Immigration Not High On Democrats’ List

Republicans in the U.S. House took a lot of heat last summer when they decided to hold a series of “field hearings” on immigration reform instead of getting down to the much harder business of actually solving some problems.

A comprehensive bill crafted in the Senate and favored by President Bush sat on the table gathering dust while House members hit the campaign trail, many of them waving the “enforcement first” flag. When they came back to Washington for a quick September session, they found time to pass a law authorizing a 700-mile fence along the Mexican border before they broke for the November election. Evidently, though, there wasn’t enough time to actually fund the fence.

So now that Democrats are in the driver’s seat, where does immigration reform figure in Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi’s “New Direction for America”? Not very high. At the top of the Democrats’ agenda are such issues as raising the minimum wage, making college loans more affordable, increasing access to health care and lowering prescription drug prices. Immigration is conspicuously down-page. Click here.

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