Last Dreamer Dies, Dream of Legalization Unrealized

    July 4, 2115 - Geraldine Lopez, the last known so-called Dreamer, died of natural causes at age 108 in Virginia. She was the last of the so-called Dreamers, who signed up in a program set up by Barack Obama, President from 2009-2016. The program was intended to create a path to citizenship for children brought to the United States illegally by their parents, and who grew up in the US knowing no other country. Over the decades it has remained in effect due to a mutiplicity of court cases, decisions, edicts and appeals, but just for those who were in up to 2018. Republicans have used the issue over and over in campaigns, to motivate their dwindling, mostly white rural, base to show up at the polls. Over many, many campaigns, Republicans have cast the aging, and over recent decades diminishing in numbers, Dreamers as everything from dangerous terrorists to lazy moochers.  Most notably, Republicans cast Dreamers, who were never eligible for federal programs, as "abusing freeloaders", and the reason the Republicans, who controlled Congress and the Presidency those years, claimed they "had no choice" but to "reluctantly" end Medicaid and Medicare in 2038, and Social Security in 2040. 

    Republicans have controlled enough votes in the Senate to block immigration reform legislation for the past century. As noted, court cases have kept Dreamers hopes alive all those years. Legal action in the last decade has almost ceased, as federal courts deal with other priorities and Dreamer numbers dropped into the scores or low hundreds. 

    Interviewed in 2110, Geraldine had said that although she had paid taxes,and Social Security taxes up until it was ended, she always supported herself and never applied for aid from the government.  Even when her home in Norfolk was flooded and the city permanently abandoned due to sea level rise and the devastation of Hurricane Donald in 2055.

    She had never given up hope and believed that Congress would pass the reform legislation, saying, "that's why they called us Dreamers".  Geraldine thought that all Dreamers, should receive citizenship, even if it was a posthumous gesture by Congress. She says she was always treated well during her career as an Emergency Medical Technician.

    Republicans declined to comment on her passing on the record for this article. As recently as 2111, GOP Minority Leader Larson E. Cheetum (R-Kentucky) had said the caucus was still not there on any action which might finally seek resolution on this open wound which some call a "disgrace".  Cheetum, said "I support action even at this late date, but I cannot endorse any legislation being currently offered by my liberal colleagues."

    Comments

    You've got a great start here, NCD - really great - keep working to tone it up a bit and it will be outstanding.


    Thanks! Any suggestions welcome!

    I thought losing the house to hurricane Donald was sad, but tragically ironic....


    The first paragraph is a bit confusing, as it both notes that the Dreamer program is no longer in effect yet also implies that Republicans are still using it for political purposes.   Then you write:

    The period was the last time the GOP had control of Congress and the Presidency.

    And yet,

    Republicans have either controlled the Presidency or enough votes in the Senate to block immigration reform legislation for the past century. Court cases have kept Dreamers hopes alive all those decades.

    That last sentence explains the confusion I mentioned in the first graph, so it's just a matter of moving things around a bit, I think.  The part about when and for how long the GOP had control is just in need of clarification regarding what period you're referring to - again, just a time frame issue.

    My larger critique was that your idea is great and it stands.  But like any great start, it just needs to be tweeked.  I do hope that you rely more on your own good instincts than mine!


    Thanks. Worked on it!


    Very well done, congrats!

    (Though I'm still confused about Republicans in control of the presidency and Congress or not, and when?)


    Curiously, anti-immigration central, Breitbart.com, is attacking Speaker Ryan's plan in the extreme as 3 times the size of DACA; here is their current headline story:

    Ryan/Goodlatte

    Immigration Deal:

    Amnesty for Foreign Population Near 3X the

    Size of DACA Program

    An immigration compromise deal rolled out by House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) would give amnesty to a foreign population that is nearly three times the size of President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

    By John Binder


    Interesting splits in Trump voters on immigration policy in Pew polls from late 2016--on several things, they countered Trump/Bannon extremes, this is probably why Trump played with different sides on DACA and also why there is this Breitbart wing vs. Ryan wing feud now. My underlining:

    Trump voters want to build the wall, but are more divided on other immigration questions

    By John Gramlich @ Factank @ PewResearch.org, Nov. 29, 2016

    [....] But while 79% of pro-Trump registered voters said in an August survey that they favored building a wall on the Mexican border, they did not take as hard a line when it came to the status of those who are already living in the U.S. illegally.

    In an October survey, 60% of voters who supported Trump said undocumented immigrants should be able to stay in the U.S. if they meet certain requirements, compared with 37% who said they should not. Only about a third (32%) of Trump supporters said there should be a “national law enforcement effort to deport” all undocumented immigrants.

    Trump supporters also did not indicate a high level of concern about unauthorized immigrants taking jobs from U.S. citizens when surveyed in August. Nearly six-in-ten (58%) said unauthorized immigrants “mostly fill jobs American citizens don’t want.” (In 2014, the most recent year for which data are available, there were 8 million unauthorized immigrants either working or looking for work in the U.S., according to Pew Research Center estimates based on government data.) [....]


    White House walks back Trump's rejection of immigration compromise

    By Julie Grace Brufke @ TheHIll.com- 06/15/18 02:06 PM EDT

    President Trump in fact supports both of the House GOP immigration bills expected to receive votes next week and misspoke earlier Friday when he said that he would oppose a compromise measure between centrists and conservatives, a White House official told The Hill.

    "Yes, we fully support both the Goodlatte bill and the Leadership bill. The President misunderstood the question this morning on Fox News," the source said in an email. "He was commenting on the discharge petition/dreamers bill — not the new package. He would 100 percent sign either Goodlatte or the other bill."

    Centrists had tried to use a discharge petition to force leadership to move on four different immigration proposals [....]

    Sounds to me like: don't listen to what he says, until something passes, then he'll be taking credit for whatever it is, that you should listen to. cheeky 



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