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IN MEXIFORNIA, VIRTUALLY ! ALL ! DEMS CONTINUE TO PUSH FOR THE LA RAZA AMNESTY!
UNEMPLOYMENT WILL NEVER BE HIGH ENOUGH THEY WILL START WORKING FOR AMERICANS!
Dems embrace immigration fight
By: Scott Wong
September 29, 2010 04:31 AM EDT
Polls show that voters favor Republicans’ hard-line approach to immigration, and there’s virtually no chance that any immigration bill will pass before Congress adjourns for the fall campaign.
Yet two days before the Senate heads home, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) is expected to introduce sweeping immigration legislation, a move seemingly designed to drive Hispanics and reform backers to the polls and remind them which party is still pushing for liberalized immigration laws.
Menendez’s comprehensive reform bill — which would provide a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants — will most likely die a quiet death at the end of this Congress, alongside another immigration measure known as the DREAM Act, which was blocked last week by Senate Republicans.
But Democratic strategists say there is still political wisdom in the party’s embracing, rather than running from, immigration measures during an election year.
“The conventional wisdom is that [immigration] is a bad issue for Democrats. That is wrong,” said one Democratic House aide familiar with the party’s strategy.
“The politicos in the Democratic Party said what we need to do is not talk about it and it will go away, but with 400,000 deportations of people who are not criminals, it is not going away.”
Menendez, chairman of the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee, insisted his latest efforts are more about good policy than politics.
But he said his immigration plan and last week’s DREAM Act vote offer voters a clear choice on Nov. 2.
“If you look at all of the polls, overwhelmingly, people want to see a resolution of the problem. They want to see our system reformed,” Menendez told POLITICO Tuesday. “So clearly, you see the difference between those who are willing to move forward and get a reform and [those who are] not, and for the Hispanic community, clearly they understand who stands on their side and [who does] not.”
Republicans think the legislation is just a game to gin up the base, potentially in heavily Hispanic parts of the country.
The fall push for immigration reform is “for effect rather than reality,” said Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.). And Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who previously sponsored the DREAM Act but doesn’t support it now, called it nothing more than a “cynical ploy for votes.”
“Sooner or later, we’ve got to do it, but anything done in this time period is just for show,” Hatch told POLITICO. “Apparently, [Menendez] thinks there is some benefit, but it is cynical and it’s not right to do it at this point. And it’s very unlikely for it to have any success. In fact, it’s impossible.”
Even some pro-immigrant activists, like Marie Gonzalez of Kansas, an early advocate of the DREAM Act, say there’s little enthusiasm for comprehensive legislation, particularly just a week after the more narrow DREAM Act measure went down in defeat. The bill would provide a path to legalization for young, undocumented immigrants who attend college or join the military for two years.
“Anyone that is willing to help us, we’re always for that, but the reality is that this is very unlikely,” said Gonzalez, 24, whose parents brought her to the U.S. from Costa Rica when she was 5 but who is still awaiting citizenship. “Given the timing, given the lack of bipartisan support, I think it’s hard to get excited about it.”
Sources familiar with the Menendez bill said it will be introduced as early as Wednesday night and will resemble the Democratic framework Menendez, Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and New York Sen. Chuck Schumer rolled out in April after talks with Republicans broke down.
“It has the same basic elements,” said one Senate Democratic aide.
The original blueprint included a path to citizenship for the 11 million illegal immigrants already in the U.S., an employer verification program using tamperproof biometric ID cards, a temporary worker program and measures to beef up border security with more personnel and technology.
The Menendez bill could include the DREAM Act, and the senator has said his legislation will have “plenty of Republican ideas in it.”
But Republicans say Menendez has yet to reach out to them.
“I’ve heard that argument before, and what that means is they don’t have any Republicans who support it,” said John Cornyn of Texas, chairman of the Senate Republican Campaign Committee.
Added Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who at one time had been his party’s chief negotiator on immigration reform but now backs tough measures like the Arizona law: “Generally speaking, if you want something done, you consult with the other side of the aisle, but that is not Sen. Menendez’s style.”
While pre-election partisanship is a given, most Republicans will cringe at any overhaul plan that includes a pathway to citizenship. They simply dismiss such a plan as “amnesty” for lawbreakers.
Menendez believes “there must be an accommodation and a special program for those illegally here before we can consider anything else, and that’s a nonstarter,” said Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-Calif.), chairman of the conservative House Immigration Reform Caucus.
A Gallup Poll conducted in the last week of August revealed that voters trust Republicans over Democrats on the issue of immigration 50 percent to 35 percent.
Meanwhile, a Rasmussen Reports poll the same month showed that voters favor Republicans on immigration 44 percent to 35 percent. The gap has narrowed since June, when the GOP held a 15-point advantage.
The two parties were driven further apart this summer as Republicans rallied behind Arizona’s immigration law, known as S.B. 1070, which requires police to check the immigration status of people suspected of being in the country illegally. The Obama administration is challenging the law in the courts, an action unpopular with some vulnerable Democrats.
“We have met a wall of united Republican obstruction which is unprecedented when it comes to immigration debates in this country,” said Deepak Bhargava, executive director of the Washington-based Center for Community Change, which backs an immigration overhaul.
Previous immigration reform bills, he noted, had attracted at least some GOP support in the Senate — 12 Republicans backed an overhaul bill in 2007.
“A shift was made to press forward and stop waiting for Republicans to come to the table,” Bhargava added.
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