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The DREAM Act: Causing, not solving, a problem

by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) - 05/09/11 6:42 PM ET

The DREAM Act perpetuates the problem it claims to solve and penalizes citizens and legal immigrants. Once they become citizens, illegal immigrants could petition for their parents to be legalized. The parents could then bring in others in an endless chain.

This would undoubtedly encourage more illegal immigration.

If the United States grants amnesty to those who were brought here illegally by their parents without first enforcing our immigration laws, we will have to deal with this problem again in the future.

The president wasn’t able to pass the DREAM Act when he had large Democratic majorities in the House and Senate because of bipartisan opposition. And American families opposed it, too.

The American people want Congress to focus on creating jobs and getting Americans back to work. For the past 22 months, the unemployment rate has stayed around 9 percent. At the same time, seven million individuals work illegally in the U.S. Amnesty will only give illegal immigrants a legal right to scarce jobs and encourage more illegal immigrants who are hoping for yet another round of amnesty.

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

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