It's Baaaack!

Like the villain in a bad horror movie, an amnesty of illegal immigrants is one of those policy issues that refuses to die. Senator Durbin's DREAM  Act--giving amnesty to immigrants who came into the country illegally before age 16--can turn out to be a pretty big nightmare.

Mickey Kaus is on it, and quotes Kris Kobach's characterization of how "loose drafting" (it would be a mistake to call it careless drafting; the cynics amongst us suspect that the carelessness is on purpose) can lead to a widespread amnesty of many illegal immigrants:

There is no upper age limit. Any illegal alien can walk into a U.S. Customs and Immigration Ser vices office and declare that he is eligible. For example, a 45 year old can claim that he illegally entered the United States 30 years ago at the age of 15. There is no requirement that the alien prove that he entered the United States at the claimed time by providing particular documents. The DREAM Act's Section 4(a) merely requires him to "demonstrate" that he is eligible—which in practice could mean simply making a sworn statement to that effect.

For those who doubt that this type of fraud is likely to be rampant, one need look no further than the SAW program that was part of the 1986 amnesty. SAW gave amnesty to "special agricultural workers" who had done farm work for at least 90 days in the year ending on May 1, 1986. Here's a contemporaneous news account from the December 12, 1988 issue of Time Magazine:

As the deadline passed last week for migrant farm workers to seek U.S. residency status under a special amnesty program, the Immigration and Naturalization Service estimated that it had received an astonishing 1.2 million applications, four times the number expected. Normally, about 600,000 aliens come to the U.S. each year to pick crops and work on farms. To qualify for amnesty, the aliens must show they did such work for 90 days between May 1, 1985, and May 1, 1986. So it seems that at least half the applications were phony.

And here's more detail from David North's account:

Many an urban resident claimed SAW status, many without justification. There were countless anecdotes of fur-coat wearing Europeans seeking SAW status in Manhattan, applicants who contended that the cotton they harvested was purple, or that cherries were dug out of the ground, or that one used a ladder to pick strawberries. Often the temporary INS staffers handling the SAW applications were as clueless about agriculture as some of the applicants.

One should never forget an old economics principle: if there's a supply of easily available visas, a lot of people will line up to demand them. If the Durbin proposal makes it into law, no one should be surprised to discover that millions of illegal immigrants were but babes in diapers when they ran across the border or overstayed their visas.

Comments

[T]

Hmmm, I wonder what the old political principle should be...if they're looking to screw you, they'll find a way? :-)

They know better than us peons, of course.

[Gary]

Can anyone reading this blog name any other issue where the political elites of both parties, having been repeatedly shot down, keep returning to try to do something that the voters clearly do not want? I am having a tough time deciding whether this is a simple case of being out of touch the voters, the corruption of being beholden to special interests, arrogance, or, God forbid, actual malevolent intent to impose sweeping demographic change on the country so as to eventually get rid of an American middle class that Washington considers to be too uppity and demanding.

[T]

I suspect there would be more issues if more people knew what was going on concerns as loudly as they did with immigration. Unfortunately, other issues don't get the attention or are more difficult to understand (undoubtedly in part to intentionally vague wording of legislation). I think they're screwing us in a lot of ways we just don't know about.

They can't be that out of touch with voters. I personally think it's at least partly malevolent intent, partly self-interest as the ruling class.

[Jorge Romero-Habeych]

I just can't think of anything to say, it is simply congress not giving a crap about what voters think and doing whatever they feel. I think the hint in June was big enough. How can a senator (in his infinite wisdom)actually derive that allowing illegal immigrants to receive educational benefits (under the dream act)while denying Americans those sames benefits is fair or even makes sense. When I was checking out which college to attend I came to the conclusion that I wanted to attend UCSD, but after realizing the it would cost me an enormous amount of money I decided to stay instate. The dream act would allow illegal immigrants to attend any state university while receiving gov't aid and never having to pay out of state fees. That is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this bill. Apparently those geniuses in Washington don't care much about what we have to say.