New York Times Editorial - Immigration reform in pieces
New York Times Editorial - Immigration reform in pieces
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: September 26, 2006
This can't be what President George W. Bush had in mind when he gave a prime-time speech about immigration in May. "An immigration reform bill needs to be comprehensive," he told America, "because all elements of this problem must be addressed together, or none of them will be solved at all."
That was then. Now we have the Republican-controlled House passing a pre-election lineup of narrow enforcement measures packaged to give voters a false impression of resolve. Bush has even given up talking a good game on immigration: He says he will sign the Republican legislation as a "first step" toward the real reform he has said he wants but has done depressingly little to achieve.
Republican leaders want Americans to think they are hard at work overhauling the broken immigration system in the last days before going home. But these are piecemeal rehashes of legislation the House passed last December. They include a border fence that would cost more than $2 billion and would not work, and tough-sounding but profoundly undemocratic bills that would allow the indefinite detention of some illegal immigrants seeking asylum, make it easier to deport people without judicial review, and require voters to prove citizenship before participating in federal elections. The latter measure attacks an imaginary problem - voting fraud by illegal immigrants - and would disenfranchise countless Americans who are old and poor.
Among the most poisonous provisions is one that would give state and local police agencies authority to enforce federal immigration laws. Police departments big and small have bristled at the idea, saying they lack the expertise and the resources to enforce immigration law. But for every police chief who sees this as a foolish attack on law enforcement, there is a sheriff or local politician just itching to seize control of his or her own little corner of the immigration battlefield. It's an every-mayor- for-himself approach that would only worsen the ad hoc incoherence of the national immigration system.
Once again it's up to the Senate to resist the restrictionist free-for-all. Republicans have been trying to make this difficult by seeking to slip their toxic measures into must-pass bills for the Homeland Security and Defense Departments. The senators who have held out for comprehensive reform, which includes giving immigrants a realistic way to work and get right with the law, must stick together to defeat the House campaign.
Anti-immigrant fervor is a flame that spreads easily. But leadership can help people look beyond resentment and fear. Once upon a time, Bush was a sense-talking governor from a border state who understood this. Now he has joined the leaders of his party in calling on America to cower behind electric fences and searchlights. It's painful to see what he has turned into, and frustrating, in these days of immigration panic, to keep waiting for a real leader to emerge.
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: September 26, 2006
This can't be what President George W. Bush had in mind when he gave a prime-time speech about immigration in May. "An immigration reform bill needs to be comprehensive," he told America, "because all elements of this problem must be addressed together, or none of them will be solved at all."
That was then. Now we have the Republican-controlled House passing a pre-election lineup of narrow enforcement measures packaged to give voters a false impression of resolve. Bush has even given up talking a good game on immigration: He says he will sign the Republican legislation as a "first step" toward the real reform he has said he wants but has done depressingly little to achieve.
Republican leaders want Americans to think they are hard at work overhauling the broken immigration system in the last days before going home. But these are piecemeal rehashes of legislation the House passed last December. They include a border fence that would cost more than $2 billion and would not work, and tough-sounding but profoundly undemocratic bills that would allow the indefinite detention of some illegal immigrants seeking asylum, make it easier to deport people without judicial review, and require voters to prove citizenship before participating in federal elections. The latter measure attacks an imaginary problem - voting fraud by illegal immigrants - and would disenfranchise countless Americans who are old and poor.
Among the most poisonous provisions is one that would give state and local police agencies authority to enforce federal immigration laws. Police departments big and small have bristled at the idea, saying they lack the expertise and the resources to enforce immigration law. But for every police chief who sees this as a foolish attack on law enforcement, there is a sheriff or local politician just itching to seize control of his or her own little corner of the immigration battlefield. It's an every-mayor- for-himself approach that would only worsen the ad hoc incoherence of the national immigration system.
Once again it's up to the Senate to resist the restrictionist free-for-all. Republicans have been trying to make this difficult by seeking to slip their toxic measures into must-pass bills for the Homeland Security and Defense Departments. The senators who have held out for comprehensive reform, which includes giving immigrants a realistic way to work and get right with the law, must stick together to defeat the House campaign.
Anti-immigrant fervor is a flame that spreads easily. But leadership can help people look beyond resentment and fear. Once upon a time, Bush was a sense-talking governor from a border state who understood this. Now he has joined the leaders of his party in calling on America to cower behind electric fences and searchlights. It's painful to see what he has turned into, and frustrating, in these days of immigration panic, to keep waiting for a real leader to emerge.
posted by Carlos T Mock @ 9:51 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home