In an editorial today, the Wall Street Journal called on Republicans in Congress to support the Dream Act, a proposal that would provide legal status for certain unauthorized immigrants who came to the United States as children. From the editorial, titled “A Worthy Immigration Bill”:

Restrictionists dismiss the Dream Act as an amnesty that rewards people who entered the country illegally. But the bill targets individuals brought here by their parents as children. What is to be gained by holding otherwise law-abiding young people, who had no say in coming to this country, responsible for the illegal actions of others? The Dream Act also makes legal status contingent on school achievement and military service, the type of behavior that ought to be encouraged and rewarded.

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If Republicans hope to limit President Obama to one term, they'll need to win in Mountain West states--Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico--with fast-growing Hispanic populations. The Dream Act is an opportunity for the GOP to send a welcoming signal to these voters. More important, it would do right by undocumented youths who did nothing to deserve their current vulnerability to deportation.

For their part, Fox News -- which, like the Journal, is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. -- has reported inaccurate claims and forwarded misleading attacks on the Dream Act. For instance, Fox hosted anti-Dream Act crusader Michelle Malkin to falsely claim that the legislation creates “an illegal alien student preference program.” Malkin also asserted that the Dream Act should be “worrisome” to “all law-abiding people” and that it “raises a lot of troubling national security questions.”

Fox's purportedly objective news team has also falsely claimed that the Dream Act provides citizenship for certain unauthorized immigrants, advanced the misleading claim that the Dream Act would “encourage more people to come to this country illegally,” and misleadingly reported that the Dream Act would allow “millions of illegals” to “jump right to the front of the line and become U.S. citizens.”

Fox correspondent Gregg Jarrett also uncritically repeated talking points against the legislation that were circulated by Sen. Jeff Sessions. And at least two “straight news” figures on Fox have characterized the Dream Act as a “nightmare” in the eyes of its opponents.