Posted on 06/28/2011 6:35:08 PM PDT by jazusamo
The Obama administration on Tuesday made its most forceful push yet this Congress to reform the countrys immigration laws.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Defense Under Secretary Clifford Stanley laid out a laundry list of national security-related financial and educational reasons why Congress needs to push forward with the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act.
Napolitano said the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does not have the resources necessary to remove the estimated 11 million people who are in the country illegally. The DREAM Act, she said, would grant conditional citizenship to people who pose little or no threat to society and allow DHS to pursue the most harmful illegal immigrants.
[It] would allow us to remove DREAM-ers from the universe of individuals we need to be concerned with and expend resources for removal purposes, and we can further concentrate our resources on the priorities that weve laid out, Napolitano told The Hill after a hearing with the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Versions of the DREAM Act have failed to make it through Congress over the past decade, even with Democratic majorities in both chambers. It is widely seen as a political non-starter in the divided 112th Congress.
Tuesdays hearing before the Judiciary Committees Immigration, Refugees and Border Security subcommittee came in the wake of a memo issued by the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement last week that approved a broader breadth of discretion for agency officials when considering whether to deport someone through the Secure Communities program.
Under the guidelines in the memo, agents would be allowed to use their discretion in the field to decide against deporting an illegal immigrant who would be eligible for a path toward citizenship if the DREAM Act were made law.
Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), the subcommittees ranking Republican, raised concerns about loopholes in the DREAM Act that would allow the Obama administration a broad discretionary reach to decide who should be granted conditional citizenship.
Cornyn questioned Napolitano about provisions that would grant legal status to illegal immigrants, even though they might have multiple criminal convictions or been convicted of voter fraud, or not have met education or military requirements.
Cornyn pushed for language in the bill that would render people ineligible under the DREAM Act if they had been arrested for offenses such as driving under the influence of alcohol, possession of drugs, burglary, theft or assault.
Napolitano said the administration would be open to discussing the possibility of including such language, but stressed that officers and agents in the field should have the authority to consider each potentially eligible person on a case-by-case basis.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, asked Napolitano if the administration would be open to giving Congress more oversight of the bills implementation by notifying the committee each time someone who is eligible for the DREAM Act had his or her deportation deferred.
We would be willing to discuss that with you, a process for that, yes, said Napolitano. We want to be very transparent about how we are exercising the authorities the statutes give us.
Reform, as in cutting off the welfare freebies. But somehow I don’t think that’s the reform Janet has in mind.
The solution is Nov. 6, 2012
I dare call it treason.
High treason.
The American people have spoken on this issue...forcefully. It is unfortunate that the leftists insist on moving us closer and closer to the ultimate reset button.
I can only believe that the progressives want to make it happen.
Bring it.
Yes, let’s reform by deporting them.
The constitution explicitly states that the fedgov must defend the states from invasion.
What is a 12-20 million man army of infiltrators other than an invasion?
Someday, I hope the open border traitors are held to account.
reform them by making them tougher
SO let them bring in their extended families and put them on the dole.
We somehow have the resources for that??
E-Verify for work or public assistance. Cut off the magnet and they will deport themselves.
“Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano...”
This syphyilitic bitch has been begging for a war. She has no idea what war is.
Filthy POS doesn’t know what the word ‘illegal’ means in illegal alien. Glad to know that our executive branch is defending the Constitution and its subjects.
Reform: one of the most abused and misused words in American English (at least in the arena of politics).
That's the solution and it's a simple one.
Another solution is to deport Napolitano to Mexico.
We can also send Biden back to Delaware and Obama back to Kenya.
Yes, it’s California Dreaming, until Nov. 6, 2012, but it’s a nice dream. Now to make it a reality.
Like rats that get in your house (God Forbid) now that there in let them stay.
Note the "Accepting Pesos" sign at the pizza place this evening. Why would one want to use pesos 60 miles north of the border?
Maybe we should study their technique and then use it ourselves.
Lazy and inept reporters won’t ask the obvious question: “Can you describe any reform scheme that doesn’t involve mass amnesty?”
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