AFA of PA ACTION ALERT
December 8, 2010
Issues (check corresponding number in ‘Details’ and ‘Action’ Sections)
1.) DREAM Act Vote
2.) Don’t Ask Don’t Tell
3.) FYI: Twelve Spending Bills Rolled into One!
Details
1.) Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is considering a vote on the DREAM Act today. The House has not yet announced the day for a vote, although it is anticipated to be by the end of the week. The legislation would give hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants brought to the United States before the age of 16, and who have been here for five years and graduated from high school or gained an equivalency degree, a chance to gain legal status if they joined the military or attended college. Politically active Hispanic groups call it a crucial down payment on a “broader immigration” overhaul.
Supporters of the DREAM Act claim the bill would provide citizenship only to children who go to college or join the military. But all any version of the legislation requires is that an applicant attend any college for just two years. And if President Obama wants to reward non-citizen service members with citizenship, he already has the power to do so. The Secretary of Defense already has the authority under 10 U.S.C. § 504 (b) to enlist illegal immigrants in the military if “such enlistment is vital to the national interest,” and 8 U.S.C. § 1440 allows such immigrants to become naturalized U.S. citizens, with their applications handled at accelerated rates . The military component of the DREAM Act is a complete red herring.
The DREAM Act is also an invitation for fraud. All of the proposed versions would make it illegal for any information in an amnesty application to be used to initiate removal proceedings against an applicant. Law enforcement agencies would be forced to prove that any information they used to find, detain, and try to remove an illegal immigrant was already in their files before an application was received or was not derived from the application.
2.) Just received word that the first key vote on repeal of the 1993 law banning homosexuals in the military will likely take place later today! The top two uniformed officers in the Marines and Army oppose repeal of the 1993 law which is erroneously named after Bill Clinton’s convoluted ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy.
As the Family Research Council reported last week, news coverage about the much touted “Report” assessing military response to repeal of the law was greatly flawed. A close and unbiased look at the report shows 91% reject homosexual leaders, 85% of combat Marines distrust homosexuals in their ranks, 71% won’t share showers with homosexuals and 24% won’t re-enlist.
3.) FYI: Senate Democrats are planning to put the 12 spending measures that fund the government into one giant bill, a different approach from their House counterparts and one that Republicans oppose. These are supposed to be passed individually and signed into law by September 30th! Instead of a comprehensive bill, Republicans prefer a stopgap measure that would keep funding level, or even decrease it, through September. They are hoping that President Obama – who declared “an end to the old way of doing business” when he reluctantly signed a similar 2009 omnibus spending bill just two months into his presidency – will urge Democrats to strip down the legislation to the most basic levels.
Action Steps
1.) Contact Senators Arlen Specter and Bob Casey, Jr. and your Congressman. Ask them to vote ‘No’ on the DREAM Act. This is simply one step closer to amnesty and would have a negative impact on our fragile economy.
2.) While you have Senators Casey and Specter on the line, ask them to oppose repeal of ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.” An unbiased look at the Pentagon report shows allowing open homosexuals in the military will have a negative impact on our military and create a national security risk.
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