June 23, 2006

Joe Feels Even Better About Immigration Bill…

S. 2611, the Bush-Kennedy-McCain Amnesty/ Immigration Acceleration bill, is dead. [Peter Brimelow writes: Steady on, Joe! Immigration enthusiasts don’t give up!]

A Senate-House conference in the near future to iron out differences in immigration approaches is unlikely; a compromise virtually out of the question.

Congressman Mike Pence’s plan, once promoted by some as a viable middle ground measure, is hooked up to life-support systems.

You remember Pence and his concept of illegal aliens self-deporting for a week to report to an "Ellis Island Center" south of the border, do a paper-work "dance macabre" and return to the U.S. with a brand spanking new visa?

Did anyone ever take that seriously?

(Aside: does Pence realize or does he care how insulting it is to families like mine who entered America legally through Ellis Island during the late 19^th/early 20^th Century to recommend these alien safe havens be called "Ellis Island Centers"?)

The May 1^st "Great American Boycott"/ "Nothing Gringo Day" seems not two months but two decades ago. All that glowing coverage to which the MSM subjected us is merely a distant albeit ugly memory.

Now, exposed in their inglorious splendor are the up to 20 million ungrateful illegal aliens who, save for a handful, played their cards wrong.

And standing naked before us in their treasonous behavior are the 62 U.S. Senators who signed S.2611.

Some will have to defend themselves at the polls this November. Their sledding will be tough.

Others have until 2008 to wiggle off the hook. To them I say: "Fat chance! Don’t count on Americans forgetting."

For America’s archenemies like Roger Cardinal Mahony, the Archbishop of Los Angeles, there will be no more pre-paid addressed post cards to distribute to his flock—as one churchgoer has reported to me—for mailing pro-amnesty messages to Congress.

The rich and powerful American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA)—the real authors of S.2611, according to Capitol Hill insiders—is pulling its hair out.

A VDARE.COM friend intercepted and forwarded to me an AILA e-mail appeal to its hundreds of thousands of members and fellow open borders allies.

Under the heading: "Anti-Immigrant Calls to Congress Outnumbering Comprehensive Immigration Reform Advocates 400-1! Call and Email Today!!" AILA wrote:

"Restrictionists [that’s us!] are flooding Congressional phone lines and email inboxes with angry demands that their Senators and Representatives vote against any legislation that provides a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Their calls for an enforcement-only immigration policy are louder and more aggressive than ever and there are 400 of them for every 1 call from us.

"The 400 to 1 intensity of the opposition to comprehensive immigration reform is expected to crescendo into the November elections, making it a likely voting issue at the polls. We cannot stop fighting now. We cannot let the restrictionists hijack this national debate by painting the Senate compromise as amnesty. We cannot be silent while they scream."

The bad news for AILA: 400-1 reflects American sentiment.

In the unlikely event you need proof, how many calls a day do you think your Congressman gets from ordinary citizens demanding more guest workers and another amnesty for aliens?

Finally our peerless leader, President George W. Bush, has taken one in the chops big time. Despite Bush’s prime time television appearance touting illegal immigration and his multiple stops along the border for cheesy photo ops, he convinces no one.

House Republican leaders ignore Bush and thumb their noses at the Senate.

According to San Francisco Chronicle Washington Bureau reporter Carolyn Lochhead, Bush:

"Appears to be close to irrelevant on the issue…"

And:

"Warnings by the White House that Republicans risk alienating Latinos, the country's fastest-growing voting bloc and the linchpin to the GOP's hold on the West, have proved unpersuasive. Anti-immigration advertisements are becoming a staple of vulnerable GOP incumbents' campaigns."

And:

"Vulnerable House Republicans have reportedly told party leaders they are content to run on the border-crackdown measure that passed the House last December, despite a provision that makes it a felony to live in the country illegally." [House GOP doing it their own way on immigration, by Carolyn Lochhead, San Francisco Chronicle, June 21, 2006]

How sweet is that?

Here’s where we are today:

Well-placed Hill sources have told me that many Senators now rue their "Yea" vote on S. 2611. If "blue-slipping" somehow brings about a new vote, one Democratic Senator told Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo, "there is no chance it would pass."

Tancredo’s Immigration Reform Caucus now has 101 members; it counts nearly half the Republican majority among its participants. Explaining the caucus’s success, Tancredo in a press release said:

"When I started the Caucus in 1999, we had few friends and allies in Congress. Today, the IRC is one of the largest and most active caucuses in the House. Our size and the force of our arguments dictate that we have a seat at the table. We represent the vast majority of Americans who want our borders secured and illegal immigration stopped."

Earlier this week, House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert and Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) said the House would undertake public immigration forums across the country later this summer. In preparation, Hastert has authorized his various committee chairmen to scrutinize S.2611.

Border enforcement bill HR4437 author James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) will direct the forums.

Said Boehner:

"We want to have a very clear idea of what is in the Senate bill and what people think of some of the provisions in the Senate bill." [Hastert calls for forums on immigration bills, by Rick Klein, Boston Globe, June 21, 2006]

If you are still not convinced that we are going to prevail, ask yourself these questions:

As November draws closer and with Brian Bilbray’s "get tough on illegal immigration platform" the winning issue in California’s 50^th Congressional District special election, how likely is it that incumbent Republicans will gamble by backing a wildly unpopular alien amnesty?

And if, as is possible, Utah Republican incumbent Chris Cannon, a long-standing champion of ethnic identity lobbyists, loses his primary challenge Tuesday to tough immigration enforcement candidate John Jacobs, how much more quickly will the Republicans rush to our side?

What chances, if any, are there that S.2611 will not be fully gutted by Republican Congressional analysts as they go through it, as promised by Hastert, with a fine tooth comb? The analysts will have the full cooperation and tireless in-put of Washington, D.C.’s immigration reform community and perhaps the behind-the-scenes assistance of Senate staffers from "Nay" voters like Alabama Republican Jeff Sessions.

How far would you drive this summer to participate in an immigration reform forum chaired by a Congressman you knew would not only give you his ear but might actually do something about your grievances once he returned to Washington?

When all the forums held nationwide are complete, and people like yourself have had a chance to vent your long-built up frustration over federal indifference to immigration law, can you imagine the House caving in?

Two weeks ago in my column Joe Feels Good About Immigration Bill… I said I was "feeling confident…"

In light of developments over those two weeks, you can say, "Joe Feels Even Better About Immigration Bill…"

Joe Guzzardi [email him], an instructor in English at the Lodi Adult School, has been writing a weekly newspaper column since 1988. This column is exclusive to VDARE.COM.