Rahmbo Still Has a DREAM & Wants to Make It Come True in Chicago

In order to regain his liberal cred and get elected in the extremely liberal city of Chicago, Mayoral candidate and Obama's former Chief-of-Staff is looking to enact part of the federal DREAM Act in the Windy City, since it failed in the last Congress' lame duck session :

In recent months, former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has been widely criticized by immigration reform advocates who say he did not throw enough support behind the DREAM Act when he was in Washington. Emanuel has disputed those claims, and is now out to prove just how much he supports giving the children of immigrants a chance to attend college in the United States.

The Chicago for Rahm campaign issued a press release Thursday evening touting Emanuel's plan for immigration reform...in Chicago.

"Just because Congress has yet to pass the Dream Act doesn't mean we will wait for progress in Chicago," Emanuel said in a statement. "All children in Chicago deserve to have access to a quality education, and we will make sure they have that opportunity."

Emanuel's plan would not provide a path to citizenship as a national DREAM Act would, but would "allow these children to access the same financial aid opportunities as every other child," according to his campaign.

Of course, he is debating that this is about helping young people to afford to go to college by giving them small-interest loans. He plans to pay for this by "raising" it from "business and civic leaders".

I just wonder what "raising" means. Does this mean some sort of tax, or is he expecting them to freely give it to the city for the cause?

If the Chicago DREAM Act comes to be, Emanuel's campaign said a Chicagoan must meet the following criteria:

* Moved to Chicago before the age of 16...
* Resided in Chicago for at least five consecutive years prior to application for DREAM Status.
* Be a student in good standing at an elementary or high school in Chicago - public, private or religious.
* Be between the ages of 12 and 25 at the time of application.
* Be a law-abiding Chicagoan.

There may be some that will contest this on the grounds that American tax money may go to help illegal immigrants, but this will be largely academic, as Chicago is too liberal for this not to pass. I'd be shocked, if it did fail.

However, I'm putting the cart before the horse here because he hasn't even been elected, yet.