Coming Back to Bite Them

No one can say we didn't warn everyone. When House Republican "leaders" unveiled their "principles for immigration reform", we sounded the alarms. And sure enough, and within days of the release of those "principles", Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) threw cold water on all those "principles".

That's why we then warned House Republicans that they can't have it both ways on comprehensive immigration reform (CIR). They can't simultaneously be for it and against it. They can't say they want it, then reject every possible way to make it happen. They can't "have their cake and eat it too".

And yesterday, this became all too apparent when Senator Chuck Schumer (D-New York) made an offer that Republicans theoretically shouldn't refuse.

"There's a simple solution: Let's enact the law this year but simply not let it actually start until 2017, after President Obama's term is over," Schumer, the third-ranking Senate Democrat said on NBC's "Meet The Press."

A spokesman for House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) rejected Schumer's idea saying it would remove the impetus for Obama to enforce immigration laws during his remaining time in office.

"The suggestion is entirely impractical, since it would totally eliminate the President's incentive to enforce immigration law for the remainder of his term," said Boehner spokesman Michael Steel.

To be fair, Mr. Steel has a point. Obviously, the new immigration law would remain dormant for the remainder of President Obama's second term. That would mean the President would have to enforce current law, and that would likely put additional pressure on President Obama to add to his already record breaking number of deportations made during his presidency. (Oops, we don't think that's the message Michael Steel wanted to convey.)

But then again, this isn't why Republicans are dragging their feet on CIR. We know it has nothing to do with President Obama's record of enforcing current immigration law. Rather, it has everything to do with Republicans' tempestuous relationship with their own 21st Century Know Nothing base. While Republican "leaders" know their fealty to the G-O-TEA Culture Warrior agenda causes them a boatload of problems among the general electorate, they just can't seem to quit their addiction to all that "TEA" fueled rage. (After all, that rage is now the party's base.)

And now, that rage is fully consuming them alive. We've asked this before, but we must ask it again today: How is this helping the Republican Party or the nation?

Unfortunately, Salon's Alex Pareene recently hit the nail on the head with his explanation of why CIR can't pass this Congress.

[...] “Comprehensive immigration reform” — defined as a bill making it possible for currently undocumented residents to earn legal status and/or citizenship — can’t happen now because Republicans control the House of Representatives, conservatives control the Republican Party, and conservatives oppose granting legal status to undocumented immigrants. It’s a very simple calculation, and most discussions of the political status of immigration reform could start and end with some variation on that explanation.

But people need something to talk about, and politicians need reasons to go on Sunday shows. Elected officials need to “signal” to important donors and interest groups that they are doing everything in their power to enact the preferred policies of those important donors and interest groups. There is really more incentive for Republicans to talk about immigration reform than to actually pass it. Obviously lots of Republicans do sincerely want immigration reform to pass. But those Republicans don’t have a majority in the House, and until that changes, immigration reform will be practically politically impossible. [...]

It has become incredibly difficult even to pass the recurring omnibus bills — like the farm bill, which took a few years to make it through the House, and the transportation bill, which will likely cause Congress to melt down in acrimony and dysfunction once again later this fall — that Congress uses to keep the government funded and operating. The idea that new initiatives and major reforms might be possible with this Congress is just fantasy. Comprehensive tax reform? Immigration reform? “Entitlement reform”? Various politicians will claim, over the next few months, that all of those things and more could happen before the next Congress is sworn in. They will be wrong, but the political press, in need of something to talk about, will take the idea seriously for a while anyway.

True, that. If G-O-TEA Culture Warriors can even jeopardize the full faith & credit of the US, what makes anyone think they'll let Congress pass CIR?

But wait, what if we don't need their permission to pass CIR? After all, we actually don't. It's only Republican "leaders" who imposed this artificial condition on the rest of America. And they can easily drop this artificial condition and allow a floor vote on HR 15. Or at the very least, they can allow their "pro-reform" backbenchers (cough- Joe Heck- cough) to sign a discharge petition for HR 15 so that G-O-TEA "leadership" won't be blamed for showing any real leadership on immigration reform.

But so far, G-O-TEA "leadership" won't even allow for that. And one day, they will regret it. As long as they try to kill CIR softly, it will only come back to bite them later.

Pulling Out All the Stops

Last week, we observed the mounting "tea party" campaign to kill comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) legislation in Congress by invoking the Boston Marathon Attack. Never mind that Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev were granted legal asylum, and ultimately citizenship. At the very least, CIR would not have expedited the Tsarnaev brothers' plot. If anything, it may have given law enforcement more tools to prevent this tragedy!

However, that didn't stop Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) from continuing to peddle wildly inaccurate "tea party" conspiracy theories. Yet oddly enough, he also denied he ever went there! Yes, go ahead and see the madness for yourself. This is from today's Senate CIR hearing.

During a hearing on Friday, Grassley argued that “[g]iven the events of this week, it’s important to understand the gaps and loopholes” in the immigration system. “While we don’t yet know the immigration status of people who terrorized the the communities in Massachusetts, when we find out, it will help shed light on the weaknesses of our system.”

And Senator Chuck Schumer (D-New York) didn't stop there. He continued calling out both the radical & xenophobia fueled opposition to CIR. He also pointed out the nefarious delay tactics opponents are trying to use to kill the bill.



Perhaps Senator Schumer paid close attention to what Ezra Klein wrote this morning.

“I call Washington ‘the city of the perishable,’” Nancy Pelosi once told me. Anything left out on the floor of Congress too long runs the risk of spoiling.

The conservatives massing to stop immigration reform agree with Pelosi. This push for immigration reform, they hope, is perishable. And as long as it doesn’t come for a vote anytime soon, it can spoil — or be spoiled.

So they’re grasping at anything that can delay it. At Friday’s Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Chuck Grassley spent his entire opening statement emphasizing the need for less speed. “Unfortunately, I think that we’re kind of off to a rough start from the standpoint that the majority is rushing to read and analyze the bill,” he said. One unsavory reason he gave for slowing down the bill: “While we don’t yet know the immigration status of people who have terrorized the communities in Massachusetts, when we find out, it will help shed light on the weaknesses of our system.”

Seeing the danger of tying the Boston bombers to the proposal, Sen. Lindsey Graham replied from the Sunday shows. “What happened in Boston and international terrorism I think should urge us to act quicker, not slower,” he said on CNN, arguing that passing the bill would mean strengthening border security and better tracking who is actually here. Sen. Marco Rubio’s office also harshly rebutted Grassley’s comments.

The other advantage of slowing the bill down is that it creates an opening to oppose the law — or at least its progress — without opposing the law itself. It could even allow some senators to have it both ways. A key dynamic to watch as reform grinds on is where Rubio falls on the calls to endlessly lengthen the schedule. If, as conservative opposition mounts, he joins with those who want a slower process, he could help the anti-immigration forces on their key tactical priorities for killing immigration reform even as he publicly supports the bill itself.

Even if the law passes the Senate, it will be mired in the House. “The bill will be immediately sent to the committees, and then either sent back to the Senate with changes, or rewritten in a bicameral conference committee,” reports Robert Costa. “That tweaking process could take months, which is just fine with many Republicans, who’d like the public to have as much time as possible to chew over the controversial elements of Obama’s prized bills. The caucus consensus is: The more time Congress takes to consider a bill, the more time the public has to sour on its components.”

They know this is their best path, and perhaps their only available path, to kill CIR in Congress. Just stretch out the process and find more excuses to delay even further. And then, just hope that the process becomes so toxic that bill can no longer survive.

They have to do this because their arguments have no basis in reality. As mentioned above, the "TERRORISM!!!" panic is completely illogical. And the economic case doesn't make sense, either. Former Commerce Secretary (under President George W. Bush) Carlos Gutierrez recently refuted this.



And this is backed up by actual data. CIR can actually help American born workers along with immigrant workers. And overall, CIR stands to help the American economy build and maintain a competitive advantage. Just watch out when trying to explain this to the "tea party".

But really, they don't care about the (lack of) veracity of their argument. They're now just flinging crap to the walls of Congress and hoping enough sticks to kill the bill. That's why the increasingly infamous Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) just wrote a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Searchlight, Don't Forget It) demanding CIR "address national security concerns". (Never mind that it already does & probably does so in a more effective way than what Rand Paul wants!) So of course, this quickly led to fellow 2016 Presidential Candidate Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida), himself a Gang of 8 member (??!!), promising to address "flaws in our immigration system that were exposed by the attack."

And in case this latest outbreak of "tea party" madness isn't enough, expect even more. They're continuing to attack Marco Rubio for even joining the Gang of 8, and they now have these lovely buttons to display their opposition to CIR in a very special way. In addition, RedState.com co-founder and particularly loud "tea party" pundit Erick Erikson declared, "Count me out!" (of the Gang of 8 CIR compromise).

What's so disgustingly funny about this is that the virulent "tea party" opposition to the Gang of 8 CIR bill might lead some to believe their bill is so "wildly & radically progressive". But really, it isn't. In fact, their bill appropriates even more federal funds for even more militarization of the US-Mexico Border while subjecting undocumented immigrants to a 13 year path to citizenship! Oh, and the bill (as is) fails to address the plight of LGBTQ families. That's what led a former Republican Member of Congress to speak out today.

"I know, as the partner of an immigrant how difficult it can be to build a life and protect the system under the current system," he said. "While this is an excellent starting point, I submit to you it is still incomplete. Families like mine are left behind as part of the proposal."

Immigrant and gay rights groups were disappointed last week when the "Gang of 8's" bipartisan immigration bill did not include measures allowing Americans to bring same-sex partners or spouses from abroad on family visas. Because of the Defense Of Marriage Act, now under review by the Supreme Court, the federal government is barred from recognizing gay marriages for immigration purposes, forcing many families into effective exile abroad.

"My partner was born in Panama and came to the United States on a scholarship to pursue [a graduate degree] in special education," [Former Rep. Jim] Kolbe [R-Arizona], who was outed in 1996 after voting in favor of DOMA, said. "He has been a dedicated teacher for almost two decades. He was...was forced to turn to Panama when his visa expired. The separation was painful."

Kolbe and his fiance are planning to marry in DC next month. It just took an incredibly long and expensive visa process to get them there. And as of now, the Gang of 8 bill does nothing to fix this. President Obama has endorsed inclusion of the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) in CIR legislation, and at least a few Senators have expressed interest in adding UAFA to the Gang of 8 bill as an amendment.

The Gang of 8 bill truly is a compromise. It includes some priorities that progressives care about, along with priorities that conservatives care about. And it addresses a long standing problem that needs to be solved... Well, a decade ago.

But again, even this is just too much for the G-O-TEA. So they're pulling out all the stops to kill the bill. And now, we're left (again) to see which way Senator Dean Heller (R-TEA Curious) is blowing to determine the fate of immigration reform. It may ultimately depend on how much "TEA" Heller decides to drink.

Oh, joy... (/snark)