What Kind of Information Do Lawmakers Get Besides Lou Dobbs?

Aside from radio and television news/entertainment, Congressmen and Senators have limited access to what is really going on with DREAM ACT Students. CRS Reports are one way people in Washington, D.C. get information. Below is an excerpt on the DREAM ACT.

If you want to read the whole thing, a link is posted below. Can you imagine how Senators make decisions that affect people's lives this way, and all they have are some hysterical newscasters and a 10 page CRS Report for Congress?
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Below is the "Pro and Con" section of a Congressional Report from January 2007 titled:

Unauthorized Alien Students: Issues and "DREAM Act" Legislation
CRS Report for Congress RLS 33863


"For the DREAM ACT

Those who favor DREAM Act proposals to repeal §505 and grant LPR status to unauthorized alien students offer a variety of arguments. They maintain that it is both fair and in the U.S. national interest to enable unauthorized alien students who graduate from high school to continue their education. And they emphasize that large numbers will be unable to do so unless they are eligible for in-state tuition rates at colleges in their states of residence.

Advocates for unauthorized alien students argue that many of them were brought into the United States at a very young age and should not be held responsible for the decision to enter the country illegally. According to these advocates, may of the students have spent most of their lives in the United States and have few, if any, ties to their countries of origin. They argue that these special circumstances demand that the students be granted humanitarian relief in the form of LPR status.

Against the DREAM ACT

Those who oppose making unauthorized alien students eligible for in-state tuition or legal status emphasize that the students and their families are in the United States illegally and should be removed from the country. They object to using U.S. taxpayer money to subsidize the education of individuals (through the granting of in-state tuition rates) who are in the United States in violation of the law. They maintain that funding the education of these students should be the responsibility of their parents or their home countries. They further argue that it is unfair to charge unauthorized alien students in-state tuition, while charging some U.S. citizens higher out-of-state rates.

More broadly, these opponents argue that granting benefits to unauthorized alien students rewards lawbreakers and, thereby, undermines the U.S. immigration system. In their view, the availability of benefits, especially LPR status, will encourage more illegal immigration into the country."


For the entire report: http://trac.syr.edu/immigration/library/P1606.pdf