Durbin, Napolitano welcome illegal aliens to U.S. Senate to promote anti-American DREAM Act (Arne Duncan, Clifford Stanley, Leahy, Schumer, Feinstein, Franken, Cornyn, Grassley, Margaret Stock)

On June 28, Dick Durbin invited a large group of illegal aliens to attend a U.S. Senate hearing about the anti-American DREAM Act and used them in what amounted to the Senate version of a PIIPP. Video below, first person account here, writeups at [1] [2] [3].

* The DREAM Act is an openly anti-American bill that would let the illegal aliens covered by it take college educations away from U.S. citizens. See that link for the details.

* Those in attendance on the anti-American side were: administration officials Janet Napolitano, Arne Duncan, and Clifford Stanley; Sens. Durbin, Pat Leahy, Charles Schumer, Al Franken, and Dianne Feinstein; and immigration lawyer currently or formerly associated with West Point, Margaret Stock.

* John Cornyn and Chuck Grassley were also in attendance; see the Cornyn quote below supporting the DA in concept just not in its current form. Grassley's position isn't known, but he doesn't appear to be a strong opponent of the bill.

* One of the illegal aliens invited even testified to Congress (Ola Kaso, originally from Albania).

* Napolitano agreed that - despite immigration enforcement being one of her jobs - she wouldn't be conducting an enforcement action during the hearing against the illegal aliens. That's not something I'd support either, but the problem is that she's not willing to conduct enforcement actions against "DREAMers" even when they aren't in a Senate hearing.

* Durbin also said this: "When I look around this room, I see America's future. Our doctors, our teachers, our nurses, our engineers, our scientists, our soldiers, our Congressman, our Senators and maybe our President."

* If - unlike Durbin, Napolitano, Duncan, Stanley, Cornyn and the rest - you put Americans first when it comes to scarce resources, you need to take smart, effective action to block the DREAM Act and to discredit its leading supporters.

The smartest, most effective thing anyone can do against it is to find an experienced lawyer to ask Durbin et al tough questions about the bill to their face on video. A smart, experienced trial lawyer could easily show that Durbin et al don't really represent the interests of American citizens and could completely discredit them. Such a video would get hundreds of thousands or millions of views and would send a very strong message.

See the question authority page for the outlines of a plan, and see the DREAM Act page for the start of a line of questioning.

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From chron.com/disp/story.mpl/chronicle/7631163.html:

Ten years after the DREAM Act was first proposed on Capitol Hill, the Senate held its first-ever hearing Tuesday on the stalled measure that would provide a pathway to citizenship for children illegally brought to the United States.

At the hearing, White House Cabinet officials, undocumented teens and immigration activists from across the country joined Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee in praising the measure as Republican committee members criticized it.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan led a group of high-level Obama administration officials who testified on behalf of the legislation, including Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and Dr. Clifford Stanley, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness...

"I have been a supporter of a version of the DREAM Act for many years," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who voted for the bill in 2003 but has opposed versions proposed during the Obama presidency. "Were we to pass this bill as a stand-alone bill without addressing the rest of our broken immigration system, I believe it is far less likely that we would ever get to the other issues in our broken system."

[2] From this:

Almost 200 undocumented young people from across the U.S. gathered in the Russell Senate Office building in Washington, D.C., today to argue for the passage of the DREAM Act and a stay on the deportation of the people who might qualify for it if it becomes law.

Dressed in college graduation caps and gowns with the colors and logos of many different universities on display, the undocumented youth heard testimony from some of their peers who are currently facing deportation, as well as an ‘invocation’ by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), a co-sponsor of the DREAM Act, and a ‘commencement address’ from Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, who recently revealed in the pages of New York Times Magazine that he was undocumented and entered the country illegally when he was a child...

...Sen. Durbin also argued that the role of the executive branch is critical, but called Morton’s memo unprecedented: “They [the Obama administration] came up with this important memo, which for the first time puts in writing that they are going to establish a policy of deportation which will take into consideration those who will be eligible for the DREAM Act… we are going to hold them to this promise, that they are for education not deportation.”

There have been at least two memos; see John Morton for the details.

[3] link

Duncan said the students will pay taxes, buy homes and bolster to the economy.

"They are going to contribute," Duncan said. "...This is an investment, not an expense."

..."Without the DREAM Act there is no (immigration) line for them to stand in," said Margaret Stock, a retired military officer and attorney who supports the DREAM Act.

...To the frustration of immigrant advocates, the Obama Administration refuses to impose an executive order to halt deportations of DREAMers. Napolitano said Tuesday this issue needs a legislative solution.

"Congress should address this and provide a legislative fix to this problem," Napolitano said.

Still Republicans, like Sen. John Cornyn, (R-Texas), insisted there are loopholes that will allow some with misdemeanors to get through. And he questioned whether the DREAMers are skilled workers meanwhile saying he supports legislation to increase the number of visas given to skilled workers. It will be an uphill battle to get Republican support.