Immigration

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

I am always amused by the media villagers and Beltway bloviators who blame President Obama for not having passed a comprehensive immigration reform law (as if he can waive a magic wand and simply make it happen). The media suffers from selective memory loss, often for partisan political reasons.

Comprehensive immigration reform was on the table in 2007 with a bipartisan bill, the "Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Reform Act of 2007," cosponsored by Senators Ted Kennedy and John McCain. It had the support of President George W. Bush who had run for office on a promise of comprehensive immigration reform.

The Kennedy-McCain bill was undermined and eventually defeated by far-right extremists in the Republican Party, most notably by Sen. McCain's own seatmate, Sen. Jon Kyl, and Texas Sen. John Cornyn. On June 28, 2007, the heavily amended bill failed to get the 60 votes necessary to end a GOP filibuster. The final cloture vote lost 46-53. This effectively ended its chances, and President Bush said he was disappointed at Congress's failure to act on the issue.

Since then, the conservative position on immigration reform has only hardened, bordering on nativism. John McCain when he ran for president in 2008 had to disown his own bill for comprehensive immigration reform and adopted extremist rhetoric: "Just build the danged fence!"

Today, comprehensive immigration reform cannot even get a committee hearing in the Tea-Publican controlled House or the "filibuster everything" Senate. Don't blame President Obama for this political environment. Opposition to comprehensive immigration reform comes almost exclusively from the conservative far-right.

For years now the Republican excuse for blocking any and all comprehensive immigration reform has been a single, vapid bumper sticker slogan: "Secure the border first." The border is now more secure than it has been in years. Now That Mexican Border is Secure, Will Republicans Stop Blocking Immigration Reform?

From Pew Hispanic Research, Net Migration from Mexico falls to zero and perhaps less:

The largest wave of immigration in history from a single country to the United States has come to a standstill. After four decades that brought 12 million current immigrants—more than half of whom came illegally—the net migration flow from Mexico to the United States has stopped—and may have reversed, according to a new analysis by the Pew Hispanic Center of multiple government data sets from both countries.

The standstill appears to be the result of many factors, including the weakened U.S. job and housing construction markets, heightened border enforcement, a rise in deportations, the growing dangers associated with illegal border crossings, the long-term decline in Mexico’s birth rates and changing economic conditions in Mexico.

By Michael Bryan

As we near the time for arguments before the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of Arizona's SB1070, the Senate has held a hearing on the law.

Testifying about the bill were recalled former Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce (pro at 19:56), retired U.S. Senator Dennis DiConcini (con at 25:30), Arizona State Senator Steve Gallardo (con at 35:27), and Todd Landfried of Arizona Employers for Immigration Reform (con at 42:15). Questions begin at 49:05 with Schumer questioning Pearce.

Tellingly, Republican Senators Jon Kyl and John Cornyn both ducked out of the hearing leaving Pearce the sole supporter of the law in the hearing room. He was a bit sore about it, whining to the press, "I didn't get a phone call… I was disappointed. It's not just about supporting me, it's about supporting Arizona."

Kyl released a statement explaining his boycott of the hearing and labeling the hearing "strictly political theater." Governor Brewer also declined to attend and testify. One wonders why, if Kyl and Brewer considered the hearing political theater, they failed to make a curtain call: political theater is their profession, so given a chance to strut the boards before a national audience, why would they refuse the chance at a soliloquy?

UPDATE: (h/t to Bess1919) Apparently, one of Pearce's posse falsely accused Randy Parraz of shoving him after the hearing and was questioned by capitol police. Stay classy, Mr. Pearce.

UPDATE: Listening to Pearce's pressers following the hearing he made some claims that are wholly unjustified by the facts. He claimed that up to 9,000 Americans are killed per year by undocumented aliens. This clearly implies that a murder spree is on. The facts is that there are generally about 15,000 murders in the U.S. per year: Pearce is claiming that 3 out of every 5 murders are perpetrated by undocumented aliens? Bullshit. He also claimed that undocumented aliens commit crimes at three times the rate of "any other demographic". That's simply not true, either. Immigrant populations generally, and Mexican immigrants, including undocumented, commit crimes at a rate lower than any native-born demographic. Finally, Pearce claims to have met with DREAM students personally. I find that claim doubtful. Any DREAM students out there who can support Pearce's claim to have met with your personally, or even in a group?

Watch the hearing after the click…

by David Safier One of these days Mitt will figure it out. Instead of coming up with different positions for different days of the week, he'll just start answering "All of the above." Kris Kobach, the brains behind SB1070, used to call himself an adviser on immigration issues for Romney. That was back when Romney … Read more

by David Safier Get ready for Mitt to go soft on Hispanics after drawing a very hard line in the sand, and on the border. He's distancing himself from Kris Kobach, the brains behind Russell Pearce's SB1070 (You knew there had to be someone with brains behind it, right?) It wasn't always so. In January, … Read more