Nuestro Comandante en el Jefe
If you need a translation, ask Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin. I’m sure he could help. Earlier this week, during a Congressional hearing on the DREAM Act, Durbin asked hundreds of illegal aliens who had packed the room to stand and be recognized. One of them, Durbin said, could very well become the country’s next president. This from CNSNews:
“When I look around this room, I see America’s future, our doctors, our teachers, our nurses, our engineers, our scientists, our soldiers, our congressmen, our senators, and maybe our president,” Durbin said immediately after having asked all young persons in the room to stand if they were currently undocumented aliens who would be eligible to become citizens if the DREAM Act were passed.
Of course, even with the dreamy citizenship largess, there’s that pesky Constitution thing that would have to be handled.
As the U.S. Constitution now stands, even legal immigrants are not eligible to serve as president. Article 2, Section 1, Clause 5 of the Constitution says: “No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President.”
“Opponents of this bill say they sympathize with DREAM Act students, but they criticize the bill and offer no alternative,” Durbin said after stating his belief that one of the illegal-alien students might become president someday.
“Do they want these young people to leave, to go back to countries where they may never have lived or don’t remember, or to continue living in the shadows and in doubt about the future?” said Durbin.
Living in the shadows? Not exactly. The hearing was also attended by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, whose department is, um, well, responsible for enforcing the nation’s immigration laws.
Durbin began Tuesday’s hearing, held by the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, by personally introducing a number of the illegal aliens by name, citing elements of their personal histories. He then asked for all the illegal aliens in the room who would qualify for an amnesty under the Dream Act—and who thus call themselves “Dreamers”–to stand up so they could be recognized.
The majority of the people in the room then stood up—just behind Napolitano who was seated at the witness’s table in front of the senators on the subcommittee…
In her own introductory remarks, Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano said: “It simply doesn’t make sense from a law enforcement perspective to expend limited law enforcement resources on young people who pose no threat to public safety, have grown up here and want to contribute to our country by serving in the military or going to college.”
“Yet as long as there are no legal options available for them to adjust their immigration status, they will be part of the population subject to immigration enforcement,” said Napolitano.
Unless, you know, they’re standing smack behind the secretary of homeland security, waiting to be president or something. In which case, not so much immigration enforcement.
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