Pirate's Cove

If only Joseph W. Tobin, the archbishop of Newark, NJ, would spend as much time and passion on opposing abortion on demand, something Jesus Christ would surely be against

If You’re a Patriot and a Christian, You Should Support the Dream Act

The Gospel of Jesus Christ calls on us to welcome and protect the stranger. This should not be hard to do when the stranger is young, blameless and working hard to make this country a better place.

There are nearly 700,000 young men and women in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program who could soon be at risk for deportation. These “Dreamers” live in our neighborhoods, attend our schools, fight for our country and contribute to our workplaces. Our leaders in Washington, including President Trump, have a moral obligation to try to protect those who came to our nation as children with their parents, and who are Americans in every way.

We do protect the stranger. Those who enter our nation in compliance with our laws. But, hey, since the archbishop finds them blameless, the parents must be blamed, right? So he’s good with deporting them? Anyhow, we have zero moral obligation to protect the so-called Dreamers. We owe them nothing. Zip. Nada. Dropping the name of Jesus doesn’t somehow make it OK that they came to this nation illegally and continued to reside in the U.S. illegally, all while taking jobs and college placement from U.S. citizens, using up taxpayer money that should go to U.S. citizens, and demanding, Demanding!, that we give them stuff and citizenship.

Our elected officials need to stop trying to pass a large immigration bill that combines protection for Dreamers with other divisive issues, like money for border enforcement and the wall and new rules to limit immigrants’ ability to sponsor family members. Using the plight of Dreamers to introduce measures that otherwise would not pass on their own merits is especially cruel, as it leaves these young people hostage to the wider debate on our broken immigration system.

Instead we need a “clean” Dream Act to help these youths now. After all, the reason Congress is even debating immigration at this point stems from the Dreamers’ own courage in advocating a solution consistent with our best democratic traditions.

Of course he’s going to push for legalization with no accompanying security. The NY Times wouldn’t have give the archbishop a platform otherwise. Security is not divisive: legalization of illegal aliens who aren’t particularly humble nor appreciative is. Tell you what: let’s pass a clean bill. It gives Dreamers legal status for 3 years, then they have to leave, just like so many on legal visas.

If the Dreamers are deported, it will do great harm to this country. According to the (uber far left) Center for Migration Studies of New York, the two million or so young people who could be covered by a Dream Act have integrated successfully into our society. Sixty-five percent work, with over 70,000 self-employed. Eighty-eight percent speak English exclusively, very well or well. Nearly 30 percent have attended college or earned a college degree. They have lived in the United States an average of 14 years and are parents to 392,000 American citizen children. Removing them would hurt our country economically and socially. It is not an option.

The majority haven’t graduated college. But, hey, if I was stealing from the archbishop’s parish for 14 years, that would be OK, right, because it was a long time, right?

At this moment, however, there seems to be no sanity or progress in the pursuit of a solution for the Dreamers. That is why the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is urging all Catholics and others of good will to phone their senators and House members today and implore them to pass the Dream Act. Catholic teaching calls for all people to make a commitment to uphold the dignity of every person and to work for the common good of our nation. It is both our moral duty and in our nation’s best interest to guide our lawmakers in this matter.

Perhaps they could get off their butts and spend the time to do their moral duty to end abortion on demand.

As far as the patriotism part, there’s nothing in the article about it. It’s just a canard in the headline.

That Congress and the Trump administration tried and failed once to protect Dreamers does not let them off the hook. This is not about the next election but about the family next door. We need to restore confidence in our government and in our identity as an immigrant nation by passing a Dream Act.

If you want to restore confidence in our government, then we’d have the government fully enforcing the laws that have been passed. Which means deporting the illegals.