Can’t or won’t?

(The Hill) — The Obama administration on Tuesday made its most forceful push yet this Congress to reform the country’s immigration laws.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Defense Under Secretary Clifford Stanley laid out a laundry list of national security-related financial and educational reasons why Congress needs to push forward with the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act.

Napolitano said the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does not have the resources necessary to remove the estimated 11 million people who are in the country illegally. The DREAM Act, she said, would grant conditional citizenship to people who pose little or no threat to society and allow DHS to pursue the most harmful illegal immigrants.

Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), the subcommittee’s ranking Republican, raised concerns about “loopholes” in the DREAM Act that would allow the Obama administration a broad discretionary reach to decide who should be granted conditional citizenship.

Cornyn questioned Napolitano about provisions that would grant legal status to illegal immigrants, even though they might have multiple criminal convictions or been convicted of voter fraud, or not have met education or military requirements.