Thursday, November 27, 2008

Here it comes, folks

La Raza is concerned about the fate of immigration reform because Rahm Emanual told them a year ago that legislation was years in coming because of citizen backlash.

That was then; this is now.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told the Detroit Free Press on the 23rd that Comprehensive Immigration Reform has a green light.

Q: With more Democrats in the Senate and the House and a Democrat in the White House, how do you see congressional efforts playing out on such issues as health care and immigration?

Reid: On immigration, there's been an agreement between (President-elect Barack) Obama and (Arizona Republican Sen. John) McCain to move forward on that. ... We'll do that. We have to get this economy stuff figured out first, so I think we'll have a shot at doing something on health care in the next Congress for sure.

Q: Will there be as much of a fight on immigration as last time?

Reid: We've got McCain and we've got a few others. I don't expect much of a fight at all. Now health care is going to be difficult. That's a very complicated issue. We debated at great length immigration. People understand the issues very well. We have not debated health care, so that's going to take a lot more time to do.

Harry seems to be overly simplistic because the Democrats didn't have agreement before. The devil is in the details...such as:
Back taxes- Do they pay? For how many years? Can any of them afford it?
Background checks- Do they get a free pass if you can't find anything in 72 hours?
Border- Is more fence a prerequisite?
Worker protection- What do we say about jobs for citizens?
Fines and fees- How much?
Going forward- How do we hold back the next wave?
Benefits- When can they access federal social service benefits? What about Social Security?

And last but not least...How do we avoid calling it amnesty?

The strategy will be to do it early so as to avoid the backlash close to the mid-term elections. Since voters have short memories this is a solid strategy.

It is a question of courage. Will there be anyone willing to go before the cameras and tell America this is a sell-out? And will the cameras even be there to cover it? Or has this election struck additional fear in the hearts of politicians...fear of special interest groups?

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