Many, if not all, Republicans in Congress oppose the Dream Act (an acronym for Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors). This proposed piece of legislation is intended to provide a path of citizenship to individuals who were brought to the United States by their parents or other adults illegally.
To qualify for this act, one must prove they entered the U.S. before the age of sixteen, have proof of residence for at least five years, be between ages twelve and thirty-five at the time of the bill's enactment, have graduated from a U.S. high school or earned the GED equivalent, and be of "good moral character."
The passage of this legislation sounds like a no-brainier, giving these kids of "good moral character" a country they can call their own. However, many Republicans can't wrap their heads around a bill Jesus would surely support. Personally, I believe it's more about racism than anything. Simply put, its part of their racist agenda to preserve their psychotic delusion that America was somehow founded through the direction of a "white god" for the greater good of the American Christians of European descent. Their logic in opposition to this bill is a thinly veiled excuse they strategically call "the rule of law"; basically, it doesn't matter how much good this legislation may do, doesn't matter about the humanity involved; we are a nation of law and therefore, when it suits me and my racist colleagues, we must follow "the rule of law"!
I say, I couldn't agree more! In the early 1800s, the United States were actively uprooting Native American tribes and forcing them to move west of the Mississippi to what was then called "Indian Territory". President Andrew Jackson, the man on our $20 bill, entreated congress to pass the Indian Removal Act.
Unfortunately for President Jackson and Congress of all white males, the Cherokee Nation banded together and decided that education was the best way to defend their rights as a people. The Cherokees, residing in Georgia at the time, challenged this act through the American legal system, ultimately winning a Supreme Court decision backing their ownership rights to the lands they occupied in Georgia. President Jackson, however, refused to stand for the "rule of law", swiftly ordering troops to forcibly remove the Cherokees from the land the Supreme Court had only just ruled rightfully theirs.
By that, I say to any member of congress in opposition to the Dream Act, or, for that matter, providing an opportunity for all illegal immigrants of "good moral character" a path to citizenship based on the "rule of law", let's start by giving Georgia back to the living descendants of the Cherokee Nation. Either we partake in that, or we can move forward based on the "rule of logic" and do what's right for these exceptional future citizens.
