Letters of the Week: Dec 17 - Dec 21

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Comments

[Harry DeMell]

Once the Democrats are faced with real immigration reform the Unions will complicate it. Just as they added on labor condition applications and the like they will complicate it here. The Republicans will have an agenda that supplies labor for the American economy and there might be complications there with labor unions.

As a wise man once said. "It's not over until it's over" and then there is always the technical corrections bill.

Harry DeMell

[Nolan Rappaport]

Harry DeMell's article, Comprehensive Immigration Reform Defined, skips an important step. For an immigration reform bill to have a chance of becoming law, it has to be politically acceptable. It doesn't matter how good the policy is if the bill isn't politically acceptable and it has to be acceptable to both parties.

If a bill were to be written by a representative to implement Harry's policies, the first step would be to drop it off on the House floor. From there, it would be moved through some preliminary processes and then delivered to the Judiciary Committee (and possibly other committees, depending on what is in the bill). The Republican Chairman of the Judiciary Committee would forward it to the Republican Chairman of the Immigration Subcommittee. If the subcommittee chairman doesn't want to do anything with it, it would sit in a filing cabinet until the end of the Congress, at which point it would officially be dead. The bill probably would have a better chance of moving in the Senate, which is controlled by the Dems, but it still would have to go through the House where it would suffer the same death if the Republicans don't like it.

The fact that the Republicans have recognized the value of the Hispanic vote provides an opportunity, but it doesn't change the political realities. The GOP needs a reform package that will do more than just please the Hispanic voters. Acceding to the demands of the Dems would make the Hispanic voters happy but there is no reason to assume that a democratic victory on immigration reform would result in more Hispanic votes for the Republicans. The credit would go to the Dems. Also, the reform package has to be acceptable to the people who voted for the Republicans in part because of their present position on immigration reform. It won't do the Republicans any good to increase their share of the Hispanic vote if it costs them the support of the people who put them in office.

Can you suggest a comprehensive reform program that would accomplish these objectives for the Republicans and be acceptable to the Dems?