Policy

Military Wet DREAM

|

An interesting piece of the struggling immigration bill has been largely overlooked: The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act would enable illegal immigrants to get on the path to citizenship after a day of military service, so long as they were under 16 when they came to the United States and graduated from high school as top students. The provision would make the military happy, since it would open up potential recruiting opportunities to 750,000 eligible illegals (though only to the star students among them). The Boston Globe reports:

Because the bill makes eligible only illegal immigrants considered high quality—high achievers with no criminal histories—the provision has supporters among even those who oppose the overall immigration package and criticize it as "amnesty."

"It is not perfect, but it is far better than some of the ways they are talking about to grant illegals new status here," said retired Air Force Lieutenant General Thomas McInerney, a conservative commentator and military analyst.