Bush's Retreat on Immigration Reform
Every year the government deports American teenagers -- who have gone to school here and are on their way to productive careers -- to Latin American and Caribbean nations they may not have seen since infancy. It's for that reason that legislators of both parties support the Dream Act, which would enable 65,000 high school graduates who are undocumented to become citizens if they complete college, and allow them to pay the in-state rate for tuition at public colleges and universities. The Dream Act passed the Senate Judiciary Committee last fall, with heavy bipartisan backing and the support of Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch. But like the Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits, and Security Act of 2003, or Ag Jobs, which also looked bound for passage until some recent mind-boggling legislative maneuvers, it has fallen prey to the Bush administration's reluctance to do anything that might rouse the ire of the nativist right.[ more]