Question: When it comes to the innocent children of undocumented immigrants, who is less caring, less thoughtful, and more willing to pander to the extreme right than Orrin Hatch, Sam Brownback and Trent Lott?
Answer: Oregon Senator Gordon Smith.
On Wednesday, Gordon Smith filibustered the DREAM Act, designed to give a limited group of children of undocumented immigrants a chance to go to college, serve in the military and perhaps earn legal status.
Even some usually hard right conservatives like Orrin Hatch, Sam Brownback and Trent Lott supported giving these children, graduates of American high schools, an opportunity to go to college, serve in the military, and perhaps earn citizenship. Whatever your views on immigration, these children are no threat to the American way of life. But in order to have some red meat to pander to the far right, Gordon Smith voted to punish these children.
As the New York Times explained, the DREAM Act would have only affected “children who entered the country before age 16, lived here continuously for at least five years and can show good moral character and a high school diploma. They would receive conditional legal status for six years, during which they could work, go to college and serve in the military. If they completed at least two years of college or military service, they would be eligible for legalization.”
In contrast to this week’s vote, Smith in the past has supported legislation (such as S. 1814, introduced in 1999) to allow undocumented agricultural workers to obtain legal status.
Should we conclude that the owner of Smith Frozen Foods believes that agricultural work is inherently better preparation for legal residence than going to high school and college, or serving in the military? Or is this just a crude political calculation – ‘I’ve left my right flank vulnerable on the war, let’s shore it up by voting against some immigrant kids’?
