Update, December 9, 6:11 p.m.: The esteemed Surf City GOP Congressdude, Dana Rohrabacher, said on the House floor that the DREAM Act is unfair to “non-minorities.”
Oh no he diiiiiiiin't?!?
Oh, yes. Yes he did.
See the video and a passage from his debate after the jump . . .
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The bolds are courtesy of yours truly.
REP. ROHRABACHER: I rise in
opposition to the Affirmative Action
Amnesty Act, or otherwise known as the DREAM Act, which we are now
debating. Uh, Mr. Speaker, uh, if an illegal immigrant, if this act
passes, if an illegal immigrant happens
to be of a racial or ethnic minority, which the vast majority of illegal
immigrants are, that individual, as soon as legal status is granted, will be
entitled to all the education, employment, job training, government
contract, and other minority preferences that are written into our federal and
state laws. As a result, the DREAM Act would not only put illegal immigrants on
par with American citizens, but would in many cases put them ahead of most
American citizens and legal immigrants. So those voting for this so-called
DREAM Act are voting to relegate the position of non-minority American citizens
to behind those who are now in this country illegally.
Later:
This legislation not
only increases the burden on our hard-pressed government programs and services,
but will give foreigners who are here illegally preference over non-minority citizens, U.S. Citizens,” he repeated. “It doesn't get much worse than that.
Ah, Dana, it's not even Christmas yet but you still give us these presents . . .
Update, December 9, 11:36 a.m.: The DREAM Act was tabled in the U.S. Senate this morning, but leader Harry Reid is expected to bring it up for a vote early next week.
On the bright side, the delay gives activists another week to work on
more senators as some claim there are not yet the 60 votes required to
stave off a GOP filibuster.
Original Post, December 8, 6:36 p.m.:
There are reports that, after a lengthy debate this evening, the DREAM
Act finally went to a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives and
passed with a 216-198 vote.
The legislation, which would allow 65,000 young undocumented students who graduate high school each year to start a pathway to U.S. citizenship after completing two years of college or military service, only needed a simple majority vote to move to the Senate.
Florida Republicans apparently helped push the bill over the top.
Hispanically Speaking News is among those reporting on the passage. It quotes Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose), who heads the House Immigration subcommittee, describing on the House floor the beneficiaries of the Dream Act as kids who grew up in the United States, and who often speak no other language but English, yet face dead ends once they graduate from high school.
“Their immigration status prevented them from working, paying taxes, serving in the military,” she said. “They could never get right with the law, even though they had done nothing wrong. The only thing they did was to obey their parents.”
CNN reports the bill still faces a tough fight in the Senate.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.