Exclusive: Fritz Wenzel explains why Obama's 'reform' will be a quickly passing fad --WND

Immigration: New 3rd rail of U.S. politics

Posted: May 23, 2011
1:00 am Eastern
By Fritz Wenzel
© 2011

I have heard the question often lately, after President Barack Obama once again opened the political can of worms we know as immigration reform: What was he thinking?

Immigration reform has been a political loser every time it has been tried in recent years. The electoral pain that voters have inflicted on those who have attempted it has been substantial.

I addressed more than 40 U.S. senators in a meeting at the U.S. Capitol building in the spring of 2007 regarding polling data on the issue, at a time when the Senate was considering a sweeping reform effort. Not surprisingly, Arizona Sen. John McCain was behind that process, and voters nationwide strongly opposed it. He sat to my immediate left, and for him, the news was not good. Americans hated his reform bill, which had been branded "amnesty" for illegals.

But instead of taking the poll findings, negative as they were, at face value, certain Republican senators in the room that day first argued with me first that the polling data was flat wrong. Then they argued that even if the data were an accurate reflection of national public opinion the voters of America were wrong and that they must push forward with reform. (I should note here that McCain was not among those critical of my numbers. He simply took in the argument and was the only one to thank me afterward for the presentation.)

At the time, Democrats had just taken back control of both houses of Congress, and there were big protests in the streets of cities of the American Southwest, organized by Hispanic rights groups. News stories proclaimed that dramatic changes in U.S. demographics revealed that the only road for Republicans to regain political control would be for them to win more of the ballooning Hispanic vote.

The best way to accomplish that, some of these senators reasoned, was to give a sort of amnesty to millions of Hispanics who had settled in America illegally. Of course, they didn't use the word "amnesty."

I left that day not knowing what they would do, but it soon became apparent. The reformers pushed harder. So did the American people – in the opposite direction. Less than a month after our meeting, congressional job approval ratings had fallen to around 10 percent, and the reformers announced they were giving up.

McCain gave it up when it became clear the polling was, in fact, correct and that it was killing the beginnings of his 2008 presidential bid. No McCain, no reform.

Immigration reform then made a brief reappearance in the first two years of the Obama administration, but it quickly faded when public sentiment remained strong against anything that could be tagged as amnesty, which pretty much includes every proposal. The nation, facing a deep recession, has been in no mood to confer on a class of foreigners the privilege of citizenship, which is also the privilege to legally take scarce jobs that existing U.S. citizens might these days love to have.

Well, none of the political atmospherics has changed, which is why it is has been hard to find a policy reason why Obama would dredge up the issue of immigration reform, as he did during a recent visit to the Southwest. Since it makes no sense politically, one can only assume it was simply an (empty) gesture of favoritism to an interest group that might help him win key states in the election next year.

It is more than the current economic bad times that trigger this negative public reaction to immigration reform. Instead, it is a basket of reasons. It is partly because, polling has shown, people have a basic objection on the grounds of simple fairness to those who have waited years to become legal U.S. citizens the traditional way – by waiting in ridiculously long lines for naturalization. It is also because Americans essentially see reform as a reward for a group of people who have purposely broken the law by coming here illegally.

Then there is this: Washington constantly tells us they are "reforming" this and that program or system, yet nothing really seems to get better because of the government's involvement. Instead, it seems to get worse, and many people have lost trust in the institution of government as a positive force in society.

These attitudes could change, but I strongly doubt that will happen anytime soon. Look for Obama's immigration reform to be a quickly passing fad, if it hasn't already faded to nothing.

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