The big political story today is that the “Gang of Eight”, a Senators has proposed comprehensive legislation on immigration reform, including a path to citizenship. The trouble is, that would be contingent on ” a commission comprised of governors, attorneys general, and community leaders living along the Southwest border” concluding that the border had been fully secured – which since those leaders would include Govs. Brewer and Perry may never happen.
But even before we get that far, the legislation has to pass through the House’s Republican hardliners, and may die there.
If I had to bet, I’d assume that nothing passes — that the House GOP will make the bill even tougher on immigrants, possibly even stripping out any path to citizenship, and it will still be deemed “amnesty” by most of them, while going too far to the right even for willing-to-compromise Democrats.
The Gang of Eight’s framework isn’t all terrible—it’s just unworkable. It places conditions it’s unlikely to meet, and then further compounds the problem by putting a veto in the hands of people who are likely to oppose the plan even if those conditions were met.
He [McCain] added, “We can’t go on forever with 11 million people living in this country in the shadows in an illegal status.”
Mark Kirkorian at The Corner is typical of the hard right’s response: “Eight members of the World’s Greatest Deliberative Body have labored for months and delivered unto us — Bush’s amnesty plan.”
The fact that everyone seems to agree that Something Must Be Done doesn’t mean this go-round will get it right.
I really want to see Obama’s proposals and see how they match up with the mutual backscratching in the House & Senate.
It’s rubber-meets-the-road time.
Obama to announce his immigration reform plan, said to be more liberal than Senate effort. (Nakamura & Helderman/WaPo)
The House Has Its Own Bipartisan Immigration Plan In The Works, Republicans Say
For the leftish side of the aisle, this is a dream (if they don’t manage to screw it up by selling out too cheaply). For the GOP, it’s a Catch-22 situation.
If they oppose regularizing the status of the largely-hispanic immigrant population, their votes will drop, partly because of higher birth rates among the immigrants as compared to the Repug base and the rising number of Latinos in the general population. If, on the other hand, they allow the Dems to ease the way for immigrants, those immigrants will still likely vote Dem for at least the next 30-40 years. The GOP may try to claim credit but I don’t think they’ll convince anyone. Hispanics will recognize that anything they get from the GOP was extracted under duress and that the GOP base is racist and anti-immigration. Whatever the percentage of pro-immigrant sentiment among Dems may be, it’s almost non-existent in the GOP.
White House calls Senate proposals on immigration ‘a big deal’ – Justin Sink/The Hill
Immigration reform: Great for the country, not for the GOP – Jamelle Bouie/WaPo.