A brief GOP flirtation with a Georgia version of the Dream Act
A few minutes ago, the state Senate approved, on a 34-19 vote, a measure to bar illegal immigrants from Georgia’s 60 public colleges.
The topic, again, was fraught with emotion. But one of the more nuanced voices belonged to the leader of Senate Republicans in the chamber, President pro tem Tommie Williams, R-Lyons.
Williams represents south Georgia farm country, and he began by talking about the trouble blueberry, onion and corn farmers have had bringing in their crops since passage of last year’s Republican-backed bill to crack down on illegal immigration in Georgia.
“I have farmers that can’t get labor,” Williams said, predicting that the U.S. will soon begin importing food now raised in Georgia. “If you think dependence on oil is bad, wait ‘til we’re dependent on food.”
But Williams was just getting wound up. The Senate leader then turned to the matter of children in Georgia who would be barred from college – or anything other than an underground future under SB 458. Said Williams:
”The Dream Act…I actually think the Dream Act, or a modified version of it, it would help. I’ve got kids in my schools that are five to 10 years old, just about the size of my daughter – they didn’t come here on their own. They’ve never been, they have no memory of where their parents took them from. And yet the federal government tells us we need to educate them through the 12th grade. And then we say, no, you can’t go through the university system.
“I don’t know how to fix that problem. We’re trying to fix it here. But it’s really a problem the federal government ought to fix. I think they ought to pass some version of the Dream Act.”
Williams was among the GOP majority that voted for SB 458. But before his speech, Williams had passed out an amendment that would have created a Georgia version of the Dream Act – which he later withdrew before it was formally entered into the record. Here’s the gist, from the document:
After his speech, I asked Williams why he withdrew the amendment.
“I would love to do this, but the federal law says, if you do this for anybody in the state — [if] you make this benefit available as a public benefit – then you have to make it available to everybody in the country,” the Senate leader said.
So any young illegal immigrant from any state in the U.S. would be eligible, Williams said. And that would have opened the door too wide, even at out-of-state tuition prices.
Those of you who dismiss Williams’ comments out of hand need to look at this piece from Politico.com:
President Obama leads all his Republican rivals among Latino voters, according to a new poll released Monday.
According to the latest national Fox News Latino survey, none of the Republican contenders for the presidential nomination poll above 14 percent in a head-to-head matchup against Obama. That’s a 17 point drop in support from John McCain’s 2008 share of the Hispanic vote, garnering 31 percent of the that group four years ago.
- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider
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123 comments Add your comment
Bobby
March 6th, 2012
7:20 pm
Oh, yes, the “farm country” routine. It comes up constantly in California. It even comes up in states that don’t have farms, like Nevada, or Arizona. Of course Arizona’s politicians aren’t having any of this B.S. They see illegal immigration ruining the state, month by month. They even see the Mexican power groups like La Raza Lulac, Mecha, etc. trying to justify racist teachings against the U.S., as for example, how the U.S. stole Mexico,etc.
The problem with the Farm Country routine of Mr.Tommy Williams, is that exactly what he said about the “dream act”. There is no need for permanent Farm Workers, that stay in this country, and cannot support a family with farm wages, and so Mr. Tommy Williams will soon be voting to give them the social services,etc. that Georgians paid into, but won’t get or will get, in an extremely restricted form. This crap has bankrupted California, a state much much bigger than Georgia, and much much richer at one time, BUT NOT NOW. Good luck suckers, if you buy that line from Williams. If you were smart you’d have him kicked out of office NOW. YESTERDAY , IF POSSIBLE!
Bobby
March 6th, 2012
7:32 pm
There is a poster, Gary Owens that asked “why should illegal aliens be allowed to attend tax supported colleges?” Well, Gary, in California’s Silicon Valley, all the high tech firms and their CEO’s,etc. have endorsed amnesty and illegal immigration and allowing illegal aliens to attend college. People like Jeff Hawkins, palm pilot inventor, Andrew Grove, CEO INTEL,etc. and many others say they should be allowed to go to college here. Now remember, these are the same creepu CEO’s that outsource jobs, bring in Indian programmers and fire American programmers, because the Indians work for half price,etc. These are the people you made rich Gary, as an American buying their toys with dollars when they couldn’t get rich with pesos. Americans must realize there is an attack, BY THE DEMOCRAT PARTY, BY THE LEFT, BY CORPORATIONS, BY THE WHITE HOUSE, BY THE CONGRESS, SENATE, AND CHURCHES AND SO MANY OTHER GROUPS THAT COULDN’T GIVE A RATS ASS ABOUT LONG TIME AMERICAN TAXPAYERS, AND CITIZENS. GOOD LUCK WITH ALL OF THESE GOONS FIGHTING AGAINST YOU.
Bobby
March 6th, 2012
7:41 pm
Uh, escusa me Senor Mr. Galloway. If the Republican Party and the Democrat Party wouldn’t have allowed millions of illegal aliens to enter this nation your “poll” example would be meaningless. IN FACT, IT’S A MOOT POINT AS IT STANDS. Are you purposely trying to deceive American voters? In the first place, the “hispanic” vote isn’t that big. Why? Because there are millions of hispanics here in the good old U.S.A. that CANNOT VOTE.. Didn’t you know that? Or are you one of those people that doesn’t care about voter I.D.and checking whether someone is even eligible to vote? If you don’t care about this, then your point is MOOT, why even bring the poll up, if you suspect there is going to be widespread voter fraud anyway? Unless, finally, you aren’t bother by the U.S. turning into a thrid world nation, where voting doesn’t matter anyway, becaue the mob rules.
Bobby
March 6th, 2012
7:50 pm
My final point is, the U.S. should have a guest worker program in place for the “jobs that Americans won’t do, as Senor El Presidente Bush has sickenly repeated so often. Some people will object, but let’s face it, the elite will get a guest worker program in any case, although they would rather have permanent slave labor paid for by American citizens.taxes. They sure aren’t going to support the slaves..By having a guest worker program, in which a foreigner is issued a work visa, they come here, legally, make some dough, go home when the visa expires and apply again in the required time. This way they keep their dignity, can stay in the nations they love, and finally, yes, finally,there is a benefit for American citizens. Yes, American citizens, remember them Congress? Americans can keep their language, and won’t have to see Spanish, Chinese, Mandarin, Indian,(India), and every other tongue foreign to Americans, in their stores, government buildings, and businesses. I realize this would dissapoint the “America is nothing but an “economic zone” ,types, with no culture or anything, but hey, people are getting really pissed off as things stand now.
Bobby
March 6th, 2012
7:55 pm
Stephen I’M NOT FOR OPEN BORDERS LIKE YOU ARE. CANADA, SINCE YOU MENITIONED IT, DOESN’T HAVE OPEN BORDERS AND DOESN’T WANT OPEN BORDERS.
TED409
March 6th, 2012
8:09 pm
good job!!!!!! even ur law charging them out of state tuition is the only law that remains standing you ll have done a lot in the fight against illegal aliens
Bobby
March 6th, 2012
8:18 pm
Stephen, your trying to vacate the rational arguments of many of the posters here by simply using the typical leftist tactic of calling them all haters, shows there is something essentially wrong, that is, unbalanced, with your thinking on this topic.
Bobby
March 6th, 2012
8:22 pm
The “Statue of Liberty”, can’t cry Jerome, it’s made of cement and steel. Go back to watching cartoons.
Ricardo
March 6th, 2012
8:31 pm
Stephen wrote:
“Illegal immigration is estimated to have increased our GDP anywhere from 1-2% and over $500,000,000 has been paid into the Social Security fund by illegal aliens since its inception.”
If American citizens held those jobs instead of illegal aliens, these higher paid American workers would have caused the GDP to increase a lot more than 1-2%, and they would have paid a lot more than $500,000,000 into the Social Security fund.
Ricardo
March 6th, 2012
8:35 pm
Stephen wrote:
“Right! and poor people too! Get back to the ghetto! No school for you! They don’t pay taxes! Why should I have to pay taxes so some poor person can better themselves? It doesn’t make any sense! Everyone should understand that freedom, education, and a future are for the rich. Attempting to better yourself should be strictly frowned upon.”
Attempting to better yourself BY VIOLATING THE LAW should be strictly frowned upon.
Ricardo
March 6th, 2012
8:38 pm
Levite wrote:
Leviticus 19: 33-34. “When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”
Didn’t you notice that it doesn’t say ILLEGAL alien?
Ricardo
March 6th, 2012
8:48 pm
Look before I leap… wrote:
“Instead of the very expensive and very limited efficacy of hunting them all down and packing them back across the border, why not offer amnesty, registration, documentation?
What exactly are the drawbacks there?”
The major and most obvious drawback is that amnesties don’t solve the problem of illegal immigration. Amnesties simply reward foreigners for violating our immigration laws. This in turn leads to even more illegal immigration. Did the 1986 amnesty bill put an end to illegal immigration? Of course not. About 3 million illegal aliens were granted an amnesty under that bill. Today, there are probably anywhere from 15-25 million illegal aliens in this country. We need to learn from our past mistakes and not repeat them.
Bobby
March 6th, 2012
8:50 pm
Ricardo, that’s a funny comment you made to Levite. It cracked me up. His thinking is goofed up anyway. Native born people, in whatever conuntry you care to mention, are citizens. Immigrants have to have permission to enter those countries and then apply for citizenship. I don’t know a place in the world where this isn’t true. Do you?
Bobby
March 6th, 2012
8:58 pm
By the way, Ricardo, I always shock people when I say this. It really isn’t about illegal immigration. It’s about OPEN BORDERS. Now one poster, Stephen I believe, says he wants OPEN BORDERS. That’s kind of funny. I don’t think there is a culture or race in the world that wants the borders of there country OPEN. It’s insane. Why would people want all kinds of strangers come flooding into their native countries, not knowing who these people are, what they are about, what they are going to do,etc. They don’t. But the elite do. They want OPEN BORDERS to the world, so Americans get reduced to bottom line wages. Bottom line wages, includes, Dentists, farm workers, doctors, engineers, janitors,etc.IT DOESN’T MATTER, since the more people the more competition, regardless of who you are or what you do. This is what the internationalist elite want. They don’t care if the nation they are living in gets screwed up environmentally, socially, economically,etc. These people have the money to just up and move. People like Stephen are either illegal foreign nationals, short sighted, or ignorant, it just can’t be anything else. It would be too sick.
NoAmnesty
March 6th, 2012
9:10 pm
These “kids” illegally received the benefits of American citizens. While the mantra of DREAM Act proponents is that their illegal presence is through no fault of their own and they didn’t have a choice in coming the United States, I cannot help but ask why the parents aren’t being held responsible. The parents had a choice and they chose to break the law, putting their children in this compromising position. The U.S. government and American Taxpayers should not take on the responsibility of other people’ s bad decisions.
Bobby
March 6th, 2012
9:20 pm
NO Amnesty. It’s funny, because when parents who are citizens break the law, and go to jail, NO ONE SAYS LET’S DO SOMETHING SPECIAL FOR THE KIDS, THEY DIDN’T CREATE THE SITUATION THEY ARE NOW IN. The difference really is, where illegal immigration is concerned, we are talking about millions of lawbreakers.
Ali
March 6th, 2012
9:43 pm
My final point is, the U.S. should have a guest worker program in place for the “jobs that Americans won’t do, as Senor El Presidente Bush has sickenly repeated so often. Some people will object, but let’s face it, the elite will get a guest worker program in any case, although they would rather have permanent slave labor paid for by American citizens.taxes. They sure aren’t going to support the slaves..By having a guest worker program, in which a foreigner is issued a work visa, they come here, legally, make some dough, go home when the visa expires and apply again in the required time.
—————We HAVE guest worker programs such as you describe. Problem is, as long as employers can get illegal aliens who work “cheap” and as long as illegal aliens can get jobs without having to leave, they will. The H2-A program for seasonal agricultural labor, for example, has NO CAPS. H2-B for other unskilled workers has a limit of 66,000.
Ali
March 6th, 2012
9:50 pm
Look before I le
Aside from the lack of documentation (and therefore legality of presence), what exactly is the objection to having Mexican’s in this country?
What are the objections to creating a documented guest worker process?
Instead of the very expensive and very limited efficacy of hunting them all down and packing them back across the border, why not offer amnesty, registration, documentation?
What exactly are the drawbacks there?
I am not advocating, I am simply trying to understand what the actual issue is.
ap wrote:”
——————–The issue is that the immigration policy of the United States should be to protect the well-being of AMERICANS. Not immigrants and certainly not illegal aliens. That means we decide who, how many and when we admit.
As for “Mexicans”, you should realize that there are many illegal aliens who are not Mexicans and that even Mexicans are of many racial and ethnic origins. The objection is to people who make their first act in this country breaking its laws and then proceed to break other laws. Why would I want to welcome as a family member someone who won’t abide by the rules of my household and expects me to foot the bill?
Larry
March 6th, 2012
9:55 pm
People hate when other people CUT TO THE FRONT OF THE LINE while other people wait for years to live in the U.S. EVERYBODY wants a better life!!!
HELP PASS E-VERIFY……Here’s How:
https://www.numbersusa.com/content/mandatory-nationwide-e-verify.html
Kathleen3
March 6th, 2012
10:30 pm
Handcuff and remove them from their offices, in full public view, and I believe these corrupted elected/appointed officials would finally get the message Americans will no longer tolerate their gross and willful dereliction of duty, violating their oaths of office, and existing federal immigration law.
It matters not what Party they belong to; it is of great importance, however, that we remove the likes of Williams and every other official who works in the best interests of special interests vs the interests of those who pay their salaries and elected them to office.
It is not the responsibility of hard-working, struggling Americans to subsidize the slave labor of farmers, who already receive government subsidies. It is also not the responsibility of elected officials to provide farm workers to big donors at the expense of taxpayers.
eaglesglen
March 6th, 2012
11:02 pm
I look foreward for all illegal aliens be removed from the U.S. JUST LIKE DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION (when unemployment then dropped from 25% to 17%). What happened to bidding out needed manpower to lowest bidder (preapproved) foreign power? (Fed no longer does that work? REALLY?).
quercus454
March 7th, 2012
10:44 am
What some of you seem to not realize is that every illegal alien that takes a space in a public university/college, there is one less space for an American or legal immigrant. All universities have limited space. Also if the Dream Act was passed, most certainly it would be followed by allowing them public financing, instate tuition rates etc. All one has to look at is California’s UC and state college system to see the results of the Dream Act. Public institutions of higher learning were put into place to provide affordable education for the citizens/legal residents of that state. In California, because of the lax attitude and the embracing of illegal aliens, not only the state, but it’s educational system is hurting. Currently UC students are faced with an 80% tuition increase and the addition of illegal alien students competing for public financing, grants and scholarships. When one looks at all public financing of education most are based on need. If an illegal alien whose parents show little or no income are allowed into the pool, who do you suppose will receive the public funds? The illegal alien will displace the low income American student, regardless of grades or aptitude.
NoAmnesty
March 7th, 2012
11:24 am
Public education is not a “right” granted to individuals by the Constitution. Where in the
Constitution does it read that American Taxpayers are legally bound to provide free
education to illegal aliens from K to 12 (or higher)? It doesn’t.
Plyler v. Doe is a naked usurpation of Congressional powers. The answer to Plyler is political. The 14th Amendment itself says “The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.”Contrary to what most people today believe, the Supreme Court is not the sole interpreter of the Constitution. The Congress can and should pass legislation clarifying that the Equal Protection Clause cannot be construed to compel a state to provide discretionary benefits, including public education, to anyone who is not legally admitted into the United States. The legislation should specify that it is not subject to judicial review.