http://immigration.change.org/blog/v...gration_reform


Back and Forth on Immigration Reform

Since the introduction of CIRASAP by Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) in December, rhetoric surrounding immigration reform and its chances of passage in 2010 have been downright confusing, not to mention frustrating (like President Barack Obama's whopping 38 words on immigration in his State of the Union address). Here's a rough timeline of the back-and-forth in just the last month and a half:

•March 11: Obama meets with immigrant rights advocates in Washington, D.C.
•March 17: Schumer-Graham "Blueprint" revealed. Well, a blueprint does not a piece of legislation make, especially if the blueprint itself is pretty darn flawed.
•March 21: March in Washington, DC with over 200,000 participants. Obama appears on-screen (not onstage) to show the White House's "support" for reform this year. Hm.
•That night: Health care reform passes House. Senator Lindsey Graham of the Schumer-Graham proposal pronounces immigration reform DOA thanks to approach taken with health care vote.
•April 2: Senator Bob Menendez says, hey, let's just wait on immigration reform until November. •April 10: Rallies for immigration reform held across the country. In Las Vegas, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says work on immigration reform needs to happen this year. Curiously, Reid faces a tough re-election campaign.
•April 13: Just kidding, say Harry Reid. We won't be getting to immigration reform.
•April 13: Damage control from Reid's office: he only meant that an immigration reform bill, if/when Schumer and Graham finish drafting it, "won't be on the floor in the next seven weeks."
•April 13: Senator Graham states that, "Immigration is going nowhere this year." So the proposal everyone has been banking on now seems to be abandoned by the one of people drafting it.
It seems obvious what's going on: No one in Congress or the White House is genuinely serious about moving forward with immigration reform this year. If they were, something would have happened already. (I defer to the health care vote as proof of the success of determination against all odds.)

However, the White House can't come out and say that because of a certain campaign promise that was made and has already been broken — the first year of the new administration has come and gone, and no immigration reform. So the White House says, of course we support immigration reform! We just can't do anything until Congress does. Blame them.

Ah Congress. No member of Congress is willing to come out and say the obvious (except Senator Graham, it seems) because, in case you hadn't noticed, this is an election year. Members cannot afford to alienate the part of their base that is waiting for action on immigration reform. And so they pull a Harry Reid: when faced with hundreds or thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people demanding immigration reform, they give them what they want to hear — I promise you we will take up immigration reform this year! Si se puede! But when faced with the D.C. reality of re-election and political capital they say, You know, with all the energy we put into that health care vote, we just cannot take up immigration this year.

Well, members of Congress, you may not be able to afford losing your re-election bids, but in the meantime, children cannot afford to be torn from their parents, immigrant youth cannot afford to lose a chance at an education, workers cannot afford to be abused and underpaid, and America cannot afford to continue to treat its current immigrants as second-class citizens. Political actions this year may affect your careers, but remember that they will have a much greater impact on the lives, dreams, and futures of thousands of immigrants who look to you to offer them equality of opportunity.

Yet if Congress is unable (or unwilling) to move forward on immigration reform this year, why not at least move forward on other pieces of legislation that have the community support, the business support, the economic support, and more than likely, the votes to pass this year, such as the DREAM Act and AgJobs?


Senator Graham is the only person who is being honest here. A Republican at that, go figure. He should be our focus in getting more support for immigration reform.