Originally Posted by Jelly Bean Lover

Ugh, politics is a bargaining process. Setting the bar low from the very beginning is a very bad idea because it would signal to Rubio and the Republicans that they can create a Jim Crow sort of law for Dreamers and get away with it. DA User, you really remind me of a battered wife sometimes, always blaming yourself. You know if you make the demands this rigid on all those other issues, they will not include a provision for people over 30 and you will be out.

I signed the petition Smooth drew up, but I want it known that I don't support or sign onto any list of acceptable conditions that would be spelled out so clearly and start from such a low bargaining point.

You would not go into a car dealership and tell the seller the highest price you would pay on your first offer. Either you would end up paying that price, or, more likely, you would have to pay more to leave with the car. Why agree to more in the beginning? This is exactly what is wrong with immigration law and why it is so screwed up. The Republicans complain and become more extreme and pull everything to the right by banking that they can get supposed supporters of the immigrant community to move with them. Why do you think we have a ten-year ban, or that people now talk about self deportation like it is a rational policy, or why the media calls the undocumented "illegal"? It is because of continual caving to the right. This is the root of all evils in legal and illegal immigration policy.

Set the bar higher and offer only a few unquestionable demands: e.g., we would never support this bill if it barred us from citizenship forever; we would never support this bill if there was not an education provision; we would never support this bill if it does not provide us a way to work legally while we are in the country and allow us to stay and work and live normal lives after obtaining a degree. And leave off the rest of that crap, becuase we don't need to give the far right any help or ideas to treat Dreamers worse than they already are under the law.