Baseball offers Dream Act preview

Illegal immigration is back on the front burner as major campaign issue, with Republicans Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich savaging each other's positions in the run-up to Florida's Tuesday presidential primary and Nevada's Saturday caucus.

Democrats, meanwhile, are delighted to use their latest stab at immigration reform, the Dream Act, to curry favor with coveted Hispanic voters and vilify the Republicans who oppose it as family-destroying racists. President Obama championed the bill in his State of the Union address, further proof that illegal immigration will be a defining wedge issue in the handful of battleground states that will decide the presidency and control of Congress.

The Dream Act, however, is a terribly mischaracterized bill that promises to create a torrent of unintended consequences. Meanwhile, what most media consider a minor story from Major League Baseball's offseason in fact offers a valuable lesson on what America can expect if the Dream Act -- or some form of illegal immigrant amnesty -- ever becomes law.

The takeaway: If you give someone a life-changing incentive to lie, they'll gladly set their pants on fire.

Cleveland Indians pitcher Fausto Carmona is a talented 28-year-old who played in the 2010 All-Star Game. But when the Dominican Republic native went home this month to renew his visa, he was arrested for using a false identity. Carmona is actually Roberto Hernandez Heredia, age 31.

Last month, Miami Marlins pitcher Leo Nunez, also of the Dominican Republic, admitted that he had falsified his identity, making himself younger, to improve his chances of playing professional baseball.

Other Latino baseball stars have created new identities for themselves or lied about their ages because of the lure of "The Show." In 2008, Miguel Tejada, the 2002 American League MVP, admitted he was two years older than he had long been reported to be. "I was a poor kid," Tejada said, who lied to get signed. And way back in 1981, when Fernando Valenzuela of Mexico was a 20-year-old pitching phenom for the Los Angeles Dodgers, winning Rookie of the Year, the Cy Young Award and the World Series, there were plenty of winks and whispers -- especially among fellow Latino players -- that Valenzuela was actually much older.

"If an edited date of birth and a strange new name got young Roberto Hernandez Heredia into a tryout, onto a mound, and into a scout's line of sight, you think he regrets that during his few hours in prison today? I wouldn't," Yahoo's Tim Brown wrote, pointing out that as Fausto Carmona, Heredia has made about $15 million, and that if he can get back into the United States, he's due $7 million this season. "Think that's worth running around with someone else's name and birthday for 12 years?"

The promise of a better life. An incentive to lie. A simple way to execute the lie. Bingo -- residency in America.

Which brings us to the Dream Act. Because the 2006 push for blanket amnesty for all illegal immigrants crashed and burned like the Hindenburg, immigrant advocates -- and Democrats seeking another loyal voting bloc -- now seek a more incremental approach.

The Dream Act is presented, without fail, as a humanitarian approach to immigration reform geared toward children, not adults. The pitch: It gives children who were illegally brought into the United States by their parents the opportunity to stay here and gain legal status. The reality: It gives adult illegal immigrants a path to citizenship -- and it gives them scores of opportunities to lie to get it.

To qualify for the Dream Act (under the version that Congress couldn't pass in 2010), illegal immigrants must have arrived in the United States before their 16th birthday, must have lived in the United States for at least five years and must have a diploma from a U.S. high school or a GED. Meeting those conditions would give them conditional legal status for six years, during which time they must take college classes or serve in the U.S. military for two years. After that, assuming they pass a criminal background check, they become citizens.

However, anyone younger than age 30 at the time of the bill's enactment would be eligible (previous versions of the bill qualified anyone younger than 35). And after they become citizens, they can petition for green cards for their family members.

How many 31- and 32-year-olds would be willing to create new identities to qualify for the Dream Act? Heck, how many 37-year-olds who might pass for 29 would lie for a chance at citizenship? How quickly would black markets offer bogus high school transcripts and diplomas, GED certificates and foreign birth certificates? How many young people who've only been in the country for just four years would do whatever it took to create documentation that they've actually been here five years?

Remember, when President Reagan signed into law the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, the number of illegal immigrants who applied for amnesty greatly exceeded the government's projections, largely because of widespread document fraud.

The illegal immigrants who got away with lying would say it was worth it, just as Heredia and Nunez would.

The biggest absurdity of the Dream Act? Democrats and the left insist on calling illegals "undocumented." Yet to meet the terms of the Dream Act, what are they required to have? Lots and lots of documents.

Immigration law in the United States is broken because it isn't enforced. And enforcing the law, when we've looked the other way for so long, would have a terrible human toll. But an immigration compromise that grants limited amnesty in exchange for much tighter border security, eliminating birthright citizenship and ordering school districts to deny enrollment to new illegal immigrant students is off the table.

Democrats and their Latino loyalists want no immigration law. They want full legal status for anyone who can make it across our southern border, in perpetuity, and they want no checks on immigration status in any part of American life. Their policy goal in a nutshell: Once you're in, you're in.

It's a home run for them and for Democrats.

For the country, it's a called third strike.

Glenn Cook (gcook@reviewjournal.com) is a Review-Journal editorial writer.