Backlash from nativists delays DREAM Act

[struggle4progress]

... Compassion, as it turns out, was not integral to the new politics ...

The populist campaign against illegal immigrants abides no special exception for young innocents, even honor students.

Politicians who know better seem cowed by the campaign against the DREAM Act, which would allow undocumented graduates of U.S. high schools without criminal records to attend college or join the military with a path toward legal residency. (Iowa governor-elect Terry Branstad further exploited the nativist mood, suggesting his state bar children of illegal immigrants from K-12 public schools.)

Even a few politicians from South Florida have found it expedient to diss the DREAM Act. U.S. Senator-elect Marco Rubio and U.S. Rep.-elect David Rivera, both sons of immigrants, oppose it. George LeMieux, the appointed U.S. Senator from Broward, a lame duck with nothing to lose, said he couldn't support the DREAM Act ``until we have taken substantial and effective measures to secure our borders.'' LeMieux well knows the long, vulnerable Mexican border will always provide an excuse to say no ...

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/11/20/1936058/backlash-from-nativists-delays.html