A part of me is envious of those Democrats who have their hangups with abortion to the poi
nt that they don’t agree with the mainstream of their own political party.
They were able to get promises of an Executive Order to be issued that would place restrictions on federal funding for abortion-related activities – an order that will offend the bulk of the party. But that was the price for health care reform that President Barack Obama was willing to pay.
WHAT CONCESSIONS DID Latino congressmen with an interest in immigration reform manage to get from Obama in exchange for their support for the health care reform measure that the president will count on to be a major part of his legacy?
We got some weak promises that immigration reform will be considered. We also got some vague rhetoric about an immigration reform measure that many proponents of the issue feel is inferior to the rhetoric that has been tossed about by Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., for the past few months.
So there will be some talk. But we don’t have anything even close to concrete action. We don’t have anything in writing, or even any promises that there will be something in writing.
We got a whole lotta nothin’.
SO I FEEL like Robert Redford’s “Bill McKay” character in wondering, “What do we do now?,” even though I realize his question came in the moment of electoral “victory” while ours comes at a time of political confusion.
Because the big thing we’re going to have to do is sit back and wait, and hope that no one out of some sense of impatience does something garish that causes the populace to want this issue to wither away unattended to.
Gutierrez has said his proposal that is meant to create measures by which people without valid visas cam remain openly in the United States will be introduced in coming weeks, and he will start pushing to get his bill moving through the legislative process.
In short, Gutierrez does not merely want to be someone whose name is attached to a bill that goes nowhere.
WHICH IS NOT the sense that I get from Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., who are the senators who plan to introduce an immigration reform bill later this year based on four principles they espoused in a recent Washington Post commentary. Only one of those principles involved those people without visas – and the Schumer/Graham measure uses such rhetoric as “community service” and “fines.”
Somebody seems determined to perceive a problem so as to feed the stereotypes of the nativist element of our society – stereotypes that ought to be shot down instead of being fed.
Obama has said he likes Schumer/Graham because, with lead sponsors from each major political party, it has the appearance of bipartisanship.
But there are those Latino activists who are convinced the way a reform proposal for this issue will become law is if Obama is prepared to use the same hard-ball tactics that got Democrats to overwhelmingly impose health care reform despite unanimous Republican objections.
BECAUSE IT IS likely that this will remain a partisan-charged issue.
Even Graham has since said he’s skeptical anything will get approved on immigration reform, because Republicans are now seriously upset that all their huffing, puffing and threats to blow the house down failed to stop health care reform from becoming an actual law – once Obama puts his signature to the required paperwork later Tuesday.
In short, Republicans who wanted the “achievement” of stopping Obama on health care reform will now take it out on immigration – which provides them with a double-boost because (they think) the only people who support the issue are all those “foreigners.”
Actually, it’s not.
FOR THE REALITY is that immigration reform helps us all by encouraging people who are making worthwhile contributions to the economy through their labor to remain in this country. It makes us a stronger country.
Whenever we have people engage in cheap rhetoric about qualifications and wanting to take only certain types of people from other countries, all too often it comes across as borderline racist rants meant to exclude.
Think about it.
They say we should only take people of certain education levels or skills, as though that is what ought to be required to be a United States resident. There are people born in this country who go around screeching that they are “real Americans” who can’t fufill those qualifications.
SHOULD WE NOW deport the bulk of the population of Mississippi as not being good enough to live in this country? That would be ridiculous, almost as much as much of the anti-immigration rhetoric that gets spewed these days.
So, what DO we do now?
We’re going to have to keep attention on the issue, because I’m sure there are those political people who would breathe a collective sigh of relief if those 100,000 or so people who showed up in Washington on Sunday were to go back home and do nothing.
Activists are going to have to work to keep the issue alive in the public mindset (and to give it a jumpstart in the minds of certain apathetic people).
FOR THOSE PEOPLE who claim that immigration reform canNOT happen this year because it is an Election year, all I have to say is that there are many activists who would be a lot happier these days if this issue had been dealt with already.
We would have loved to have action in ’09, but Obama allies made the call to put it off until now. It can’t wait much longer.
-30-
nt that they don’t agree with the mainstream of their own political party.They were able to get promises of an Executive Order to be issued that would place restrictions on federal funding for abortion-related activities – an order that will offend the bulk of the party. But that was the price for health care reform that President Barack Obama was willing to pay.
WHAT CONCESSIONS DID Latino congressmen with an interest in immigration reform manage to get from Obama in exchange for their support for the health care reform measure that the president will count on to be a major part of his legacy?
We got some weak promises that immigration reform will be considered. We also got some vague rhetoric about an immigration reform measure that many proponents of the issue feel is inferior to the rhetoric that has been tossed about by Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., for the past few months.
So there will be some talk. But we don’t have anything even close to concrete action. We don’t have anything in writing, or even any promises that there will be something in writing.
We got a whole lotta nothin’.
SO I FEEL like Robert Redford’s “Bill McKay” character in wondering, “What do we do now?,” even though I realize his question came in the moment of electoral “victory” while ours comes at a time of political confusion.
Because the big thing we’re going to have to do is sit back and wait, and hope that no one out of some sense of impatience does something garish that causes the populace to want this issue to wither away unattended to.
Gutierrez has said his proposal that is meant to create measures by which people without valid visas cam remain openly in the United States will be introduced in coming weeks, and he will start pushing to get his bill moving through the legislative process.
In short, Gutierrez does not merely want to be someone whose name is attached to a bill that goes nowhere.
WHICH IS NOT the sense that I get from Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., who are the senators who plan to introduce an immigration reform bill later this year based on four principles they espoused in a recent Washington Post commentary. Only one of those principles involved those people without visas – and the Schumer/Graham measure uses such rhetoric as “community service” and “fines.”
Somebody seems determined to perceive a problem so as to feed the stereotypes of the nativist element of our society – stereotypes that ought to be shot down instead of being fed.
Obama has said he likes Schumer/Graham because, with lead sponsors from each major political party, it has the appearance of bipartisanship.
But there are those Latino activists who are convinced the way a reform proposal for this issue will become law is if Obama is prepared to use the same hard-ball tactics that got Democrats to overwhelmingly impose health care reform despite unanimous Republican objections.
BECAUSE IT IS likely that this will remain a partisan-charged issue.
Even Graham has since said he’s skeptical anything will get approved on immigration reform, because Republicans are now seriously upset that all their huffing, puffing and threats to blow the house down failed to stop health care reform from becoming an actual law – once Obama puts his signature to the required paperwork later Tuesday.
In short, Republicans who wanted the “achievement” of stopping Obama on health care reform will now take it out on immigration – which provides them with a double-boost because (they think) the only people who support the issue are all those “foreigners.”
Actually, it’s not.
FOR THE REALITY is that immigration reform helps us all by encouraging people who are making worthwhile contributions to the economy through their labor to remain in this country. It makes us a stronger country.
Whenever we have people engage in cheap rhetoric about qualifications and wanting to take only certain types of people from other countries, all too often it comes across as borderline racist rants meant to exclude.
Think about it.
They say we should only take people of certain education levels or skills, as though that is what ought to be required to be a United States resident. There are people born in this country who go around screeching that they are “real Americans” who can’t fufill those qualifications.
SHOULD WE NOW deport the bulk of the population of Mississippi as not being good enough to live in this country? That would be ridiculous, almost as much as much of the anti-immigration rhetoric that gets spewed these days.
So, what DO we do now?
We’re going to have to keep attention on the issue, because I’m sure there are those political people who would breathe a collective sigh of relief if those 100,000 or so people who showed up in Washington on Sunday were to go back home and do nothing.
Activists are going to have to work to keep the issue alive in the public mindset (and to give it a jumpstart in the minds of certain apathetic people).
FOR THOSE PEOPLE who claim that immigration reform canNOT happen this year because it is an Election year, all I have to say is that there are many activists who would be a lot happier these days if this issue had been dealt with already.
We would have loved to have action in ’09, but Obama allies made the call to put it off until now. It can’t wait much longer.
-30-
0 comments:
Post a Comment