Kris Kobach: No, We Don’t Have to Do a DACA or DREAM Amnesty

On Tuesday, President Trump hosted a rare televised meeting at the White House between Republican and Democratic lawmakers regarding a bill to grant an amnesty for the more than 886,000 illegal aliens covered by President Obama’s illegal DACA (“Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals”) executive action.

... We don’t have to do anything for the 886,000 people who enrolled in DACA, or the 3.25 million similar aliens covered by the Democrats’ DREAM Act.

Granting an amnesty to the DACA aliens would be a profoundly bad policy that would hurt American workers and American taxpayers. They are not kids; they are mostly young adults in their 20s and 30s. Their average age is 24. And they are competing for jobs against young Americans in the same age group.... Why in the world would we want to give legal status to nearly a million illegal aliens so they can compete against our own citizens in the same age group?

Granting an amnesty would also be very costly to American taxpayers. It’s estimated that the net cost of the DREAM Act amnesty for the larger group of 3.25 million aliens would be $26 billion, even after taking into account any taxes that the aliens would pay. That’s explained, in part, by the fact that about 20 percent would go on food stamps after the amnesty made them eligible for it.

And then there’s the fact that every time an amnesty is granted, it causes a surge in illegal immigration.... The 1986 amnesty for 2.7 million illegal aliens was followed by a surge in illegal immigration that lasted into the 1990s.  It is estimated that 700,000 illegal aliens fraudulently applied for and received the amnesty. That is in addition to the 398,000 fraudulent applications that the INS discovered and rejected.

...  In 2013 illegal border crossings more than doubled when the Senate deliberated on the proposed Gang of Eight amnesty....

Complicating the picture further was the President’s statement that “when this group comes back … with an agreement, I’m signing it. ...  As a matter of bargaining, the President appeared to be giving away any leverage that he had. But perhaps the President is one step ahead.  It may be that he knows that Congress won’t be able to agree on the terms a deal, and he’s making clear that the failure can’t be attributed to him.

Either way, Republican Members of Congress are going to need to hold firm....