GOP: Find immigration deal, or lose
A Times EditorialPublished June 28, 2006
Republican leaders in the U.S. House are playing Americans for fools on immigration. Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., has announced a series of Mexican-bashing sessions thinly disguised as public hearings in cities along the southern border. There isn't much doubt what those staged events will produce after they've whipped up a hand-picked audience with xenophobic rhetoric and dire warnings on terrorism.
"We are going to listen to the American people," Hastert said. Well, the American people have already spoken. Fewer than one in five gave Congress a favorable job-approval rating in a recent Harris poll. Nearly 8 in 10 are also skeptical that Congress and the president will find a good solution on immigration, according to a recent Zogby poll.
Senate Republicans, whom Hastert is attempting to run over on immigration reform, have scheduled their own hearings that will discuss the real, unresolved immigration issues: legal residency and a guest worker program. President Bush backs the Senate approach but has provided no effective leadership and has been bluntly told by House leaders that they will not compromise.
Some Republicans fear this open split within the party will hurt their chances in the upcoming election by failing to act on immigration. But Hastert seems to be banking on the House leadership's ability to dominate the debate by labeling the Senate approach to earned residency as "amnesty."
The House legislation would make felons of 12-million illegal immigrants already here - no matter how hard-working and law-abiding they are - but has no provisions for dealing with a newly created criminal population equal to the population of Ohio. No one believes you can arrest 12-million men, women and children and forcibly eject them. Only House Republicans think driving illegal immigrants further underground would be a positive outcome for the nation.
Even the conservative Manhattan Institute finds fault with that approach. In a recent poll, it found that 75 percent of likely Republican voters favor immigration reform that includes "a multi-year path to earned citizenship."
So let the games, uh, hearings begin. House Republicans are betting that taking a hard line on immigration will rejuvenate their conservative base, but it also will alienate the growing number of Hispanic voters. If the House's decision to grandstand rather than compromise hurts Republicans, then that would be an appropriate outcome. Republicans control the House, Senate and White House. If they can't come to a timely agreement on immigration, then they don't deserve to maintain control in Washington.