Republicans have been whining and dragging their feet on this topic for years. I fail to understand why, unless their support for American businesses extends to providing a free flow of illegal laborers.
By failing to enact immigration reform during the first 6 years of the Bush administration, Pubs made a serious mistake. Now, faced with the possibility of having to accept a Democratic plan their complaining has reached new levels (depths).
The Senate’s immigration bill get another shot at life next week but will have to be re-animated without the support of either of the Texas Republican senators:
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, who has been pressured heavily by the White House and Republican leadership to support a sweeping immigration overhaul, announced Thursday that she nevertheless will vote against reviving the bill when it returns to the Senate floor next week.
As No. 4 in the Senate GOP hierarchy, Hutchison is the highest-ranking Republican to break with her leadership on a domestic policy issue of signal importance to President Bush.
Less than three hours after Hutchison denounced the legislation as an unacceptable amnesty offer to illegal immigrants, fellow Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn said he, too, would oppose bringing up a bill he deemed “deeply flawed.”
Says Kay Bailey Hutchinson, one of my favorite senators (because she does next to nothing and therefore causes few problems for her fellow Americans), said:
“I’m not going to vote to let this bill go forward with this kind of amnesty in it,” Hutchison said. “I think that would just be a mistake for Texas and for the long term for our country.”
Hutchinson and her partner in crime John Cornyn, belonging as they do to the conservative’s “the illegals will magically just go home” club, have a problem with the so-called amensty aspect of the bill:
The legislation has sparked outrage among conservatives who contend it gives amnesty to lawbreakers, and has been met with deep suspicion by Republicans who say their constituents have no faith that laws cracking down on illegal immigrants will be enforced.
Get a clue. The illegals who are already here aren’t leaving and it doesn’t matter how long and how hard Republicans posture. It isn’t going to happen. Republican efforts to “strip amnesty out of the bill” are a waste of oxygen.
This is particularly true given Republicans’ failure to pass their own immigration reforms when they had control of Congress and their even more glaring failure to fund and enforce existing immigration laws during that same period.
What Republicans are saying is that because they failed utterly to secure the borders during their reign they are suspicious of future efforts to correct their ineptitude. Well, I do see their point…
To their credit, Republicans have put forth a couple of reasonable ideas, such as deporting and permanently barring visa holders who overstay their welcome and requiring a background check prior to illegals changing status:
New requirements to track down, deport and permanently bar people who overstay their visas would be added to a broad immigration bill under a GOP bid to attract more Republican support.
The amendment, which also would prevent illegal immigrants from gaining lawful status until they pass a background check, is one of those the Senate will consider next week when it returns its attention to the immigration measure.
By all means, let’s do that. Sounds a bit like a plan made of Swiss cheese, but if that’s what it takes to get the elephant party’s rears in gear, let’s do it.
Though their reasoning is all wrong, Republicans are right about one thing: American leadership must get serious about enforcing immigration laws before the flow of illegals will stop. They are correct, but you know the old saying about a broken clock…
So far I haven’t heard about any proposals to significantly punish businesses who hire illegal laborers. A casual examination of the supply/demand relationship would immediately reveal that this approach would be a step in the right direction.
Of course, few Republicans would be able to accept this sort of amendment to the bill, let alone propose such a thing. Even though they realize that American has to get serious to stop illegal immigration, Republicans are not prepared to do that if it means offending their base.
But the fact is that sometimes the base has to be offended in order to do what is right. That’s why our representatives are in Washington, to do what’s right for America, not to cultivate votes for next year’s harvest.
(See my previous post for an example of the one thing the Dems are doing right – they’re not pandering to the psycho progressives who represent a big part of the vote they have “locked up”.)