NYT: A Way Forward on Immigration

America's Voice Blog

Posted 06/29/09 at 01:02pm

RI4a It's worth reading the whole Editorial, "A Way Forward on Immigration," from Saturday's New York Times, but here's a snippet:

President Obama and Congress members met privately at the White House on Thursday for their first major discussion of immigration reform. Immigration is just one unsolved national crisis among many, and it was hard not to suspect that the parties might use the meeting — which had already been twice postponed — to dampen expectations for a bill this year.

The meeting was more encouraging than that. It led to a persuasive show of unity among Republicans and Democrats. Both sides made the case for getting a comprehensive reform bill written and passed this year, or early next. Mr. Obama announced that the homeland security secretary, Janet Napolitano, would lead a working group of both parties and houses of Congress to do that.

It now seems more likely than before that Mr. Obama is ready to lead the way, uniting problem-solvers in both parties out of a long-stalemated debate.

He’d better, because the alternative — another crashing letdown and the traditional exchanges of blame — is awful to consider. Expectations for reform have been steadily rising since the unprecedented Hispanic turnout and Democratic victories of last November. Those hopes have been given a dreadful urgency by the harsh enforcement regime of raids and deportations begun under the Bush administration, which have piled suffering onto hopelessness for millions of people, but not brought the country any closer to a solution.

Thankfully, a path forward is coming into view.

Read the whole piece.