It's Different on the Front Line
01/10/2007
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As I write, one of the largest and highest ranked group of news stories on a Google News search on Immigration derives from the weekend Talk Shows. A number of Senators and Congressmen appeared to be trying to encourage one another that a version of last year’s Amnesty/Immigration Acceleration bill will be easy to pass. The overseas press has been particularly pleased to carry these stories.

Meanwhile, out on the Front Line of State and City politics, where legislators actually have to live amongst their constituents and look them in the eye, things are totally different. The most extensive story group on Google News is actually about the efforts by the Texan town of Farmers Branch to follow the lead of the increasingly impressive Mayor Barletta of Hazleton, Pa. and establish local ordnances repellant to illegal immigrants. (For instance Farmers Branch to put immigration-related measure on ballot Associated Press Tuesday January 9 2007)

But even more ominous for the Border-Openers lurking in Washington is a story from Tennessee. Immigration anger drives lawmakers By MICHAEL A. WEBER, Tennessean.com. Tuesday 01/09/07 is remarkable for the breadth of sentiment it reports—and the range of politicians responding:

Dewayne Brown says the new wave of immigration has made him feel unwelcome in his own community….His sentiments are held by many in Middle Tennessee…. The National Conference of State Legislatures last week forecast that illegal immigration would be the hottest issue for legislators across the country this year…(VDARE.com emphasis)

As the 132 legislators pour into the Capitol…they face mounting pressure from the public to stanch the flow of illegal immigrants to the Volunteer State….most of the immigration legislation that didn't pass last year probably will be reintroduced in the new session, sponsors said.

"We need to demagnetize the state. We need to stop Tennessee from being a magnet for illegal immigrants," said Rep. Glen Casada, R-Franklin.

Candidates from both parties made a campaign issue in the recent midterm elections of the need to do more about immigration (VDARE.com emphasis)— a fact that led state Sen. Bill Ketron to predict that some of the bills that failed last year will pass this time.

Here is a Democrat who can tell the time:

"We have an irresponsible and irresponsive federal bureaucracy that is unable to deal with the issue of illegal immigrants," said state Sen. Joe Haynes, D-Goodlettsville, the sponsor of the only immigration bill that the legislature passed last year

Equally remarkable is the volume and ferocity of the comments –overwhelmingly pro-restriction. (As, just as James Fulford predicted, were the comments on the Brokaw whitewash. Scroll down.)

The Inside the Beltway Grandees may want to gratify their paymasters and pass Amnesty/Immigration Acceleration. They will face a Peasant Revolt (which historically were usually extremely nasty) - and they know it.

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