In a vitriolic opinion piece yesterday, a writer for the influential conservative group Heritage Foundation slammed the “unseemly” efforts of Dreamers to advocate for immigration legislation while comparing them to “shoplifters” who are “in possession of stolen property.”
In a piece titled “The ‘Dreamers’ Have No Right to Demand Anything,” published on the Heritage Foundation’s Daily Signal website, Peter Parisi writes of the “galling ingratitude” of Dreamers who are demanding a clean Dream Act bill in Congress.
Parisi writes:
Can we just say it? There’s something unseemly—and unsavory—about anyone who is in the country illegally “demanding” anything.
Emboldened by eight years of President Barack Obama’s de minimis efforts to stem the tide of illegal immigrants flooding into the country, the estimated 700,000 “Dreamers” in effect are saying, “We have a right to stay.”
No, they don’t.
Is this any different than shoplifters demanding that they be allowed to keep what they—or, in this case, their illegal-immigrant parents—have stolen?
No, it isn’t.
There are laws on the books against being in possession of stolen property, even if you weren’t the one who stole that property.
Heritage, despite its reputation as a staid think tank, has taken a number of extreme anti-immigrant positions, including arguing that Congress can bypass the courts and end the Constitution’s guarantee of birthright citizenship with a simple resolution.
