Rallying for Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Rallying for Comprehensive Immigration Reform

May 2, 2006

Yesterday, over a million immigrants and their supporters joined "A Day Without Immigrants," rallying to demonstrate the effect immigrants have on the U.S. economy. For those on the right, it was another opportunity to scapegoat and rally the base. Instead of focusing on the real problem of illegal immigration, the right refuses to seriously consider a truly comprehensive immigration reform plan. President Bush refuses to endorse an immigration plan, instead blaming Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) for the lack of action. The New York Times said it best: "It is not only the border-obsessed Minutemen who should be shamed by yesterday's joyous outpouring. Lawmakers who have stymied comprehensive immigration reform with stalemated name-calling and cold electoral calculation should listen up."

• The immigration debate has gone off course and misses the mark. Instead of focusing on the problem of how to realistically deal with the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country, conservatives and right-wingers would prefer to focus on fear, hate and misinformation. They focused on what language the protestors are speaking and what flags they are carrying. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) took the time yesterday to introduce a bill mandating that the national anthem be sung in English, saying that the national anthem in Spanish is "undercutting" national unity. Even Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice felt the debate had gone off track: "I've heard the national anthem done in rap versions, country versions, classical versions. ... I think what we need to focus on is an immigration policy that is comprehensive and that recognizes our laws and recognizes our humanity."
  
  
• Bush needs to show some leadership on this topic. President Bush has been sending conflicting messages on immigration. While he claims to support a comprehensive bill, he has not put enough pressure on members of his own party to step up to the plate and work out a comprehensive immigration reform bill. He has endorsed all types of bills — those that call for border security only, those that would make undocumented immigration a felony and those that would build a 698-mile wall along the Mexican border. Most recently, Bush has given support to a bill giving the undocumented a path to earned citizenship; but in giving support to all ideas, the president has stopped short of publicly announcing his priorities for immigration reform and has done nothing to move the debate forward in a positive way.
  
  
• Lawmakers are at odds over legislation. Immigration bills working through the Senate and the House are at odds with each other. The Senate bill — proposed by Sens. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and Mel Martinez (R-FL) — would create a guest worker program and set up a three-tiered system for the undocumented immigrants already here, with those immigrants here more than five years able to earn citizenship. This compromise bill is in conflict with Rep. James Sensenbrenner's (R-WI) bill that the House passed last year. The Senate legislation "is certainly not the view of the House," said House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO), who insisted that legislation must focus solely on border security.