Dream Act - Hunger strike a lost cause

I seldom agree with the Houston "Comical," but Lisa Faulkenbergs hit the nail on the head with this article.

Senator Hutchison's staff evidently has not read the latest draft of the Dream Act!

Dear Lucy Martinez, I heard you on a radio interview earlier this week talking about why you're starving yourself in the DREAM Act hunger strike at the University of Texas at San Antonio that has now reached 29 days. You said that you can no longer walk, you've had to seek medical attention, but that you're not giving up on convincing U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison to support your only chance at leading a productive life in this country.

I respect your conviction. But here's some advice: Rush to the nearest all-you-can-eat buffet, grab a fork and end this futile campaign.

Hutchison is a lost cause, and her lack of integrity on this issue makes Gov. Rick Perry look like a great humanitarian. At least Perry, in a gubernatorial debate earlier this year, didn't shy away from his support of in-state tuition for illegal immigrants who graduate from Texas high schools. The governor unflinchingly defended the policy to make higher education available to as many Texas students as possible.

2007 Senate speech

Hutchison, meanwhile, is so fearful of political ramifications that she's unwilling to support a bill before Congress this week that isn't much different from the one she fought for in 2007. She's talking (or rather, not talking) like a politician running for re-election. She may have played the role of compassionate conservative in the past, and perhaps the words of her 2007 floor speech are still echoing in your ears:

"There are young people who have been brought to this country as minors, not of their own doing, who have gone to American high schools, graduated, and who want to go to American colleges ... They are in a limbo situation. I believe we should deal with this issue. We should do it in a way that helps assimilate these young people with a college education into our country. They have lived here most of their lives. If we sent them home, they wouldn't know what home is."

But since then, Texas' senior senator seems to have undergone the same form of ideological lobotomy that has so relieved Sen. John McCain of his mavericky attributes.

She will no longer talk to DREAM Act protesters. Her staff releases a nonsensical statement that reads like a Michelle Malkin blog post. And when I called, and called, and e-mailed to see what she thought about the newest version of the bill that addresses her concerns, her staff wouldn't respond.

Hutchison has sold out before. But voting against the nomination of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor didn't really hurt anybody. This is different.

I know a 19-year-old college sophomore might not fully understand what you're up against here. And the absurd arguments from the other side might mislead you into thinking you stand a chance.

They argue the bill is rushed. But it's been around a decade, in various forms, which have only grown increasingly palpable for the anti-immigrant set.

They argue the bill rewards bad behavior. But youngsters like you, Lucy, have done nothing wrong. Even critics acknowledge that. They argue you'll bring your aunts and great-uncles, and a whole chain of family members. But the bill specifically bans this. More than a decade after passage, you'd finally be eligible to apply for citizenship, and all citizens have the right to petition for immediate family members. But the ones living here illegally, like your mother who brought you when you were 6, would have to return to Mexico for 10 years before she'd be eligible.

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