Immigration

Using American Muslims as an example, Armstrong Williams explains an incident like the Glasgow airport incident in Europe can be prevented by better incorporating cultures into society.

Three quarters of those who answered this week's Quick Poll! question — Is the defeat of the immigration bill good news or bad news? — welcomed the rout in the Senate. The percentages? — 76% good news, 24% bad news.

Throughout weeks of debate, there was a strong undertow of opinion insisting that no legislation was better than bad legislation — the implication was that this was a very bad bill — and presented this view as a challenge to that attributed to a legacy-conscious President Bush, that any immigration reform reaching his desk deserved his signature.

The groundswell against what was regarded as veiled amnesty for illegal immigrants prompted congressional talk of reviving mandatory "fairness" in broadcasting, which some people say is a euphemism for government meddling.

Did anyone hear the whooping, hooting, and hollering coming from Hillary Clinton's campaign headquarters last Thursday when the immigration reform bill failed a procedural vote in the Senate? Sure, Clinton voted to proceed with the controversial compromise, but she couldn't have been happier to watch it die.

According to a Gallop poll released last week, Clinton now stands to benefit the most from the backlash against the Republicans and President Bush among Hispanic voters. The findings show that, by a nearly 3-1 margin, Hispanic voters are identifying themselves as Democrats or leaning Democratic — and the immigration debate is a major factor. Clinton can now appeal to this critical voting bloc but won't be dogged by a vote for final passage of an amnesty package for illegals, a bill so unpopular that protesting voters managed to jam the Senate phone system with their calls.  Read more...

The reason the immigration bill went down was the process.

There is a tried and true process that works well and then there is the process used by the Senate in this immigration bill.

The tried and true process starts with committee hearings, followed by committee mark-ups, followed by floor consideration, followed by a conference committee where differences between the House and Senate are worked out.

This process allows the maximum input from the American people and their elected representatives. It allows amendments to be discussed and then voted on. It allows maximum media attention and it allows the members to educate their constituents about both the problems and the proposed solutions. Read more...

Who are the winners and who are the losers with the collapse of the immigration bill?

Here are the winners:

Talk radio: They became relevant again and have a nice pelt on their wall — the president’s.

Big Labor: They killed the bill from the left, but pinned all the blame on conservatives.

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.): He became famous.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.): She doesn’t have to try to bring this bill up now. She escaped a bullet.   Read more...

The defeat of the immigration bill will boost the chances of a Democratic victory in 2008, giving Hillary Clinton, the probable Democratic candidate, a strong advantage. Hispanic voters will undoubtedly blame the Republicans for the failure of the bill. In 2004, Bush made progress among Latino voters, coming within 10 points of Kerry among Hispanics, having lost them by 30 points to Gore four years before. But in 2006, Latinos voted Democratic by more than 40 points, according to exit polls, because of their anger at the harsh Republican immigration proposals. Now that the Republicans have defeated the immigration bill, they will very likely pay a steep price at the polls in 2008.

The price is likely to be compounded by the probability that a Democratic Congress and president after the '08 election will pass some form of immigration reform, probably a bill even more to the liking of the Hispanic community than the Bush proposal Congress just defeated.

That's what you think. The Quick Poll! question we posed last week asked which party would be harmed more if Hizzoner Michael Bloomberg ran for president. Among our respondents, 58% said he would do more damage to Democrats, while 42% said Republicans.

Here's another question: Is the defeat of the immigration bill good news or bad news? Scroll down to the Quick Poll! and cast your vote.

Proving once again that no bill, no matter how bad, ever really dies in Congress, immigration reform legislation is back for consideration before the Senate.

Why? There’s no constituency for this bill. Other than George Bush, Ted Kennedy, John McCain, and Lindsey Graham — who wants it?

And it’s a bad bill. It does nothing to secure the border, except authorize construction of a useless fence. It breaks up families, sending fathers back to Mexico for up to 10 years while their wives and kids stay here. And it leaves employers who hire undocumented workers off the hook.

Sure, illegal immigration’s a serious problem, but I’d rather see no immigration bill than a bad immigration bill.  Read more...

Yesterday, I taped a video blog about an intriguing political scandal taking shape in California that made its way to page A3 of the Washington Post.

For more than a year, illegal immigration has been front and center of a heated debate between Republicans and Democrats, Republicans and the Bush administration, Democrats and organized labor unions, small “c” conservatives vs. big “b” Business, and so on.

While this policy drama plays out on Capitol Hill, there’s a bizarre drama playing out west in the world’s sixth-largest economy, California — home to an estimated 2 million illegal immigrants.  Read more...

Republicans hate the immigration bill and are beginning to hate the war. Yesterday was another terrible day for President Bush, as Sen. Richard Lugar's (R-Ind.) criticism inspired other GOP critics and House Republicans closed the door on immigration reform. In a 114-23 vote of their conference House Republicans resolved that "we stand together in united opposition to any bill that rewards illegal behavior with amnesty." With only 23 Republican votes there isn't much House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) could do to help Bush push immigration through the House, even if she liked him.

There is no way for White House officials to rationalize what Lugar did. Lugar, ranking Republican and former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is likely the most credible voice on foreign policy in the Republican Party today, "unimpeachable," to use a favorite Washington word. He doesn't lower himself to partisan skirmishes, and his comments do not amount to a defection to the Democratic side of the debate. Listen to his plea: He is asking Bush to lead on this so the Democrats don't, and he wants a redeployment and a U.S. presence in Iraq, not a withdrawal.  Read more...