conservative columnist and former Bush speechwriter David Frum would like to see three more concessions on the DREAM Act to get conservatives to agree to the bill - http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/12/middle-ground-on-dream.html:

Here would be my three main suggestions:

1) Lower the age of entry into the US. Even the new versions of the law extend amnesty to people who entered the US up to age 16. That allows too many people who entered on their own impetus rather than as part of a family group - and too many people whose first language will never be English. I'd lower to 12, to ensure we really are talking about children who have spent half or more of their lives in the US.

2) False statements in the application should be prosecutable. As written, lying on the forms is still a good one-way option: it might help, and it can't hurt.

3) For those who choose enlistment rather than college, I'd require honorable discharge rather than 2 years service as a prerequisite for regularization. For those who choose college rather than enlistment, I'd like to see some measure- I'm not sure how to write such a rule myself - to prevent the emergence of a huge industry of fly by night institutions that will enroll (and keep enrolled) all paying customers regardless of how terribly they perform. As the law is now written, that last is an all too likely consequence.

With those changes, DREAM could be genuinely useful as part of a package of immigration reforms ...

I would offer a few responses. On the first suggestion, the age of entry under the DREAM bill is UNDER age 16. I would only say that Frum should produce evidence that a large percentage of those age 13 to 15 enter on their own and without their parents. I'm doubtful.

On the point about prosecuting people who lie on applications, that's fine. Of course, visa fraud is a prosecutable crime already.

And on the third suggestion, the DREAM Act only covers institutions qualifying under the Higher Education Act of 1965. But I don't see a problem limiting the qualifying schools to those approved to issue F-1 student visas since USCIS already inspects those facilities to ensure they are bona fide educational institutions.