A year ago, the Dreamers and their advocates were in the streets with signs protesting President Trump’s immigration policy, demanding immediate citizenship, and declaring an open borders agenda with absolutely no wall. They had nearly everything they needed to succeed – a vocal constituency, not afraid to march into the Capitol and scream at the top of their voices, plenty of Soros money to fund their agenda, and a sympathetic media which put them in the best light in every situation.

What they didn’t have was a Barack Hussein, who could decree, by executive order, rulings in their favor. Instead, they were forced to deal with President Donald Trump, not the most sympathetic leader to their cause. Trump chose to favor American citizens over illegal immigrants. Imagine that!

Their last hope of salvation was placed (or rather misplaced) in the minority bloc of Democrats in Congress (thank you, Barack Hussein, for making Democrats the minority bloc in Congress). Maybe they could wield the power to push the Dreamer agenda to success.

Perhaps not. One misguided attempt at shutting down the government to screw Mom and Pop America was seen for what it was – Democrats favoring illegal immigrants over American citizens. Even the formerly fawning media was blaming the shutdown on Senate Minority Leader Schmuck Schumer who was able to endure the weight of the 500-pound albatross around his neck for a total of two days before unconditional surrender to President Trump and the Republicans.

If the Dreamers didn’t know their hopes were on thin ice prior to the government shutdown, they certainly know it now.

In summary, a year ago Dreamers were demanding immediate citizenship and no border wall so that even more illegal immigrants could simply wade across our southern border.

Fast forward a year and their tune has changed considerably. Suddenly, many Dreamers favor a border wall. The reason is clear. Without conceding the border wall, this new, tough sheriff in town may very well have them on a fast plane to Mexico. They know that now. The Democrat Party, in some very serious trouble of its own right now, cannot help them.

The Dreamers are not to blame for this mess and they should not be forced to pay the price.

This crisis was caused by Democrats importing voters, and three presidents standing by and allowing it to happen – Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Hussein.

All Bill Clinton ever wanted was a blow job. He didn’t have time to worry about illegal immigration. Bring ’em on in and get ’em voting.

Bush only wanted to wear the hat. He was sandwiched between two Democrat presidents and could have done much to stem the creep of socialism. But, he didn’t.

Barack Hussein, by all appearances, genuinely wanted to destroy America. I cannot think of a single Hussein initiative that favored the American people.

But, none of that was the fault of the Dreamers. They are innocent victims, brought to the United States as children or infants. America is their home, the only one most of them have ever known. English is the only language many of them speak. How can we be so cold as to deport them without giving them an opportunity to become citizens, frankly something they should have done many years ago, but living in the shadows as they were, I understand why they didn’t.

So, with the dust beginning to settle, it appears as though there will be some sort of pathway to citizenship offered the Dreamers. The remaining question is what will it look like. It could be anything from total, immediate, and unconditional amnesty to a pathway to citizenship similar to that which is offered to legal immigrants. Or, it could be even more strict, a process I favor which I outlined in an article I wrote on the subject a few days ago, excerpted here….

Following is a plan I would support. These are my own ideas on a fair pathway to citizenship, and it is NOT a gimme….

  1. The clock starts upon the immigrant’s application for a resident visa, renewable annually.
  2. Upon visa renewal application, immigrants must provide their employment record or proof of school attendance for the past year. Excessive idle time may be grounds for disqualification.
  3. Immigrants may apply for citizenship five years after receipt of their resident visa.
  4. Immigrants must pass a background check and citizenship exam on American history and culture, the United States Constitution, and our political system and leaders.
  5. This point I would make non-negotiable, as it is what got us into this problem in the first place…. Immigrants (in this Dreamer program only) may not vote in US elections for a period of 10 years after being granted citizenship.
  6. Failure to meet the above requirements will result in deportation, which may be appealed ONCE before the deportation process begins.
  7. Failure to apply for a resident visa within 30 days of the implementation of the program will trigger the deportation process. Once deported, the immigrant may still apply for a visa like all other immigrants who wish to become American citizens, but must go to the back of the line.

If immigrants want to live in America, they MUST become Americans, a process they should have begun long ago.

Reference condition #5 – being granted the “privilege” to vote is what convinced Democrats to invite as many illegal immigrants into the United States as possible over the past several decades, knowing they will likely vote Democrat. That incentive must be removed or Democrats will always be looking for new and creative ways to sneak illegals into the country. Any serious immigration plan, in my opinion, must include this condition.

Keep in mind that many Dreamers will protest this plan which they will consider excessively strict. That doesn’t matter. They can carry signs and whine (the sign and whine routine) all they want. If they fail to meet the requirements of the program, they will be deported.

From the San Francisco Chronicle

When Gerardo Gomez of San Francisco opens Facebook these days, he is often confronted by posts raising the same question — one that is largely theoretical but has generated unusually fierce debate in the community of immigrants known as “Dreamers” to which he belongs.

Would they accept President Trump’s wall at the U.S.-Mexico border if it meant citizenship for the nearly 700,000 people protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program?

“It’s usually, ‘I’m willing to have a wall if I stay,’ or ‘Would you be OK with having a wall if it means citizenship?’” said Gomez, who came to the United States from Mexico at age 3 and will see his DACA status expire in August unless Congress emerges from negotiations with a fix.

The debate is a sign of the profound worry gripping DACA recipients, whose protections were established by former President Barack Obama but are being phased out by Trump. It also exposes the raw feelings about the wall, which is seen as a symbol of Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda on both the left and right.

While the outlines of the immigration debate remain fuzzy and fluid in Washington, Gomez sometimes feels compelled to step into the social-media fray, to tell others why they’re mistaken in their instinct to entertain a trade-off.

“I’m just as undocumented as the rest of the community,” he responded once on Facebook, referring to all immigrants who lack permanent residency, “and I’m unwilling to criminalize them in exchange for my work permit.”

Almost immediately, he recalled, comments began popping up in opposition.

“You’ll be the first one in line to apply” if there’s a compromise, read one posting. Others said, “You’re a bad example” and “You’re trying to ruin this for us,’” recalled Gomez, a 23-year-old fellow at Pangea Legal Services in San Francisco. He’s heard such sentiments in person, too.

For some DACA recipients, he said, the idea of the wall doesn’t seem as toxic. At times he feels like a minority voice for seeing the wall as “a racist symbol.”

Ana Rodriguez, a 26-year old who lives in Union City and works at a day care center, expressed a different perspective. She said thinking about the prospect of a life without a work permit and protection from deportation — which DACA now provides her through October — can be too much.

How would she be able to make a life for herself, she asks, and to have a family?

“If building a wall leads us to having citizenship, then I’m all for it,” Rodriguez said. “The U.S. is what I know and that’s where I want to live my life — I want to be a part of it in full.”

These conversations are sure to deepen, especially after the Trump administration this week proposed to offer citizenship to 1.8 million young immigrants, including those who have DACA, in exchange for $25 billion for a border wall, along with a bevy of policies to restrict legal immigration.

Democratic politicians like California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, along with immigrant advocacy groups, have come out hard against the deal, at times focusing on the wall.

“It would be far cheaper to erect a 50-foot concrete statue of a middle finger and point it towards Latin America,” tweeted Rep. Luis Gutierrez, a Democrat from Illinois. “Both a wall and the statue would be equally offensive and equally ineffective and both would express Trump’s deeply held suspicion of Latinos.”

But in a year of uncertainty over their future, some DACA recipients are coming to grips with what they would be willing to stomach it if it meant a path to citizenship.

Marissa Montes, co-director of the Loyola Immigrant Justice Clinic in Los Angeles, said the uncertainty has worn down the “Dreamers” who walk into her clinic.

“I think it’s a culmination of an entire life experience. These are kids who have tried to do the best they could to prove they are part of this country. This past year has tested them,” she said.

Montes has noticed in recent weeks that recipients have sounded more and more likely to back a wall — and even, at times, cuts to family-based migration that Trump and other conservatives favor — in exchange for citizenship.

“It’s coming from a point of exhaustion — they’ve tried everything,” Montes said. “Their instinct is survival and as human beings, how much longer can they endure this? They’re pingponging back and forth.”

Gomez said, “It comes from fear and anxiety.”

The program, implemented by Obama in 2012, allowed immigrants who came to the country before the age of 16, and who had lived in the country continuously since 2007 with no significant criminal convictions, to receive renewable, two-year protections from deportation along with work permits.

Many enrolled in the program have thrived, and studies have shown that DACA has allowed recipients to earn more money and to help their families financially.

Trump announced in September he was phasing out the program, and without a compromise some DACA recipients will lose protection starting in March.

With time running short, Rodriguez said, “I’m sure a lot of us will say go ahead and build the wall if that’s what’s gonna let us continue living our lives.”

She added, “We just want to live in peace like everyone else.”

I contest that last sentence. Only a year ago, advocates for illegal immigration (that’s right, there were actual advocates for crime) were screaming at the top of their lungs for open borders, immediate, unconditional amnesty, and many even insisted that half of the United States did not belong to America, but rather to Mexico, and they demanded that Mexico annex that territory. There were advocates, even Mexican leaders, who laughed about their clear intention of overwhelming and overtaking the United States through illegal immigration and expected Americans to sit idly by and allow their country to be taken.

So, the statement, “We just want to live in peace like everyone else” is not entirely true. At least, it hasn’t been in the past. If Dreamers now see the future as immigrants fully assimilating into American culture, that is fantastic. It is all Americans ever asked for to begin with – immigrate legally and assimilate into our culture, i.e., become actual Americans.