November 30, 2008 |

Simple reality
Dec. 1, 2008 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
Republican pragmatism may turn immigration reform into a bipartisan priority next year.

A survey by America's Voice, a pro-immigration group, shows that 14 of 16 Democratic House candidates nationally won competitive races "where the Republican candidate tried to use illegal immigration as a wedge issue."
Voters are consistent in rejecting the enforcement-only approach. Two years ago, Arizona members of Congress Gabrielle Giffords and Harry Mitchell initially won their seats in races against immigration hardliners. The GOP is getting the message.
In a recent Newsweek article on how his party can rebound, GOP strategist Karl Rove pointed out the need to attract Latino voters, who are turned off by the GOP's hard line.

He also urged the party to support comprehensive reform.

Arizona long has had Republican reformers, such as Sen. John McCain, Sen. Jon Kyl, Rep. Jeff Flake and former Rep. Jim Kolbe. All spoke up for comprehensive reform. Nevertheless, the Republican Party in Arizona and across the nation is associated with hard-line approaches that have done little to solve the problem.

For the past two years, too many Democrats and Republicans in Congress clutched the notion that immigration reform was too politically risky and took a nap on the issue.

With Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid now saying that he expects to move forward on immigration reform and an awakening to political realities on the GOP side, Congress has a chance to enact meaningful reform that goes beyond failed enforcement-only strategies.

How badly have those efforts failed? Since Congress passed the Secure Fence Act of 2006, instead of comprehensive reform, 32 tunnels have been discovered under Arizona's border with Mexico, according to research by The Arizona Republic's Sean Holstege. That's more than all tunnels previously found in Arizona.

Drug cartels finance tunnels, but transporting people into the country illegally has become so lucrative that drug smugglers increasingly are mixing their cargo.
If the U.S. had a process to legally bring in needed foreign workers and legalize the current undocumented population, the reduction in the Border Patrol's workload would allow border law enforcement to focus on drug smuggling.

There's reason to hope the new Congress will act on that simple reality.

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