Dream Act Debate between TXSIP Founder Norman Adams and ALIPAC's William Gheen

Norman Adams, founder of Texans for Sensible Immigration Policy, and William Gheen from Americans for Legal Immigration debated the Dream Act on "The KRLD Midday News with Scott Braddock and Mitch Carr." Scott Braddock was the moderator and handled the debate extremely fairly.

Listen to the audio from the radio show debate:

The transcript from the audio is below:

William Gheen on what is bad about the Dream Act:

"Well the main thing is, the Dream Act with displace and misplace millions of innocent American workers, students, and voters that are going to suffer because of the actions taken by the Dream Act. Second, you were absolutely right about our concerns about enforcement of the supposed provisions here, theres no requirement or verification, theres no funding for verification, theres nothing in the bill that gives any assurances. Basically, the way the bill is written, anyone that claims theyre under 35…and claims they were brought here under the age of 16 and claims that they intend to go to college or join the military will be able to sign their name or put their mark on a piece of paper and all of the current federal laws will be waived."

Norman Adams responds to Will Gheen:

"Well first of all William, read the latest draft because they lowered the age from 35 to 30, and they have to have been here before they were 16, and in order to qualify, if they came here before they were 16, they were brought here as children, whether they knew it or not or agreed or not, thats irrelevant, they were brought here as children by their parents who were breaking the law. Now theyre here, weve been educating them, if they complete two years of college, or if they do two years of military service, then they will have fulfilled the requirements. Point is, they have ten years probation time on a temporary permit, and then if they complete the requirements, they have got five years of a secondary level, you can call it permanent residency, but its during that period then, theyre allowed to apply for citizenship. They cannot apply for citizenship for at least 15 years. They cannot bring any relatives in for at least 15 years. There is a lot of false information they put out about the bill. The fourth draft which is going to be on the floor of the Senate today is a good bill and is one that even hard rock conservative Republicans like me can support."

William Gheen on Americans concern that weve spent so much money on these kids already and are just going to flush the money down the toilet if we send them back to whatever country they came from:

"Well that money youre talking about spending, no member of the American public ever consciously decided to make those…it was stolen, yes that money has been stolen, yes those resources have been taken, no the American people have not voted for this, no the congress has not authorized this, and yes there are Republicans and industries that want to make money off of this as well as liberals that want a new voting base. The bottom line to it is, 60% approximately of the American public opposes the Dream Act amnesty concept, while only 22% support, thats a three to one opposition. Congress needs to back away from anymore unpopular legislation, especially considering the fact so may got thrown out on their ears a few days ago."

Norman Adams ending statement:

"Well William, I dont know where youre getting your stats, but with the Arizona Bill, 70% of Americans support it while 82% of those people want a pathway, not to legalization, a pathway to citizenship. This only gives a pathway to legalization and a 15 year probative period, and if they go serve in our military, I think its a good thing. We make these people legal so they can pay taxes, I think thats a good thing. I agree with you on virtually every other position you have politically, but on this one, youre bringing immigration into the debate, and long term, these are Republicans, they are pro-life and traditional marriage. These people are not going to vote Democrat. We need to get them in the Republican Party where they belong."