Posted on 01/15/2011 2:21:35 AM PST by WilliamHouston
Conservatives dominated the DREAM Wars of 2010.
The DREAM Act amnesty was defeated on three separate occasions (once in September, twice in December) in the U.S. Senate. The larger push for "comprehensive immigration reform" was derailed in March when Sen. Lindsey Graham used the passage of Obamacare as an excuse to change his position on immigration.
Republicans who have supported the DREAM Act in the past were cowed into submission by grassroots conservatives organizing through the Tea Party. Sen. Robert Bennett of Utah, who voted for the DREAM Act in December, was defeated in the Republican primary. Sen Arlen Specter, one of the most notorious RINOs in Congress, lost the Democratic primary after changing his political spots.
Rep. Mike Castle, who was running for U.S. Senate in Delaware, was defeated by Tea Party challenger Christine O'Donnell. Castle later voted for the DREAM Act in the House. Sen. Lisa Murkowski lost the Republican primary in Alaska to NumbersUSA "true reformer" Joe Miller.
Sen. John McCain, who repeatedly attempted to shove "comprehensive immigration reform" down the throats of conservatives, was given the scare of his political life by J.D. Hayworth. McCain learned a lesson from that experience and voted against the DREAM Act in December.
The final climatic battle over the DREAM Act in 2010 came down to the votes of a dozen Republican Senators who have sponsored and supported that awful piece of legislation in the past.
Your roaring voice of opposition FORCED them to vote the will of their constituents - a rare occurrence in George W. Bush's or Barack Obama's Washington - less common than flocks of birds dropping dead in the sky.
In the 2010 midterm elections, conservatives picked off more than 50 Democrats who voted for the DREAM Act. The House of Representatives, which passed the DREAM Act under Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was transformed into a restrictionist stronghold under Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the new Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
According to Roy Beck of NumbersUSA, the new 112th Congress is the most restrictionist Congress since the Immigration Act of 1924 was passed under President Calvin Coolidge. The DREAM Act is dead for the next two years. It will never make it out of committee in the House.
In the Senate, conservatives replaced DREAM Act supporters Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, Evan Bayh of Indiana, Arlen Specter of Pennyslvania, and Roland Burris of Illinois with restrictionists. We nearly beat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Barbara Boxer of California, and Michael Bennet of Colorado too.
In spite of all this, a solid restrictionist House and a more conservative Senate, Barack Hussein Obama and his militant Hispanic allies like Rep. Luis Guiterrez (not to mention their allies in the liberal mainstream media) have promised a renewed push for "comprehensive immigration reform" in 2011. Having tried and failed to get the DREAM Act three times last year, these people are now going for the whole enchilada with less support for their extremely unpopular amnesty in Congress.
They will undoubtedly fail.
This kabuki theater will be used to set the stage for the 2012 midterm elections in which Hispanic racial grievance groups like the National Council of La Raza have promised to "retaliate" against the Republican Party.
Like the Arizona boycott or the perennial "Day Without Mexicans," this threat will also fizzle out, provided Republicans stand firm and hold the line over the next two years. It should be noted that Jeb Bush and Newt Gingrich, who will both likely run for president in 2012, are solidly in the amnesty camp.
The DREAM Wars of 2011 and 2012 will be fought on several fronts:
(1) In the Senate, it is possible that Harry Reid could use his narrow Democratic majority to launch a new push for the DREAM Act, if for no other reason than to force an embarrassing vote on Republicans which can be used as red meat in campaign ads to turn out Hispanics for Democrats in 2012.
(2) In the House, Republicans might attempt to push for their own version of the DREAM Act, a bill that would grant a narrow amnesty to the DREAM Act poster children (not unlike the limited amnesties for the foreign wives of veterans) to take the issue off the table.
This is a cause for concern.
(3) At the state level, the Treason Lobby is already pushing for a bill in California that would endorse granting amnesty to illegal aliens. A Democratic state legislator in Maryland is pushing for a state version of the DREAM Act. Undoubtedly, there will be similar efforts in other Blue States over the next two years.
It seems our enemies have learned a thing or two from the success of Arizona's SB 1070 and have decided to fight on more favorable terrain.
(4) In the courts, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has two lawsuits against in-state tuition for illegal aliens in Nebraska and California that have come to my attention. Kobach is attempting to push the matter to the Supreme Court to secure a favorable ruling that would strike down the state version of the DREAM Act that already exist in several states (Utah, Texas, Nebraska, California, New York, Illinois, Washington).
This is also the strategy that Kobach and half a dozen states will be using to attack birthright citizenship.
The fight against the DREAM Act is unlikely to produce the most prominent battles over immigration in the next two years. The most spectacular fireworks will be seen at the state level over birthright citizenship and Arizona copycat laws in other states. In Congress, there will be a fight over birthright citizenship for illegal aliens and holding E-Verify hostage to "comprehensive immigration reform."
The challenge of 2011 and 2012 will be in defeating the state versions of the DREAM Act in Blue States while going on offense against the existing laws in court. Having won three huge victories on this front in 2010, I am looking forward to further progress on this front in the years ahead.
Main thing is to prevent pro-amnesty GOP presidential candidate in 2012. What’s Palin’s position?
We probably aren’t going to win the Whitehouse in 2012. We should focus on limiting the influence of the pro-amnesty crowd in the senate and at the state levels by consolidating our midterm victories (via redistricting and continued grassroots level mobilization) and then retaking the Senate in 2012 by developing our groundgame in the battleground states early on. There are a number of easy pickups (Ohio, Virginia, and Montana for example) and a few that may be tougher but are doable (wisconsin, west virginia, missouri, and Pennsylvania for example). Our road to taking the Senate is much clearer than our road to the Whitehouse; furthermore, with Obama painted into a corner by conservatives, he will be unable to pass any kind of radical immigration reform.
Wow...
“My latest blog post.”
It’s a good one. I like the idea of Youth (or anybody, for that matter) For American Civilization!
If we called it Youth Against Western Civilization, the Left wouldn’t protest us all the time.
He is correct if the republicans and Cantor keep up this can’t we all get along crap.
Fox is plugging an interview with Jeb Bush, which will be on the Geraldo show tonight. Interesting choice just after Jeb’s pronouncements on how the GOP must “reach out” to Hispanics.
“If we called it Youth Against Western Civilization, the Left wouldnt protest us all the time.”
Yeah. We might even get to sit with them.
SInce her 2008 Univision interview through he present, Palin has consistently denied that she is for amnesty but also has consistently been pro a pathway to citizenship for the ~40 million illegal aliens in the US on the grounds of being ‘humane’.
he present = the present
Have you noted even though the dream act was not passed by congress, that across America, more states and cities are attempting to pass their version of the dream act at on a local level.To be technical, they are doing what they said AZ is not suppose to be doing, this being, the job of the federal government in wanting to pass the dream act. One would think with Obama so concern about states passing laws that deal with illegal immigration , he would be telling said states , this is better left for the federal government to address the dream act . I do not see Obama filing any lawsuits telling states, the dream act is a matter for the federal government to attend to.They are going to keep pushing this dream act until the right people are elected to pass it.
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