AMERICAN FREEDOM by BARBARA

Gingrich joins growing chorus for immigration reform....

Calls DREAM Act 'useful'


'We are not going to deport 11 million people,'
Newt Gingrich said Thursday.

In an article appearing on Politico’s website, Newt Gingrich joined the growing chorus calling for immigration reform. Gingrich said some parts of the DREAM Act are "useful”. Gingrich also stated: "We are not going to deport 11 million people.” Gingrich also believed that the process of hiring should be as easy as “swiping a credit card” for the employer to quickly determine the eligibility status of a worker’s ability to be legally employed.
Critics of Gingrich accuse these statements as only trying to appeal to the fastest growing political constituency in the nation – the Hispanic community. An area where in recent elections conservative candidates have only managed to make small gains and democrats continue to be appealing most to these voters. Nonetheless, these comments appear to be one of the first genuine conservative approaches to reforming our nation’s broken immigration system. The main problem obviously is Gingrich is no longer a member of Congress and can only cast an opinion, not a vote.

Majority Leader, Harry Reid (D-NV), expressed on Friday that he intends to bring the DREAM Act to the Senate floor this upcoming week for a vote. Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, has already publicly sent key Senators a letter stating his support for the DREAM Act. One excerpt from that letter reads as follows:

"There is a rich precedent supporting the service of non-citizens in the U.S. military. Since the Revolutionary War, non-citizens have enlisted in the armed forces for service during periods of national emergency. Today, about 35,000 non-citizens serve, and about 8,000 permanent resident aliens enlist every year. The DREAM Act represents an opportunity to expand this pool, to the advantage of military recruitment and readiness."