DACA, Dreamers, and the Draft
Amidst the calls/demands for amnesty and citizenship for the illegal aliens referred to as DACA recipients/Dreamers, there is one fundamental issue that has not been discussed.
With a very few exceptions, under our Selective Service laws all males in the United States between the ages of 18-25 are required to register with the Selective Service. At the Selective Service System website there is a chart that lists those who must register; on that list is “Undocumented immigrants.”
Some time back I came across a Selective Service brochure at our post office. The brochure included the following information:
Who Must Register? Male U.S. citizens and immigrants, documented and undocumented, residing in the U.S. and its territories must register if they are age 18 through 25.
Men are required to register within 30 days of their 18th birthday. Once men reach their 26th birthday, they can no longer register…
What Happens If I Don’t Register? Not registering is a felony. Young men prosecuted and convicted of failure to register may be fined up to $250,000, imprisoned for up to five years, or both. Failure to register also may cause men to permanently lose eligibility for financial aid… and U.S. citizenship for male immigrants.
This means that any male Dreamer age 18-25 who has not registered with Selective Service has committed a felony, as have those who are over age 25 but never registered with Selective Service.
So keep this information in mind when you hear about how these folks were brought into the United States through no cause of their own and are innocent victims of our immigration system. It is safe to say that tens of thousands of them have personally committed a felony, one of the possible penalties for which prohibits them from being given U.S. citizenship.
Should Congress and President Trump ignore this matter and grant amnesty and citizenship to these particular male Dreamers, they will be creating a new class of citizens who have been rewarded for committing a felony. This is not a good situation for a nation that is based on the idea of equality in the eyes of the law.
Stephen M. Kirby PhD, is the author of five books, and numerous articles and brochures about Islam. His website is IslamSeries.org.