DREAM Act Vote Scheduled For Tomorrow

Katie Pavlich | December 07, 2010 9:54 AM

The White House and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid are pushing for a vote on the the DREAM Act tomorrow.

In a conference call with Dr. Clifford Stanley, Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, it was revealed that allowing over 700,000 illegal aliens into the military recruiting system will limit opportunities for American born students to join. Current military recruiting is already high and the waiting period to join the Marines is eight months long.

"This is not an American versus illegal alien issue," Stanley said.

Stanley added between 50,000 and 60,000 illegal immigrants graduate from U.S. high schools each year and if the DREAM Act is passed, 760,000 people will be immediately eligible to join the military and apply for citizenship.

The White House is sticking by its claims that the DREAM Act is not amnesty and says this legislation requires eligible illegal students to go through a long process before gaining citizenship.

"This is a long and arduous process," Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Intergovernmental Affairs Cecilia Munoz said on the call.

If the process of becoming a citizen through the DREAM Act is long and arduous, why not just make students go through the already established long and arduous process of gaining citizenship?

In order for the legislation to pass, seven Republican Senators must vote for it. As I said last week, Senator Jeff Sessions, Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote a

letter to his Senate colleagues expressing his disappointment by Democratic leadership to push this legislation, calling it “poorly drafted, filled with loopholes and will without doubt encourage future illegal immigration.” He also said all four versions of the bill would provide unrestricted amnesty even for illegal aliens with criminal records.

"We disagree whole heartedly with Senator Sessions that this is amnesty," Munoz said.