Thread: Obama officials say migrant reform unlikely this year

Obama officials say migrant reform unlikely this year

by Dan Nowicki -
Apr. 6, 2010 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic .

WASHINGTON - Passing the health-care bill could have given President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies a burst of momentum to tackle immigration reform, another top priority for the administration.

But despite continuing assurances from Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and other Obama administration officials that comprehensive reform will happen soon, the issue seems dead until at least next year.

In this election year, lawmakers already facing potentially tough re-election battles because of their health-care votes aren't eager to take on another hotly controversial topic such as immigration reform.

And although passing the health bill was considered a legislative triumph, Democrats passed it by using the controversial "reconciliation" process, a procedural move that avoided a GOP filibuster against final changes. That move has alienated Republicans, making it less likely that those in favor of immigration reform will be able to rebuild a bipartisan coalition along the lines of the one that backed previous, though unsuccessful, bills in 2006 and 2007.

"It's certainly going to be a hard, uphill fight," said Tamar Jacoby, president of ImmigrationWorks USA, an organization that supports reform from a center-right, pro-business perspective. "Is there a chance? Never say never, but the fallout from health care is going to make it awfully difficult."

In Arizona at least, the raw politics of immigration already are playing out in the state's Republican primary Senate race and other congressional contests.

The March 27 shooting death of Robert Krentz, a longtime Cochise County rancher, by a gunman who is believed to have escaped on foot to Mexico already has escalated the political rhetoric and prompted renewed calls from the state's congressional delegation for the deployment of National Guard troops along the border.

Reform advocates say Krentz's slaying makes a case for a sweeping rewrite of U.S. immigration policy that strengthens border security with a combination of enforcement measures and programs aimed at reducing illegal immigration. Hard-liners say the killing shows the border needs to be sealed by any means necessary, including the military.

"With this rancher being shot, we've got to launch a comprehensive effort to secure the border," said Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Ariz., who sits on the House Homeland Security Committee. "I just don't think this (homicide) is a political event. I think we need to really be serious about making it safe for the people who live on the border."

But former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz., who is challenging four-term incumbent Sen. John McCain in the Aug. 24 GOP primary, already is using the killing to attack McCain's record on immigration. Hayworth, who spent 12 years in the House but lost his seat in the 2006 election, has called for a standing military presence on the border.

"I am heartened to hear that, as of yesterday now, Senator McCain has decided that, gee, there could be a military presence on the border," Hayworth said Wednesday on Channel 3 (KTVK-TV). "The tragedy is, it's too late for the Krentz family, and the problems continue unabated."

The McCain campaign quickly issued a statement documenting McCain's support for sending National Guard troops to the border since March 2009 and accused Hayworth of crassly exploiting the rancher's death for political purposes.

"In truth, he's lying about Senator McCain's record in order to accuse him of being responsible for this murder," McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said. "It's despicable."

A few days before the Krentz homicide, McCain specifically mentioned the deteriorating border-security situation as a major reason he believes a comprehensive immigration package is unlikely this year. McCain sits on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and has repeatedly warned about the threat of spillover violence from Mexico's bloody drug war.

"One of the main reasons (there will be no immigration overhaul) is because, instead of increasing border security, we're actually decreasing border security, and we've got to get our borders secure," McCain, a former champion of comprehensive immigration reform, told The Arizona Republic in a March 24 interview in his Capitol Hill office.

"Three (people affiliated with the U.S. Consulate) were killed - murdered - in Juarez, and we now find out that the virtual fence has been a complete failure. So, we have a lot of work to do to get our borders secure, including, in my view, sending the Guard to the border before we would move forward with it."

The idea of reform has drawn encouragement and support from top Democrats, including Obama; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.; and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

On March 18, Obama praised Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who have been working on an immigration bill, for coming up with "a promising, bipartisan framework which can and should be the basis for moving forward." The framework addresses border security and "demands accountability from both workers who are here illegally and employers who game the system," Obama said.

In June, the president held an immigration summit at the White House to start the conversation and tapped Napolitano, a former Arizona governor, as his point person on the issue. Schumer initially announced that he anticipated unveiling a bill by Labor Day of 2009, but after several delays, only the outline of the legislation has been publicly released.

"We're going to keep pushing this (immigration reform) until we get it over the finish line," Napolitano said during a March 25 appearance at Arizona State University. But Napolitano said she could not provide a timeline.

Immigration advocates don't doubt the sincerity of Obama or the other Democratic leaders but acknowledge that some post-health-care realities may nudge the issue into 2011. It may be tough for Pelosi to force potentially vulnerable centrist Democrats who just backed health-care reform to cast another politically risky vote for immigration reform.

Other Obama priorities, such as financial-sector reform, are less politically problematic. The president's cap-and-trade energy reform and climate-change proposal also are pending.

"Hopefully, it does come up," Rep. Harry Mitchell, D-Ariz., said when asked if the health-care bill's passage makes immigration reform more likely or less likely this year. "I'm not so sure it will, but at least we can't blame health care as a reason for it not coming up."

However, Rep. John Shadegg, R-Ariz., said Democrats have little to lose by immediately marching forward on immigration. If Democrats succeed, they will have delivered on a major promise to the Latino voters whose support they will need at the ballot box in November. If Republicans don't cooperate and the effort fails, Democrats will have created "a wedge issue that will cause Hispanics to come out and vote against Republicans," he said.

"They are emboldened by their (health care) win," Shadegg said of the Democrats.

"And if they went this far to get this victory, believing it would motivate their base and save their bacon on Election Day, then they've got to be saying to themselves, 'Now, we've got to deliver on some other things.' I don't think it slows down."

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... m0405.html

"One of the main reasons (there will be no immigration overhaul) is because, instead of increasing border security, we're actually decreasing border security, and we've got to get our borders secure," McCain, a former champion of comprehensive immigration reform, told The Arizona Republic in a March 24 interview in his Capitol Hill office.

The framework addresses border security and "demands accountability from both workers who are here illegally and employers who game the system," Obama said.

NOT DONE!
Both of these things should have been accomplished already.....even before any discussion of placing illegals into some linear position to get citizenship. That's what we were promised by our government and that's what they lied and still do lie about. Congress, Obama, and DHS cannot deliver satisfactorily on their own committment.

It's not just illegals we now need to worry about, there are terrorists in Mexico just waiting to sneak into our country.

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-193993.html

Somalis with ties to a terrorist organization are believed to be plotting to illegally enter the United States after being mistakenly released from custody in Mexico, a confidential federal law enforcement report said.