In 2010, conservative immigration groups vehemently opposed the DREAM Act — and it looks like they’re going to do the same to Senator Marco Rubio’s version of the bill, even though (based on the details available; the legislation itself hasn’t been released yet) Rubio’s would only provide young adults who were brought here illegally as minors with non-immigrant visas, while the 2010 DREAM Act would have put them on a path to citizenship. For my piece on the homepage today, I talked to NumbersUSA, Kris Kobach, and FAIR, and all expressed serious concerns about the new DREAM.
Here’s a taste of how Rubio’s office is making the case for DREAM:
Rubio has been reaching out to various conservatives about the new DREAM, including such figures as Sean Hannity and Senator Jim DeMint (R., S.C.). His office has distributed to chiefs-of-staff for Republican senators a PowerPoint presentation entitled “The Republican Challenge Among Hispanic Voters.” The presentation highlights the U.S.’s growing Hispanic population, and cites a poll conducted by the Hispanic Leadership Network that finds that 73 percent of Hispanics (and 63 percent of Republicans) think that undocumented immigrants who have no criminal records should be given legal status. “Republicans can’t ‘just say no’ to legislation expanding opportunity — we must have an alternative,” is one of the “concluding thoughts” in the presentation.
Full PowerPoint presentation mentioned here.