Whatever Happened to Immigration?

6 responses so far

• 1 joemarier // Nov 5, 2009 at 9:00 am

  Fair enough, but immigration and abortion are also a major part of the health-care debate, you know. That’s what’s on the table, so that’s what the two (the four, rather) lobbies are focusing on right now.

• 2 ottovbvs // Nov 5, 2009 at 9:10 am

  …….It’s on the back burner because of healthcare…….contrary to Republican mythmaking the president is very focussed and at the moment the focus is on healthcare internally and Afghanistan externally…….He has said he intends to reintroduce what was essentially the McCain immigration bill next spring…….what do you think the impact of that will be on the GOP.

• 3 DFL // Nov 5, 2009 at 10:43 am

  With the economy the way it is, immigration is far down the list of issues at present. Who would want to immigrate to a country bleeding thousands of jobs per day? I would expect a firestorm if the Obama Administration and Lindsey Graham unwisely bring it up next year. Here on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, moderate, first-term Democrat Frank Kratovil certainly does not want the immigration firestorm to errupt in an uphill fight for re-election.

• 4 ottovbvs // Nov 5, 2009 at 6:39 pm

  DFL // Nov 5, 2009 at 10:43 am

  …………….there would certainly be a firestorm but it would be one that on the whole would benefit Democrats because basically the Republican party is completely riven on the issue……basically the business wing of the party(they are the ones who provide the money) want this while the teabagging classes don’t……….this could cause some mile trouble for Dems here and there but for Republicans it would cause total mayhem…….don’t you remember what happened with the Bush/McCain bill……it was really the Republicans it rent asunder not the Democrats and it buried the GOP with hispanics

• 5 aDude // Nov 5, 2009 at 7:58 pm

  Immigration will be the issue of 2010.

  This summer, the White House nominated Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court partly (my own personal belief) to test how Republicans would react. Would they focus on her left-leaning decisions on the Court of Appeals? Would they question her commitment to individual rights and freedoms? Or would every Republican senator harp on the “wise Latina woman” remark over and over again. Republicans chose the latter, and saw their approval rating among Latinos drop to the single digits.

  The White House has already stated that the Democrats intend to pursue immigration reform in 2010. I suspect that at this moment focus groups are testing various approaches. I would guess that there isn’t so much an anti-Hispanic feeling in this country as much as there is an anti-Spanish feeling (the old “I don’t want to feel like a foreigner in my own country” sort of thing). Look for any immigration reform the Democrats propose to have something about serious fluency in English being a necessary part of citizenship (or possibly even for guest worker status). Also there will be strong discouragement against bilingual education.

  Labor won’t be happy, of course. But unlike Republicans, Democrats don’t engage in circular firing squads. Labor would rather have Obama appointing members of the NLRB than Mitt Romney.

  When this is all proposed, the Tancredo/Limbaugh/Beck fury will take center stage shouting about the end of American culture, and few Republicans will have the courage to beat them back and push for a rational debate. Reform will pass, of course, and the Republicans will add to the image of being anti-Hispanic. So a voting block which will reach 20% by 2020 will be owned by the Democrats for a least a generation.

  Will Republicans be smart enough to get out in front on this issue? Will they outflank the Democrats by proposing immigration reform with a strong English element before the Democrats? Will the Hispanic vote end up in the Republican column because of the outstretch arms of the party?

  Somehow, I’m not optimistic.

• 6 ottovbvs // Nov 5, 2009 at 9:18 pm

  aDude // Nov 5, 2009 at 7:58 pm

  “I suspect that at this moment focus groups are testing various approaches.”

  ……….I would have thought this very likely……..it’s not without some problems for Democrats, the unions are not unimportant!, but properly framed there isn’t huge resistance to dealing with the problem outside of Lou Dobbs, Tancredo and movement conservatives……..when this was polled during the height of the row over the Bush/McCain bill there was a lot of realism about the fact that a) there are 12-20 million illegals in the country b) they are performing an essential role in the US economy(out of work financial workers in nyc aren’t going to pick lettuces in CA) c) putting them on buses back to Mexico wasn’t really very realistic.

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