Md Dream Act: Republicans Paint Themselves Into A Corner

Last week, WBAL TV’s David Collins reported that Maryland’s top Republicans, state party chairman Alex Mooney and Senate minority leader Nancy Jacobs, voted in favor of a bill granting in-state tuition to children of undocumented immigrants in 2003.  Then-Gov. Ehrlich vetoed that bill, but now Mr. Mooney and Sen. Jacobs are key supporters of a referendum to repeal a more stringent version signed into law this year.

Their leaders’ hypocrisy isn’t the Maryland GOP’s only Dream Act problem, however.  In their anti-Dream Act zeal, Maryland Republicans have painted themselves into a corner from which none of them could ever credibly support the Dream Act’s original signer and steadfast supporter, who will very likely be a leading 2012 GOP presidential contender……

No matter how phony Rick Perry‘s self-proclaimed “Texas Miracle” has proven to be, liberals will love one thing he did in his first term that worked out really well for his whole state, and that he has defended with integrity ever since.  And just like Mitt Romney will never wiggle himself free of the mandatory universal health care he enacted as governor of Massachusetts, no amount of longhorn bravado will save Rick Perry from Republican voters’ bile when they find out about this one.

Of course I’m talking about the Texas Dream Act, in-state college tuition for children of undocumented immigrants who graduate from Texas high schools.  In 2001 Gov.  Rick Perry signed the nation’s first Dream Act into law.  Eleven states have followed, but none as successfully as Texas.  It has delivered much more than a shot at the American dream for innocent children of illegal immigrants whom we all can agree should not be punished for the actions of their parents and who have grown up as American children. 

Rick Perry has defended the Texas Dream Act ever since.  It’s not just the right thing to do for children caught in a situation not of their own creation, but it also makes good business sense.  Dream Act beneficiaries who earn degrees can and do find paths to citizenship through marriage and other ways, and many find decent paying jobs, keeping them off dependency and away from crime and violence.  A few credible studies have tracked enrollment and graduation rates in Dream Act states, but no study to date has tracked post-college employment. 

Even if we make our borders impermeable, an estimated twelve million undocumented immigrants are already here, and any politician who says there’s a feasible way to deport that many people is lying.   (Deporting people who aren’t criminals—especially innocent children who have grown up American—would be despicable.)   Face it; they’re here, they’re not leaving, and the Dream Act is good for your bottom line.

Whether you weld steel for a living, sell cars, care for the ill, grow food, rent real estate, trade stocks or wait tables, you need enough people earning enough money to pay for your service or product, and like the waves of immigrants that fueled our growth through the last century, today’s immigrants promise tomorrow’s prosperity. 

There’s been lots of hot air about preserving tax breaks for extremely wealthy “job creators” who have been anything but that over the past decade.  The real job creators are people with enough money to redo their kitchens, buy new grills or nifty whatevers, or bicycles, or go out for dinner every now and then.  No one gets a  new job or a long overdue raise or grows her business unless the real job creators have money to spend.  Their earning capacity is fuel that drives our consumption economy.

To have another true American Miracle, we’ll need all the job creators we can get, spawned by smart economic moves such as enabling the innocent children of undocumented immigrants to go to college, get better jobs, become consumers and help renew our prosperity.

- Steve Lebowitz, Annapolis

Credit due: The Baltimore Sun’s Annie Linskey first reported Sen. Jacobs’ Dream Act reversal in a March 15, 2011 story.