David A. Keene

Immigration Hogtying Dems
The Hill
November 20, 2007

The stumbling and ducking and dodging accompanying the Democratic presidential candidates’ attempts to deal with the question of driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants a couple of debates ago hinted at a real problem one of them is likely to face in next year’s general election campaign.

Over the course of the last few years, Democrats have enjoyed the luxury of sitting back while Republicans were forced to deal with the increasingly volatile immigration issue. The Tom Tancredos and John McCains each had their supporters, but no one, including an increasingly exasperated George Bush, was able to come up with an answer to the concerns of both sides that had a ghost of a chance of passing public muster. Before immigration reform was taken off the table, Republicans were at each other’s throats and hoping the issue might just go away.

Well, it won’t. In fact, public concern about the federal government’s apparent inability to control the nation’s borders or deal in any meaningful way with an increasing flood of illegal immigrants has people fighting mad, and while many of them might not like the way Republicans have fared in dealing with it, they’re likely to be even more upset as they focus on the Democrats.

The Democrats’ problem is that for ideological and practical political reasons, they are hamstrung in dealing with public concerns about the border, amnesty, the availability of public services for illegals and, most important, assimilation. Some [u]newly elected “Blue Dogâ€