America's Voice Blog

Posted 04/10/09 at 08:23pm

Reaction Roundup: Klein, Petersen, and the Politics of Immigration Reform Moving Forward

signsEver since yesterday's front page New York Times article,  the debate has been raging in the blogosphere and network news over whether or not the signs are pointing to immigration reform moving forward this year.

The Wall Street Journal ran a piece detailing White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel's new tack on the issue, making the success of such a reform more likely:

While Mr. Emanuel once predicted that comprehensive immigration reform wouldn't be considered until the second term of a Democratic president, he now says conversations on the issue will begin this year to lay the groundwork for possible action in 2010. The issue is also likely to arise next week when President Barack Obama travels to Mexico to meet with President Felipe Calderón.

At the same time, CNN was quick to report: "Obama not pushing to pass immigration reform this year:"

While it's a top priority for the president's first term, White House spokesman Nick Shapiro says "the president has consistently said that he wants to start the discussion later this year because our immigration system is broken ... but the economy comes first." 

It seems that Shapiro's comments do not really reflect a shift in the White House answer on moving immigration reform forward this year -- in fact, he restated a campaign promise that the President has repeatedly affirmed since taking office. Moreover, reform advocates agree that fixing the economy must be our nation's top priority, as Shapiro states. However, reform is an integral part of economic recovery, not in opposition to it.

As Maria Teresa Petersen, Executive Director of Voto Latino argues:

Doing the math from a recent Congressional Budget Office report, had we passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill three years ago when President Bush proposed it, taxpayers would have made $66 billion in taxes, fines, and fees paid by undocumented workers. That’s just one more reason why we have to stop saying mañana when it comes to immigration.

In a post entitled, "The Political Case for Immigration Reform," Ezra Klein interviews our Executive Director, Frank Sharry:

I just got off the phone with Frank Sharry, the executive director of the pro-immigration reform group America's Voices, who offered the argument for why Obama should prioritize immigration reform. "Conventional wisdom about immigration before the 2006 and 2008 election was that it was an issue Democrats should fear," he said,"it's a culturally-laced political wedge. It's the rebirth of the Southern strategy. But that has failed miserably. It didn't work in 2006. It was tried in the Republican primary where it failed to derail McCain's candidacy, showing that the anti-immigration folks could shut down the Senate switch board but not stop the candidacy of their most hated candidate in their party's primary. Meanwhile, immigrants showed up in big numbers and helped flip four swing states."

Ezra gives reform a "maybe," at best, on political feasability. However, it is true that the Lou Dobbs lobby, while loud, failed to wield real political power in the last several election cycles. What's more, swing voters are sick of Washington's failure to solve tough problems. Not only is immigration reform the right thing to do, but it is the politically smart thing to do.

As Frank stated in the interview:

Our polling suggests that swing voters who want a new path and less partisanship see immigration as the sort of hard issue Washington is afraid of and they very much want someone to take control of it. And republicans are in a tough situation. If they block reform they lose the fastest growing bloc of voters.

For this very reason, a number of key Republicans are coming out in support of comprehensive reform, and standing up to the worst anti-immigrant rhetoric within their party. Most recently, in an interview with The Hill, former Presidential candidate Mitt Romney argued that he believes that one way to attract more minorities to the GOP is to pass immigration reform before the next election, saying the issue becomes demagogued by both parties on the campaign trail.

Ya think?

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