Fighting amnesty left us all in the cold - Killing immigration reform

Every once in a while, a song perfectly illustrates the feeling or mood in America. In 1984, with the Soviet Union pulling out of the Summer Games in LA, there was Springsteen's "Born in the USA". In 1991, during the Gulf War, there was Whitney Houston's “Star Spangled Banner" at the Super Bowl. And in 2007, there is John Mellencamp's "Our Country" - a tune mainly used to push Chevy trucks, but could very well be the soundtrack for the Republicans in fly-over America who got together to kill the most recent immigration bill.

When it comes to true immigration reform, there are well-intentioned people on both sides of the debate who will see any compromise of their core values as unacceptable - from liberals who oppose a guest worker program as exploitation of cheap labor and a way to keep wages down to conservatives who oppose any new laws until the southern border is secured. But because these people aren't standing in the way of making a deal, they are willing to be part of the solution: a "grand bargain" in which both sides get some of what they want, neither side gets all of what they want, and we get new immigration laws. Despite their ideological differences, these groups have one important thing in common: they're both in favor of tougher enforcement of existing laws. They make up the "enforcement first" camp and had it been left to them, a bill might have passed.

Unfortunately, there is a much more vocal, engaged group out there. They are the "enforcement only" people and for them, there is only one issue: the status of the "illegals" already here. And there is only one answer: round 'em all up and send 'em all back. As solutions go, "enforcement only" isn't practical. Immigration laws are federal and, by statute, can only be enforced by the federal government (usually through ICE and INS). However, neither of these agencies has the financial, human, or physical resources to investigate, detain, house, and deport millions and millions of people. But the "enforcement only" Mellen-camp doesn't care about "practical", they care about day laborers outside Home Depot and "press 1 for English, 2 for Spanish". This is the Republican base and they are tired of being ignored. After all, this is their country.

If we go back to 2001 and Mexican President Vicente Fox's visit to the White House in August, we can see President Bush, who learned a thing or two about immigration as Governor of Texas, was already out in front of the immigration issue. Events of that September shifted the focus to world events, but a deal was in place six years ago - with the White House leading the way. The issue re-emerged before the elections last year. Senate Republicans knew they needed a legislative accomplishment they could run on and Senate Democrats, despite the fact they were reluctant to give the Republicans such an accomplishment, went along. However, the bill's main opposition in the House, Republican Tom Tancredo (from the whitest suburbs of Denver), called it "amnesty", and other House Republicans scheduled field hearings during the summer recess to see what the base had to say. Of course, the base didn't like it. The bill died, and that was that until the President re-discovered his interest in the issue this year as a way of saving his doomed legacy.

Unfortunately for President Bush, his base's vision of what his presidency should have been is so far from what he delivered that they turned on him. Social conservatives who want Roe v. Wade overturned are unhappy about John Roberts and Samuel Alito. Fiscal conservatives looking for smaller government got more and more spending on new programs, national defense hawks got a poorly planned and horribly under-resourced military engagement (by a Secretary of Defense who ignored his own generals), and Libertarians got a national security apparatus which illegally spied on US citizens. Rank-and-file Republicans had suffered defeat after defeat, culminating in the electoral "thumping" in November, and tuned the President out on this immigration bill.

After all, he was working with Ted Kennedy, the man responsible for the 1986 "amnesty", to get it passed. The Republican base doesn't know much, but they know if Senator Kennedy is for something, they should oppose it. While they know they cannot allow their Senators to even dicuss a bill that might include “amnesty”, they don’t seem to realize that with ICE and INS overwhelmed, “amnesty” is the current state of affairs. Their hysteria to block this “amnesty bill” ensured that “silent amnesty” will continue well into the future and they've made President Bush a lame duck in the process. Fy-over America will regret this in November when they lose the Latino vote and give the White House and Congress to the Democrats, but for now, this is their country.