CommonSense Blocked by Senseless Immigration Fears
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Common sense blocked by senseless immigration fears
SAN DIEGO — Rep. Mike Pence visited San Diego recently to get a close-up look at the U.S.-Mexican border. And that gave me a chance to get a close-up look at Mike Pence.
The Indiana Republican is a rising star in the GOP who has emerged as one of the most pivotal figures in the immigration debate. He also must be one of the most frustrated.
That's because every time the three-term congressman comes up with a way to give GOP hard-liners what they say they want in an immigration bill, they decide they don't want it anymore. Every time it looks as if he is about to get into the end zone, members of his own party move the goal line.
It's a maddening negotiation.
"I'm not a stranger to controversy," Pence told me, "but the crosscurrents here have been challenging to me."
The Republican holdouts have said all along that they want border security first — before any discussion about what to do with 12 million illegal immigrants. They said they oppose amnesty and define it as anything that forgives the unlawful act of entering the country without proper documents. And, they said, it'd be nice if the illegal immigrants had to return home first and apply to re-enter the United States legally.
Pence agreed to every demand, crafting a "third way" alternative to the cumbersome Senate bill and the unworkable enforcement-only House bill. And yet still, he admits, about a third of House conservatives — perhaps 30 or 40 members — are "unalterably opposed" to his approach.
Under the Pence plan, the first priority would be securing the border. Then comes a guest-worker program that would require illegal immigrants in the United States to return to their home countries to register at privately run centers. The immigrants would get work visas that could be renewed every two years for up to 12 years, provided they were learning English. For the next five years, they'd be given a more permanent visa. After 17 years, participants could apply for U.S. citizenship.
Pence gained an ally in Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, who, according to the congressman, "improved the plan immensely" by suggesting that participation be limited to those who come from countries who partner with the United States in the North American and Central American free-trade agreements.
"If we have a positive relationship with you," Pence said, "if you're a good neighbor — diplomatically and economically — then not only can your multinational corporations do business here and ours there but your people can come work."
There's another limit in the Pence plan. For the first three years of the guest-worker program, the market dictates the amount of people who can participate. But beginning in the fourth year, the U.S. Labor Department would put a cap on the number.
What Pence didn't see coming was that this good-neighbor policy would freak out those who are scared silly about the Latinization of America. For those who think that Mexico and the rest of Latin America monopolize U.S. immigration policy, and who worry that Spanish-speaking Latino immigrants are changing the cultural fabric of the country in frightening ways, the Pence plan would only make things worse.
It's in that crowd you'll find the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), an anti-immigrant group that not only wants to eliminate illegal immigration but also limit legal immigration. FAIR is running hit pieces on the radio in Indiana that label the Pence plan a "backdoor amnesty."
I don't buy that, and neither does Pence.
"If you're applying outside the United States for the legal right to work inside the United States," he said, "that's not amnesty."
"As a matter of the law, there's no amnesty involved in that transaction because you're applying outside the jurisdiction of the United States of America."
And while Pence acknowledges that there is racism in this debate, he insists that it is limited to "a very small number of Americans" and that none of his colleagues in Congress fit the description.
Pence knows that I'm usually not so generous.
"I'm not saying that what you have observed and rightly chastised in your columns isn't out there," he said. "But if we can find a way to get people right with the law without undermining our commitment to law and order, I think every community in Indiana and every community around the country would be more than happy to have these people and more like them."
It's a nice thought — one that I'd find easier to believe if more Republicans in Congress were embracing the common sense behind the Hutchison-Pence plan.
Ruben Navarrette's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. His e-mail address is ruben.navarrette@uniontrib.com
