The Republican Crossroads on Immigration
A flood of emails this morning on my column examining the Crossroads the Republican party faces on Immigration reform and how to deal with illegal immigration.
I am puzzled too. This is ineptness beyond comprehension.The debate has become one of immigration rather than one of illegal immigration. I am for legal immigration - I am a legal immigrant and a naturalized citizen. I am not for illegal immigration. But the Senate obviously can't recognize the difference.
The second issue is one of a secure border. It belies credulity that we are fighting a war thousands of miles away to enhance global security while having our own southern border leaking like a sieve.
I don't think much of Congress. I have been a strong Bush supporter mainly because I thought he would do the right thing even if he could not explain it very well. Now i'm starting to wonder whether it is fatigue that is overtaking him or just presidential hubris.
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So absolutely True! But I fear Bush and the GOP are so totally corrupted that your outstanding, common sense advise will be completely ignored. I know it all started much earlier than Katrina, but using that tragedy as the historical marker, this President and his Administration, and the Republican controlled Congress, have been so disconnected from the "The People" that there is no doubt in my mind that they are going down to defeat and taking us all with them.
Bush and the GOP have gone crazy with power and greed, and they've lost all contact with reality. Middle of the road Republicans and Independents who put these guys into power have been "turning off" by the thousands since Katrina. Donations and campaign workers are slowing and will be tougher to come by. And, come Election Day, they'll stay away from the polls by the millions.
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Enjoyed your RCP article on the building rage on illegal immigration. I certainly feel that way, but then again, I also felt that about Kelo, and I haven't seen a backlash there either.
So when you assert that there's a growing backlash building in the grassroots, I'm hopeful that you're right, but I didn't see any grounding for the assertion within the text.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Concerning your May 30, 2006 article "The Republican Crossroads on Immigration", I think you have the politics of this right in every detail. I hope the Republicans follow your "roadmap".
One practical issue that I think you should consider.Among the 11 million illegals estimated to be here, half or more, I think I've read, have been here over 5 years. And theoretically a percentage (maybe 10?) has been here since the 1980's. Their kids are now, possibly, college graduates.
If "close the border" comes first, some years (we're talking "Washington time" here) will pass before "path to citizenship" happens, if it ever does.
Please picture the "established illegal," who has been here since 1990 and whose family is now engaged more in America than in the homeland. And now there is a dying parent back home. What to do?
1. Go home to hold the hand of the dying mother and face the now-closed border, and the possibility of never being reunited in America with wife and children and grand children.
2. Or all leave (Tancredo's dream!) and throw away the last 15 years of building a life here. (fat chance!)
3. Or continue to lay low in America, hoping that someday "selfless" Congressmen will see that they aren't the only ones deeply affected by their cynical quest for re-election.
Love your articles, but, as President Bush says, "this issue affects real people living real lives." Personally, I am delighted that some of my fellow Republicans (McCain and Graham of SC to name two) have retained the ability to be practical and compassionate without giving away the store.
Given the high emotion on this issue, do you think failure to deliver a comprehensive immigration overhaul will open the door to a centrist third party (McCain-Lieberman, for example), which will use the immigration stand-off to end "domination by extremists" in the established parties?
As I read the 5/30 USA Today "Four Factions" survey, 75% of approximately 75% (75x75=56%) favor doing the "right thing" with regard to those illegals already here. I, for one, am growing desperate for a non-extreme choice.
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I have been voting for the GOP in every election from 1992 (the first year I was eligible to vote) to this most recent presidential election. I can tell you with one hundred percent certainty however that if the GOP decides to keep alive its fantasy of "appealing to Hispanic voters" through granting an amnesty to these eleven million (or more) illegal, they can consider me a vote lost...permanently. Let's be clear on what "amnesty" means to a pissed off soon-to-be-former-GOP-voter like myself. Any governmental action that allows illegals to acquire citizenship in the United States without returning to their home of origin and applying for citizenship like everyone else on planet earth is an amnesty and I will refuse to support permanently the "right wing" party if it chooses to go down this path of lawlessness and blatant political pandering.
I can only be betrayed and abused so many times after all and if they decide to mock the value system of their conservative voters on this issue or compromise in any way with this horrid senate legislation, I will enjoy watching the GOP crash and burn as all conservatives of conscience desert this travesty of a political party during the next election and not vote at al------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ronald Reagan signed the last amnesty in 1986. When all those hundreds of thousands were marching through Chicago with their Mexican flags and "Che"