Thread: Putting immigration on back burner could singe Dems in 2008

Putting immigration on back burner could singe Dems in 2008

November 28, 2006
BY MIGUEL PEREZ
With state and local governments threatening to continue passing immigration laws and usurping the responsibilities of the federal government, can Congress afford to keep delaying immigration reform?
Better yet, with Democrats benefitting from the Hispanic backlash against Republican immigrant-bashers in the midterm elections, can the new Democratic majority afford to take the Latino vote for granted?

Will Democrats act on immigration reform, or will they become the victims of another Hispanic backlash in 2008?

Amazingly, after nurturing the aspirations of Latinos and other immigrants who voted overwhelmingly for Democrats in the midterm elections, some Democrats are already putting the brakes on immigration reform.

In the midterm elections, voters banished many of the most anti-immigrant Republicans. But now that that Democrats are about to take control of both houses of Congress, expectations have been raised in immigrant communities, yet Democrats say immigration is no longer an urgent issue that must be resolved.

The new majority leaders say they want to raise the minimum wage, lower drug prices, create affordable housing, cut energy costs, reform ethics standards, enact the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, cut interest rates on college loans, lower taxes on the middle class and eliminate ''tax giveaways for Big Oil.''

But some are already using all kinds of excuses to delay dealing with one of the most pressing issues of our time. They say that immigration is not an easy problem to resolve, that it's too divisive and controversial.

With a president who tends to agree with Democrats more than with his fellow Republicans on this issue, the new Democratic majority has a unique opportunity to finally fix our broken immigration system. If they squander that opportunity when they assume control of Congress next year, Latinos and other immigrants will not forget. They will punish the Democrats in the 2008 elections.

Now is the time to reach a consensus on comprehensive reform that will reinforce not only our borders with Mexico and Canada, but our system of pursuing illegal immigrants. It's time to penalize employers for hiring illegal immigrants and to create a system for verifying the immigration status of job applicants. It's time for a guest-worker program so that immigrants don't see a need to come here illegally.

But it's also time for an earned-legalization program for the 12 million illegal immigrants who are already here and can prove that they are productive and law-abiding members of our society. Without such a legalization program, illegal immigration will continue, because ''enforcement-only'' measures simply will not work.

Over the last year, Democrats had presented a united front in support of the comprehensive legislation package that was passed by the Senate and in opposition of the draconian measures that came out of the House.

But now the Democratic leadership has to build a consensus among party members to support a new bill. They have to deal with Democrats who got elected by using conservative rhetoric on immigration.

Can those Republican-sounding Democrats be convinced that earned legalization is not amnesty? That is the question that will determine whether Democrats can broker a balanced solution to the problem.

We are no longer dealing with a Republican Congress divided over how to reform immigration. Now it's the Democrat-controlled Congress that could be facing an incapacitating split. That's why some Democratic stalwarts on immigration -- after blasting Republicans for bashing immigrants and refusing to accept comprehensive reform -- are suddenly claiming that they must proceed slowly on this issue.

They are leaving immigration off the list of urgent issues they want to tackle -- which is tantamount to betrayal for the millions of immigrants who voted Democratic in the midterm elections because of this particular issue.

In those elections, Republicans got punished -- not for what they did, but for what they didn't do to reform immigration. Democrats should learn that lesson -- quickly.


http://www.suntimes.com/news/otherviews ... 28.article

They are leaving immigration off the list of urgent issues they want to tackle -- which is tantamount to betrayal for the millions of immigrants who voted Democratic in the midterm elections because of this particular issue.

Betrayal? What about the betrayal of 80% of the AMERICANS against illegal immigration????? FOR THE LAST 20 YEARS...AND MORE!!

...after nurturing the aspirations of Latinos,...

Would that be similar to the way the Vichy government "nurtured the aspirations" of the Nazis?

I think Republicans got punished for supporting Bush who did nothing to enforce immigration law.

So ... is the deal now to let them stay?



You know ... there's not 12,000,000 .... there's 50,000,000 counting their offspring.



There are approximately 10,000,000 Blind People in the United States according to the American Foundation for the Blind. Compare that number to the number of illegal aliens you see driving down the road, walking down the street, shopping at Walmart, attending our schools, amassing to protest, worker at our jobs, stacked up in the ER's at hospitals, hanging out on the corners thumbing day work. Then figure uphow many more illegal aliens you see than blind people. Maybe this will help people to understand how many there actually are. We are completely infiltrated and totally surrounded and more so every day.