The President met with GOP Senators Tuesday to try and salvage his Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Reform Act of 2007 (the name seems to be as important as any particular provision with the GOP, doesn’t it?).
In fact, as the day went on, the President went from ‘courting,’ to ‘imploring,’ and finally to ‘pleading‘ with the GOP for their support on the bi-partisan compromise.
As delicious as it is to watch Bush grovel to his own party – and ironically frustrating that the GOP manages to be better at cowing him than the Democartic majority is – I actually find myself behind him on this issue.
The immigration compromise isn’t perfect, but it also isn’t terrible; and it’s far better than doing nothing.
The touchbacks and penalty fines are harsh, although Senator Kennedy’s provision to add back taxes to the tab would have been even more financially regressive, yet was striken from the bill.
But what the Congressional Republicans really oppose is the “amnesty” aspect, and want more focus put on “border security.” But the amnesty isn’t really amnesty, is it? And when they talk about border security, they’re only talking about the Mexican border.
This morning, on MSNBC, Pat Buchanan said “Support for this in Congress is collapsing. If this is such a popular bill, why is that?”
It’s about racism, that’s why – and any other explanation offered is simply bullshit. To say that it has nothing to do with race is like saying the Iraq war has nothing to do with oil.
Like the Chinese Exclusion Act and the NINA movement before it, this is not about immigrants, it’s about a specific group of immigrants – Mexicans.
It’s really about Latinos in general (and many opponents in Florida will be disappointed to learn that immigration laws don’t apply to Puerto Ricans, since they are actually American citizens), but otherwise intelligent folks like Buchanan don’t seem to make such distinctions when they talk about the “third world invasion.” Besides, Mexico is where they cross the border, so they’re all Mexicans, right?
Interestingly, the compromise has been derided as being racist, and in some ways, it is; but apparently not it’s not racist enough for some members of the GOP.
Furthermore, once we set aside the racial aspects, the problem seems to go away with it. If you take away the discriminatory aspects, what are we left with? Security issues? So far, every terrorist we have ever captured or learned of has eithered entered the country through proper legal channels, or via Canada, despite being “more conspicuous.” Capacity issues? From the pro-family, pro-life, anti-birth-control set? You’re kidding, right?
If those are really problems, then the answer is to make it easier to get into the country, not harder. Making it easy means knowing who’s coming in, and how many are coming through. Making it easy also means more people paying their taxes, fewer people dying to get in and making the illegal flow easier to manage.
Of course, making it easy ends the 50¢/hour buffet of cheap labor, which means higher prices for produce and fewer manicured lawns; but we are supposed to be looking at the big picture here, right? So what’s the problem?
Oh yeah, I forgot, they’re still Latinos.
Let’s cut the crap and talk about what we’re really afraid of, here. As ugly as it is, at least it’s honest.
