, providing relief for undocumented youth instead of deporting us is beginning to look like a foregone conclusion.
#5 A GOP Dream Act acknowledges that Latinos are the new majority because if they did not, it would be political suicide for them, sooner or later. I’m not sure whether progressives and Democrats actually get the memo or whether they think they can keep taking us for granted and we will vote for them only because they appear to be less hateful.
#6 Undocumented people have been used and abused as political toys for too long by both parties. It is unwise to let Democrats take advantage of us or take us from granted simply because the GOP is the “F–k Latinos Party.” They are both the “Use Latinos Party.” Until they provide something substantial to us besides rhetoric, we aren’t about to be sold that one is better than the other. As of now, one hates us openly and honestly, while the other is nicer but stabs us in the back continuously.
As more details are unveiled about the proposal, we would like to hear your thoughts. Please send in submissions to admin@dreamactivist.org
This “non-immigrant” visa sounds like it’d be strict as hell, again the bill hasn’t come out, but I guess it could be just as narrow as the “conditional legal status” one would receive under the current Dream Act. Actually, now that I think about it…..(again we don’t even know the details of the entire bill) – but now that I think about it, is there any serious difference from this Dream Act and the Dream Act that has been watered down since 2001? I think Republicans are willing to pass anything as long as it came from “one of their own kind”…who knows. Sadly, its politricks as usual.
But one thing that still bothers me is how this guy says, even all pious if I might add, how he just wishes we put our political differences aside and help “the kids”. But its like “dude wtf, if y’all really wanted to help the kids, y’all would’ve voted for the bill back in 2010″. I don’t even know anymore.
If it is something like a H-1 visa, it is actually very much like the watered-down version of DREAM Act (without the benefit of federal grants and instate tuition-possibly), but with a shorter pathway to green-card/citizenship. Pick your poison? That said, I have no idea what his plan is until I read the bill. Poli-tricks is right.
One last thing, if anybody has 17 minutes they could spare, they should watch this Fox News segment where he initially revealed his GOP dream act plan. He highlights that after “taking care of the kids first” with his Dream Act, then he’ll move on border security and revamping the legal immigration system. He says that somehow magically after all that then its going to be “easier” to deal with the rest of the 11 million undocumented residents living here.
Marco Rubio on Fox News Latino :
I don’t trust what Rubio is going on about (probably enforcement of the law), but fixing the legal immigration system, which includes providing more avenues for family reunification, dealing with the long backlogs and streamlining the employment visa process especially for migrant workers, is actually one of the primary ways of dealing with undocumented immigration.
There was nothing stopping Obama in 2009-2010 from getting it done and
he didn’t.
Accept a compromise that is sure to pass or don’t. Democrats could hold out for more, but in all likelihood they’d just maintain the status quo.
Meanwhile, increased law enforcement is happening at the federal, state, and local levels.
Pick your poison.
Of course there was something stopping Obama -immense opposition from congress, particularly republicans facing mid-term elections during a spike in ant-immigrant conservatism (the Tea Party). I worked on the Hill then and saw it with my own eyes. All progressive dems supported the measure unless their districts were in danger because of the Tea Party.
[...] Why Democrats Should Support Marco Rubio’s ‘Dangerous’ Alternative to the DREAM Act | DreamAct… [...]
It is encouraging to see there is at least some effort made on this front. Still, will this raelly happen? Do Democrats even let it come out of a Senate committee? How will politicians who have used the issue to buttress their political careers react when prominent members of both parties have supported the DREAM Act?
Another issue that should be addressed is the restrictions that many conservative state legislatures passed after 2010. In Indiana, for example, undocumented residents of the state now have to pay out-of-state tuition at public universities; laws vary state-by-state. These reforms cry out for a need for them to be explicitly addressed at the federal level (including access to financial aid and scholarships through public universities), as they have contributed greatly to what Rubio and other political leaders call a “broken” immigration system – which they help perpetuate.
I use the quotation marks not because I disagree; rather, it’s because political leaders themselves say that it’s broken – and they’re the ones with the sole authority to fix it.
Sorry but I have serious doubts about senator Rubio… Firstly, why can’t undocumented youth simply have the same rights and benefits his family had as Cuban-Americans?
Secondly, if there’s any party that is trully commited to lead the US into a new era of diversity, it’s Democrats, by far the most racially and gender diverse party of the two. Dems have numerous Latinos in their ranks, including leaders, who unlike Rubio do not support anti-undocumented legislation like SB 1070 in Arizona. There’s Becerra, Reyes, Napolitano, Velazquez, Serrano, Grijalva, Gutierrez… the list of latino democrats who are not on the fence about immigration goes on.
Rubio is just the doing Republicans dirty working of appealing to Latinos during an election year and trying to redeem himself after publicly supporting state legislation against the undocumented. Dems are the ones pushing to have these state laws scrutinized and declared unconstitutional through our legal system, albeit slowly.
So I don’t get it, why are there serious doubts about who really supports a just and fair immigration system for all? Rubio would support his version of the Dream Act, but also stricter state law enforcement? In other words, he wouldn’t deport youth, but WOULD deport their parents?
Obama and his party’s efforts have been halted due to a rise in extreme conservatism before, throughout his presidency, during tough mid-term elections for dems, and now again during an election year. Had it been for dems they would have made progress on this front unike Republicans who’ve jumped on the bandwagon just before elections because of the force of the latino vote. So who really is reacting or being proactive? I would argue dems have been active all along.
PS: Headlines today highlight Romney’s reluctance to support even Rubio’s proposal.