DREAM Denied

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‘Shamnesty’ Travesty

“Many in the conservative media are trying to block the DREAM Act by driving a wedge between Hispanics and white Americans. That, at least, is how Glenn Beck is doing it. ‘If you are white, or you’re an American citizen, or a white American citizen, you are pretty much toast,’ Beck observed, as he joked with a caller who sarcastically suggested he would need to pretend to be an ‘illegal alien’ in order to qualify for in-state tuition for his MBA program. Rush Limbaugh theorized that the legislation was Sen. Harry Reid’s (D-NV) way of ‘thanking Hispanics for stealing the election for him.’

“Elsewhere in the right-wing press, pundits are asking whether a bill aimed at assisting Hispanics will be a ‘nightmare for hard-working Americans,’ calling the bill ‘shamnesty,’ and raising the specter of criminality, calling it ‘reckless illegal alien amnesty’ and that ‘incentivizes illegality.’ Fox News contributor Mike Gallagher even compared the beneficiaries of the bill to bank robbers.”

–Simon Maloy, “The right-wing backlash against advancing minority rights,”
MediaMatters, Dec. 10, 2010

The bi-partisan DREAM Act (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors),
co-sponsored by U.S. Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Richard Durbin (D-IL), which would have opened paths to citizenship for some undocumented minors, passed the House,
but died in the Senate on Dec. 18. Column.

• Editorial Comment: Dream on, kids.


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Christmas Eve Morn
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