The topic here is brought to mind by the US Senate's dumping of the DREAM Act recently.

     The DREAM Act is a narrowly focused action that deals with a very limited group of illegal aliens who would qualify for consideration if they meet the following criteria:

· They must be under 30 years of age.

· Have been brought into the US illegally under the age of 16.

· Have been in the US for at least 5 years.

· Must be graduates of US high schools.

     If the above qualifications are met, a conditional visa would be issued and the following additional requirements are as follows:

· They must either complete two years of college education or:

· Serve two years in the US military service.

     After all of the above, they would be eligible for consideration for permanent residency.

     Note that there is nothing automatic about this, and the permanent legal residency would involve the normal thorough vetting. And we are only dealing with around one million individuals here.

     But the typical right wing Republicans, along with enough "Red State" Democrats have managed to scuttle this bill while screaming "amnesty".

     The mentally challenged Senate Minority Leader Mich McConnel wailed, "I do not believe that we should reward illegal behavior". "Illegal behavior"? Whose behavior? It was their parent's behavior! Many of these were only babes in arms whose parents, after getting legal themselves, simply forgot about them.

     I know some of these people. Many can barely speak good Spanish much less read the language. Their culture is as "American" as any native born citizen is. And they go on pursuing a decent life and obeying the laws of the only land that they know.

     But what do these right wingers really want? The Glen Becks, Michele Malkins, Sean Hannitys and Pat Buchanans? They will tell you that they want true border enforcement and punishment for employers who hire illegals. But when you ask them what to do with the 10 million or so illegals now in the US, they grow strangely silent.

     I watched a dialog between Bill O'Reilly and Michele Malkin a while back on this subject. O'Reilly's position was that since the US has ignored its own laws on the books for so long, some consideration should be made for the complicity of the government in this mess. His position was to thoroughly vet these people, require them to pay a reasonable fine, to "keep their noses clean" and be given a place "at the end of the line" for legal residency. Malkin, however, offered only "spin" in the "no spin zone" as too what to do with the illegals.

     In fact, this entire slice of US ideology is strangely silent of exactly where they are as to a solution to the "illegals" problem. OK, let's take the beards off now. The only thing that would satisfy these people is the "round them all up and ship 'em all out" option with no exceptions. But they won't come right out and say it.

     It's a little like the Republicans were at the end of the US civil war as to the "Negro final solution". They did forcibly ship some back to Africa who went on to found Liberia before the process was stopped by Lincoln's successor. But this time, they are being a lot more cagey about their ultimate plans.

     And as for more realistic border enforcement now, it is still a sick joke. Consider the following:

· A Mexican businessman, identified as being infected by the notorious "untreatable TB" infection, managed to cross the border 76 times after he was placed on the no-cross list.

· A government study on the Canadian border was able to cross the border with truckloads of "bomb making" material with no difficulty. In one case, they waited at a remote crossing for one half an hour with no intervention to crossing.

· A large number of the US largest airports failed in spotting "bomb material" in luggage over 50% of the time in another US government study.

· ICE, after delaying the enforcement of the new passport requirements for returning US citizens crossing the Canadian and Mexican borders still has to get their act together.

     It is going to be interesting how this plays out in the 2008 election. Very interesting. Something tells me that the 40% "defection" of the Hispanic vote to the Republican side won't happen this time. This time, it looks like the Republicans are vying for the bigot vote.

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Richard N. Baldwin T., a HispanicVista.com (http://www.hispanicvista.com/) contributing columnist, lives in Tlalnepantla, Edo de México. E-mail at: R1041643422@aol.com