Immigration Compromise on the Horizon?

As Bush contemplates deploying up to 10K National Guard troops  to the Mexican border, the Sentate seems to have settled upon a compromise that could open a path to permanent legal status for millions of undocumented immigrants. Of course, there remains a vast gulf between the likely Senate bill and the Sensenbrenner bill passed earlier by the House, and caused millions to take to the streets in protest in recent weeks. To his credit, Bush seems committed to push for a comprehensive immigration plan that includes legalization of immigrants already here and a guest worker program, despite intense pressure from many in the right wing of his dwindling base.

I have mixed feelings about a potential deployment of the National Guard troops to the border. On the one hand there are definite benefits, as Governor Napolitano acknowledges by supporting such a deployment. Perhaps the most direct and tangible benefit is not operational in nature, however, it is dramatic. Deployment of the Guard will demonstrate the federal government’s commitment to address the border issue in a tangible, nearly theatrical, manner. It’s political kabuki, not practical policy, but it might help mute the appeal of fringe anti-immigrant advocates, such as the Minutemen and their sympathizers, who have so effectively made hay out of the perception of federal innaction at the border.

On the down-side, the price for this grand demonstration will be the redeployment of thousands of men and women, many of whom have just come off tours in Iraq or Afghanistan, away from their communities and families. They will pay the real cost of this political theater. There are, of course, concerns about the rules of engagement between military and immigrants, the militarization of our border, but I trust that the professionalism of our Guard is up to the challenge of such an unorthodox mission. The financial cost is always of concern considering the massive pile of debt this Administration and GOP Congress has already buried us under. And certainly the burden should not fall on the shoulders of Arizona taxpayers, as the Arizona GOP keeps trying to do.

It may be that this grandiose gesture is the price we have to pay to achieve a political compromise that most Americans, and aspiring Americans, can live with. A symbolic deployment of troops to the border seems to be the only thing that can sufficiently diffuse the apparent mainstream appeal of the anti-immigrantion extremists’ position, and allow the realists to get to the difficult business of making policy.