December 12, 2007

Joseph Berger/NYT promotes DREAM Act, largely ignores impact

Joseph Berger of the New York Times offers "Debates Persist Over Subsidies for Immigrant College Students". It's in their "On Education" section, which is apparently exempt from their "tough" journalistic standards and thus the fact that it's basically an editorial in favor of the anti-American DREAM Act isn't that much of a concern.

While not a PIIPP, it does come close in that it profiles two sympathetic students, both of whom - surprise! - are high achievers. The most noteworthy aspect is that he doesn't explore the downsides of the bill, which would include letting illegal aliens take college discounts from U.S. citizens. In fact, only one sentence - a quote from Mitt Romney ("Illegals are not going to get taxpayer-funded breaks that are better than our own citizens") - discusses the downsides of the bill. Berger "forgot" to include the part where Romney tried to point out that "there's only so much money to go around" and that giving discounts to illegal aliens takes them away from U.S. citizens.

And, in fact, near the end the article turns into an overt advertisement:

When illegal immigrants do graduate from college, they still cannot find skilled jobs except underground. For the undocumented, a Social Security card would trump a diploma. That's why champions of legalization for the undocumented are staking their hopes on the stalled federal Dream Act. The bill, an acronym for Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors, would explicitly grant illegal immigrants enrolling in college six years of conditional residency that would enable them to work, drive and possibly be eligible in more states for in-state tuition. What's better, it would enable a student who completes two years of college to apply for a permanent resident’s green card.

Given how hard two years of college can be, that bill could hardly be considered an amnesty, particularly since the students were not to blame for their illegal entry in the first place.

Of course it's an amnesty, because that's how it will be perceived. And, it will send a loud message to millions of people around the world that all they need to do is come here illegally and we'll provide college discounts, even if it means taking them away from our own citizens.

Please write Clark Hoyt - Public Editor with your thoughts: public *at* nytimes.com

Posted to Immigration2007b at December 12, 2007 01:04 PM