{"id":10887,"date":"2018-01-16T13:30:52","date_gmt":"2018-01-16T21:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=10887"},"modified":"2018-01-16T13:30:52","modified_gmt":"2018-01-16T21:30:52","slug":"what-the-dreamer-fight-is-really-about","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/what-the-dreamer-fight-is-really-about\/","title":{"rendered":"What the ‘Dreamer’ fight is really about"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Op-Ed <\/span><\/div>\n
By Victor Davis Hanson<\/div>\n
Los Angeles Times<\/em><\/div>\n<\/header>\n
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The loud fight over what will happen to America\u2019s \u201cDreamers\u201d isn\u2019t what it seems. For both sides, it\u2019s a fig leaf used to mask their true intentions.<\/p>\n

In his first term, Barack Obama<\/a> admitted that he had no constitutional authority (“I’m president, I\u2019m not king”) to grant amnesties. Yet during his campaign for reelection in 2012 he created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals<\/a> program, which conferred a temporary reprieve from deportation to young people brought to this country as minors.<\/p>\n

Now Democrats<\/a> are demanding the preservation and institutionalization of the DACA program. One day soon, they will likely demand its expansion. They do not control either house of Congress or the presidency. They do not enjoy a majority of state legislatures and governorships. To get their way, they are counting on either favorable public opinion or threats to shut down the government.<\/p>\n

Democrats are so focused on the 800,000 Dreamers \u2014 less than 10% of the undocumented population \u2014 because they\u2019re politically photogenic and for now seen as the easiest group to exempt from efforts to control illegal immigration. In blanket fashion, the media consistently report that they are model youth, fulfilling their proverbial \u201cdreams\u201d of finishing college and achieving upward mobility.<\/p>\n