Despite Immigrant Rallies, Reform Appears Dead

Pn Labor Day, spirited groups of immigrant rights supporters rallied in Illinois and Arizona, as well as in a few other cities, in marches intended to keep the drumbeat going for changes in immigration law. In both places, counterdemonstrators heckled from the sidelines and called on the federal government to enforce its border laws. Organizers of a rally in Phoenix, outside Arizona’s copper-domed Capitol, estimated their numbers at 4,000, though the police said the event drew about 1,000 people. In Batavia, a flag-waving crowd, estimated by the police at about 2,500, chanted “Sí, se puede” — “Yes, we can” — and converged on the district office of Speaker J. Dennis Hastert. In a counterrally sponsored by the Chicago Minuteman Project, some 200 men, women and a few children jeered the larger crowd. Neither Mr. Hastert nor his staff was on hand, and he could not be reached for comment. Organizers hoped to pressure Mr. Hastert to push legislation favorable to immigrants through Congress.   For a story on the rallies, one of which is pictured below, click here.

But Congress appears to have give up on immigration reform this year.  As they prepare for a critical pre-election legislative stretch, Congressional Republican leaders have all but abandoned a broad overhaul of immigration laws and instead will concentrate on national security issues they believe play to their political strength. With Congress reconvening Tuesday after an August break, Republicans in the House and Senate say they will focus on Pentagon and domestic security spending bills, port security legislation and measures that would authorize the administration’s terror surveillance program and create military tribunals to try terror suspects. Click here for more.

What now for those who seek meaningful, and comprehensive, immigration reform?

KJ