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EDITORIAL
The GOP's immigration shame
Republicans choose divisive campaign politics over urgently needed policy.
June 21, 2006


HOW CAN YOU TELL WHEN a governing party is running out of steam? When it controls all branches of government yet abandons even the pretense of addressing an issue most members claim is a "crisis."

That's what the GOP-led House did Tuesday in announcing that discussions over reconciling its enforcement-centric immigration bill with the Senate's legalization-focused version will be pushed back to September at the earliest, and only after completing more hearings. Instead of naming negotiators and attempting in good faith to bridge the chasm between the bills, House leaders are busy naming locations for "field meetings" that can deliver maximum demagogic effect in the run-up to the November election.

ADVERTISEMENTThese meetings are nonsense. Congress held more than a dozen hearings on immigration last year before passing HR 4437. That punitive bill filled the streets with millions of protesters angry that it did little to address the nation's need for a legal supply of labor or the estimated 11 million-plus illegal residents of this country, besides turning them into felons.

The Senate version, a flawed piece of work in its own right after too many compromises, at least offered a system (however torturous) by which millions of underground workers could finally come into the open without fear of immediate incarceration or deportation. Most of the last-minute amendments to the Senate bill brought the legislation closer to the version passed by the House. But Republicans there prefer clinging to the dangerous fantasy that a massive, militarized wall must be approved before discussions can even begin over what to do with the millions of indispensable, but vilified, workers already here.

House GOP leaders can barely conceal their preference for divisive politics over sound policy. Speaker J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois has reportedly conveyed to President Bush that hard-line enforcement politics is polling particularly well this season. One Republican congressional aide told the Associated Press: "The discussion is how to put the Democrats in a box without attacking the president." This is what passes for Republican leadership nowadays.

Summer and fall will be gut-check time not just for Bush, who has tried in his vague though periodically eloquent way to make immigration reform his signature domestic accomplishment this year, or for pro-reform GOP senators such as John McCain of Arizona, but for the American people. When the vulnerable party in power chooses to adopt a campaign strategy that demonizes a class of people, how it fares will say much about who we are.

Twelve years ago, Republicans were swept into Congress on a platform bursting with energy and ideas, with many measures enacted within the GOP's first 100 days in power. If inaction and xenophobia are all the party has left, this could be its last 100 days.

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My email:

What our politicians are trying to do is delay this vote past the elections. These lilly livered cowards and liars want to hold on to their seats, then vote in amnesty against the will of their constituents.

Our current politicial system is broken. This country is vulnerable against threats from many countries who can easily invade our borders. I believe it is time for Americans to take back their government and send politicians such as Bush, McCain, Kennedy, Clinton, Frist down to Mexico to do jobs Mexicans don't want.



I do believe we need to start pressuring our Congress to bring this thing to a head and scrap all the Senate's immigration bills before next election.[/i]

Here's my letter to the times:

Dear LA Times:

Instead of applauding the Congress for giving LEGAL American Citizens a chance to be heard, you would rather pander to special interest and illegal citizens, your paper decides to insult them (congress), and quietly slide hints of the race card into the issue.

Illegal Aliens are all about providing Corporate America with a cheap supply of labor, at the expense of the hard working lower and middle class families who's wages are remaining stagnant or declining because of the CHEAP LABOR SCALES brought to various industry because of illegal aliens who are stealing our jobs.

Stop presenting this argument in your one sided fashion, and at least present BOTH SIDES of the story. Hardly a day goes by that a story does not appear in the paper about some poor illegal alien family and how hard they have it here in America, but you and almost every other press source in America fail to give equal coverage to the poor hard working LEGAL AMERICAN families being negatively impacted by unchecked illegal immigration, and a lack of enforcement of laws already on the books in our work places. Stop showing your bias in favor of one class over another, and instead give fair and equal coverage to all sides in this debate.

Here's mine:

Editor,

How can you tell when a President AND a Newspaper is failing the People of the United States of America? When the People are marginalized to such an extent that their rights and resources are superseded by the will of Industry, under the guise of compassion for illegal aliens.
I think it's high time for a little education. This 'demonized class of people' that you refer to does not exist. Mexican Nationals -in this country illegally- are not a "class of people."
In fact, it's the citizens of the United States that have been 'demonized' for struggling to reverse the foreign invasion and preserve our own sovereignty. President Bush has no interest in serving the People of the United States of America. If he, the government and myopic editors such as yourself continue to have your way, the USA will be replaced by the North American Union aka NAU. The Security and Prosperity Partnership (of which Pres. Fox is so fond to speak of, and is why PM Harper wants to drop out of the Kyoto Agreement) is being implemented as we speak in communities and States all over the USA, in some obscure passages and under reported new laws such as HAVA, Clear Skies, SAFETEA: LU, the Energy Policy Act, the Patriot Act, and Yes, even in Comprehensive Immigration Reform.
In closing I have a suggestion for you, stop underestimating the intelligence of the People of the United States of America with sappy appeals to emotion, and start reporting on the truly substantive impact that Industry and Elitists have on the freedom and sovereignty of the only class that counts here, the Citizens of the United States of America.

Dianne wrote:

What our politicians are trying to do is delay this vote past the elections. These lilly livered cowards and liars want to hold on to their seats, then vote in amnesty against the will of their constituents.

I wouldn't be so sure about that. I do agee that the Republicans want to milk the debate for all it's worth, which will probably end up helping them during the elections. Is that such a bad idea? Honestly, the House and Senate bill are too different for working out an acceptable bill (you can't mix water and oil). I think we're better off delaying the bill (no bill is better than a bad bill) and pushing our federal government to enforce the laws already on the books. Who knows, by time they get around to a bill, we may have already deported hundreds of thousands of illegals (I can only hope). Furthermore, the delay gives us time to strengthen our base. We know there are more anti-illegal immigrant folks in this country then there are pro-illegal advocates, but I don't think we have all our potential supporters completely on board yet. As the debates drag on, hopefully we'll convince more citizens to adopt our thoughts on the issue.

We're seeing more and more people come into our fold weekly, even some cities and towns are now writing new laws to combat the invasion in their communities. If those that stand against open borders and amnesty fair well in the coming elections, I suspect it will open more eyes. This will undoubtedly mean more politicians will be forced to rethink their position on the issue. To do otherwise could prove fatal to their career as a politician - no one has ever accused those on Capitol Hill of being stupid - idiots maybe, but not stupid. Self preservation is a big motivator.