There is a long article over at
Carnegie.org that defines how those who fight in our favor are trying to rebuild their alliances to more effectively relay the message of CIR to the public.
Quote:
Advocates of comprehensive immigration reform have tried unsuccessfully since 2006 to get an immigration bill passed, first by the 109th and then by the 110th Congress.* Now these advocates are using the sometimes painful lessons learned from their legislative battles to build alliances on a local and a national level and to bring together disparate voices. Seeking to overcome the hurdles involved in merging hundreds of organizations, several leading groups, including those who are cited in this article, have been working to develop a re-energized and re-focused structure that consists of “four pillars,” which center around:
a more effective policy approach,
more effective work in the media,
a stronger grassroots effort better linked to the nationwide effort, and
successful efforts to promote citizenship and encourage civic participation.
As immigration reform leaders begin to meet with immigration groups around the country as well as with community, business, labor and faith groups, ideas of the principal stakeholders will be incorporated into the four-pillars structure. The rapidly changing political dynamics in this presidential election year will also impact decision making as members of these groups work together to develop a plan for achieving effective immigration reform.
“Let’s not miss the fact that one of the reasons we lost the last time [in 2007] is that the anti-immigrant forces mobilized their advocates and the pro-reformers did not,” says Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice. “Now we are working to answer questions such as: What is the best policy approach going forward? How do we strengthen and build a communications effort that has more volume and velocity and, most importantly, how do we have a grassroots operation that is nationwide and is effective?” For 17 years Sharry was executive director of the National Immigration Forum. He also served as a leader in the Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform, which closed in February 2008. America’s Voice (www.americasvoiceonline.org), an organization that grew out of this coalition, opened in March 2008 as a communications effort designed to more directly challenge those who oppose immigration reform.
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I was thinking perhaps this messaging should surround American Citizens only or first.It could possibly be made more palatable to the public from a policy perspective,including legalization as part of any CIR bill.A few good examples of this would be reforming legal immigration surrounding work visas to ensure Americans citizens or permanent residents were given a reasonable amount of time to be recruited first before any application could be given to foreign workers or those who are immediate relatives of U.S citizens or Permanent residents are given first priority in any legalization program.It would basically be a message relaying the expanded rights of U.S. citizens vs the diminishing rights of going enforcement only.A good slogan could be,"There is always enforcement of the laws,but not enforcement of rights" or "It is easy to denigrate,but not educate".However,from my perspective any message would take years to effectively resonate across this country & we all should know that a Presidential Administration is at the height of their influence when incoming.
CIR WILL also include a guest-worker program because every single Republican I've have seen talking over the last few years of CIR have demanded it,not to mention the influential business community.Most CIR bills contain at least 3 guest worker programs in fact,which include Agjobs,an increase in H1Bs & a Temporary work program[TWP] that isn't temporary.
This is all in my speculatively humble opinion,but with a slumping economy & a CIR bill more likely to be proposed with an upcoming Obama administration I think the odds are at 50-50 for passage at this point.I believe the baseline requirements for Dream or CIR to pass WILL require Republican support,specifically from the state of Maine.