Editorial:
Like little kids, immigration reform has been held out there just above our heads, bouncing up and down at the end of a string as the politicans teased the Hispanic community. All year long politicans have been out there telling us here it is you can have it and then taking it away. That is how it has felt, both frustrating, yet predictable.
The Hispanic community was promised immigration reform by President Obama with his election push in 2008, and he re-stated his promises during his re-election in 2012. But, as this year closes, we are still waiting for change. On Dec 12th, Congress left for their winter break, they will not reconvene until the first week of January 2014. They still haven’t taken action on immigration reform!
Yet, this lack of action could turn out to be a good thing! It can be considered a blessing in disguise that a bad immigration reform package was not rushed through Congress.
The hope for immigration reform this year was fueled by the dismal showing by the Republicans in the last Presidential election with the Hispanic community. If the Republican Party wants to win in the next election, they have to mend bridges with the Hispanic voter and the best place to start, it was assumed, was with immigration reform.
The gang of eight, led by Republican Marco Rubio who also holds aspirations in the next Presidential election, passed an immigration reform bill out of the Senate almost a full year ago. The bill then went before Congress where it has died a slow death.
Immigration activists have been putting on a full court press to get immigration reform done. They have marched, they have protested, held sit-ins, they have visited Congressional offices, and they have fasted for reform. In general, public opinion is in favor of immigration reform. Unions have joined the fight, as have big business, all to no avail.
The reasons for failure are multi-faceted, but at its core is that the Republican led Congress did not want to pass an immigration reform package.
Republican Congressional Speaker John Boehner stonewalled immigration reform from ever getting to committee. He was quoted as saying just a couple of weeks ago: “The idea that we’re going to take up a 1,300-page bill that no one had ever read, which is what the Senate did, is not going to happen in the House.”
Republicans stonewalled the community, not taking meetings, locking their doors, and ignoring the pleas of the immigrant community and their supporters.
Immigration activists saw the Republican fervor to reach out to the Hispanic community as an opening to press forward on a reform package this year. With a bill coming out of the Senate almost a year ago, immigration reform was tantalizingly close to becoming a reality.
That the Senate bill did not become reality may in fact be a blessing. The bill that was before Congress was heavily laden with border security measures that took priority. The path to citizenship was a maze of obstacles that made citizenship an improbable reality. As noted, the bill was 1300 pages that did not spell out reform, but made sure that drones would be flying along our borders and that the border fence was completed.
In the hands of the Republican-controlled Congress we can only imagine what would have come out of this august body, but we believe it to would have dealt more with border security with little to do with reform or the very important goal of a path to citizenship.
Sometimes it is wise to take a step back and ask ourselves is this really what is needed a border security laden bill or a bill that provides a realistic path to citizenship, deals with family unification, and gives our DREAMers a chance to succeed in the United States.
If we are to get an immigration reform bill passed it should be a bill that reflects real reform, that treats the immigrant community in a humane manner reflecting the value of this community to our society, and not just as a security threat to our nation. To accept anything less would do a disservice to our gente.
While immigration reform will continue on to be a topic in the New Year the reality of the situation is not good.
Republicans will be gearing up for the next Presidential election and immigration reform does not sit well with their conservative base. It may be a while before we see true reform happen.