ProEnglish Urges Consideration of CBO Score Before Congress Votes on Costly DREAM Act Amnesty

December 1, 2010

To interview ProEnglish Executive Director Jayne Cannava contact Phil Kent (404) 226-3549 or email  philkent@philkent.com

ARLINGTON, VA.—“Congress should not be voting on any mass amnesty legislation without being fully aware of the cost estimate from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office,” said ProEnglish Executive Director Jayne Cannava.  “This evening, Rep. Steve King of Iowa sent arequest to CBO Director Doug Elmendorf that he release the cost analysis of the DREAM Act before the House or the Senate moves to consider it for a vote on the floor after the legislation was rumored to carry a staggering price tag of $20 billion.”

ProEnglish opposes the DREAM Act because it would grant amnesty to millions of non-English-speaking and limited-English-proficient illegal aliens without requiring specific steps to learn English.  This will dramatically increase demands for costly taxpayer-funded multilingual government services, such as multilingual voting ballots, driver’s license tests in multiple languages, translations for official documents and school textbooks, and government-mandated interpreters.

“A lame duck congress has no business rushing through drastic changes to longstanding immigration policy.  The DREAM Act would grant amnesty to over 2.1 million illegal aliens and facilitate eventual entry of hundreds of thousands of their extended family members,” said Cannava.  “Passing this bill without first considering the CBO cost analysis would undermine the American taxpayer and further erode the American people’s waning confidence in their government.”

“A recent Public Opinion Research poll conducted on behalf of the Federation for American Immigration Reform found that 59 percent of respondents want the lame duck Congress to focus on unresolved tax and budget issues, not divisive social issues like the DREAM Act,” Cannava said.

“We hope there is effective bipartisan pressure in the House of Representatives and the Senate to derail this bill, especially since it does not contain a requirement that the newly legalized immigrants learn English,” concluded Cannava.