The Politics of Comprehensive Immigration Reform: An Irony Wrapped Up in an Enigma by Robert Gittleson

Many people probably assume that I voted Democrat in the last Presidential election, because of my outspoken advocacy for CIR. They would be half right. Yes, I did vote for Obama, but not because of his stance of CIR. The sad fact is, the man has been President for well over a year, and I still haven’t a clue as to where he really stands on immigration reform. I’ve heard the rhetoric. I know where he says that he stands on CIR, but I haven’t seen him lift a finger to actually do anything about it, and actions speak much louder than words.

In my heart of hearts, I still believe that it is possible that John McCain cares more about passing CIR than President Obama does, and I say that despite the fact that McCain has literally been turning himself inside-out trying to make the nation believe just the opposite. I call that a rather sad irony.

I know that today, these two “leaders” are leading us on a pathway to nowhere on this issue. Each in their own way, they are passive aggressively kicking this can down the road, and I find that as insensitive and irresponsible as it is morally reprehensible.

I voted for President Obama, largely because of his speech in Philadelphia back in November of 2008. That speech spoke to my issue, and my issue is the growing racial divide that I recognize exists in our nation. To me, that issue is what holds us back as a people and as a nation.

In that speech, Obama was eloquent in his delineation of the parameters that define the issue of racism as it exists in our society. However, that speech was unfortunately prescient as to the inaction that he would demonstrate in his reluctance to act upon the problem as President. He stated, “What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part — through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk — to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time. This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign — to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America.”

To me, the problem is that Obama is still in campaign mode. He is still talking about narrowing the gap, when he should be building a bridge to close the gap. He is no longer running for President. He is President. If he won’t bridge the gap, who will? If not now, when? When is Obama going to do his part? When is he going to take his “great risk,” or for that matter risk anything to right what he acknowledges is clearly a national imperative for CIR?

I was moved to write this article by something that I saw on TV this weekend. I guess that you could call it on the news, (but labeling what constitutes news on a Saturday night is, at best, a stretch). CNN was running a Larry King re-run, and MSNBC was running one of their jail infotainment shows. The closest thing to actual news that I could find was FOX. However, what I saw on their show was sort of the “straw that broke my back.” They were discussing the fact that five teenagers had been sent home from school, because they were wearing American Flags on their t-shirts, as a counter protest to the students that were celebrating Cinco de Mayo. The FOX talking head was pontificating on the evils of schools in America allowing their students to celebrate a holiday that was anti-American, because it was about a fight between Mexico and France. Really? Is that really the message that America should take from this latest display of national cluelessness on the issues that are actually affecting real people in real circumstances, and who are dealing with real issues in this country?

Let us be honest. Racial profiling is a real issue. Mixed status families that are being torn-apart is a real issue. The National Security consequences of a dysfunctional immigration system are real issues. The lack of a cohesive economic policy in regards to our immigration system is a real issue. Perhaps just as importantly, allowing our lack of an assimilation strategy to fester upon the racial disharmony that thrives in this vacuum of leadership on our immigration problems is most certainly a real issue. Of course, these issues pale in comparison to the real issue of hundreds of Human Beings dying at the border trying to migrate into this country to improve their lives every year. However, to me, the most pressing real issue has to now be, why are the people that are in a position to lead toward a solution on this issue abdicating that responsibility, just as we need them to step up and lead?

I am certain that if either President Obama, or for that matter Senator John McCain were to actually take a firm stand and lead us forward on our much needed “federal” immigration reform, it would happen this year. It would happen right now.

President Obama saying that he wants to “start” on CIR this year is tantamount to saying that he has no intention of passing immigration reform this year. McCain saying that the Arizona law is necessary because the federal government hasn’t lived up to it’s responsibility to secure the border is admitting his own political timidity, because he could pass CIR that would secure the border tomorrow if he had the intestinal fortitude to stand up to J.D. Hayworth, and do the job that he has already been elected to do.

If McCain really wanted to secure the border, he knows better than anyone that the Schumer/Graham (read McCain) CIR plan is the ONLY way to get the job actually done. He also knows that by holding Graham and the rest of the Republican Party hostage to his own self-serving political ambitions, he is “ironically” making the enactment of unconstitutional state laws such as the recent law in Arizona a self fulfilling prophecy. If tomorrow John McCain would step up and say, “If we really want to secure our borders, we should work to pass a federal CIR right now,” we could do it. The votes for CIR in the Senate surpass the needed filibuster proof 60 votes, but only if Graham (read McCain) allow the 13 pro-CIR Republicans in the Senate to come out of the closet.

Similarly, President Obama could make CIR happen this year if he really wanted to. If the “political will” to make it happen doesn’t exist in the Senate, it is because he hasn’t forced the issue. The President is both the problem and the potential solution. If he were to “lead,” and force this issue to the forefront, the Senate Republicans would be faced with a choice. They could vote their consciences and pass it, because the votes do exist. Or, they could hold ranks and fight against CIR, but they would be committing what can only be described as long-term political suicide by doing that, because they would be permanently driving a wedge between their party, and the fastest growing voting bloc in our nation, the Hispanic population. They would also be painted as obstructionists toward working for a solution to our broken immigration system, and to the issue of fixing the border. It’s hard to run on a platform of fixing the border when you refuse to fix the border.

Importantly, what is different this year, as opposed to the last time that the Senate tried to pass CIR in 2007, is that now the Republicans have much more support for CIR from within their own party. Last week, the National Association of Evangelicals, in harmony with several other prominent conservative faith based groups and leaders, issued a full page ad in Roll Call, calling for bipartisan immigration reform this year. The ad rightly states that our national immigration laws have created a moral, economic and political crisis in America.

I’m sorry, but it is vexing to see a solution so close at hand, but so far from a political reality. Maybe I can’t force our nation’s politicians to deal with this issue, but I can call them out for their blatant disingenuousness as they play political games with the lives of the people that need their help the most. For me, this isn’t a political issue. I’m an Independent. I have no political skin in this game. For me, it is all about the reality of this issue. For me, this issue is about justice and morality. It is about our economic competitiveness and our national security. It is about family values, and the American spirit. But perhaps most of all, it is about seizing the day. Carpe diem. We have an opportunity to take proactive steps toward healing the growing racial rift that divides tens of millions of American residents from their friends, neighbors, co-workers, and in many cases their own families.

I am not saying that CIR is the final answer, or the final solution. However, I am urging the President to look to his own words. He concluded that speech in Philadelphia with the words that sealed my vote, when he said, “But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins.”

Mr. President, we are clearly a long way from perfection on this issue, but we have to start somewhere. I say, start with leading. Start with comprehensive immigration reform. End the irony, end the political posturing, and start perfecting our union today. Mr. President, the only thing that is standing in the way of passing comprehensive immigration reform this year is the political will in your White House. Everyone that cares about this issue is calling upon you to lead, even the Republicans. Will it be easy? Of course not. It will take political courage, and political dexterity to make this happen. However, people voted for you because they recognized in you the skills to solve tough problems. That is why you won. If you won’t lead us toward solving this difficult national crisis, who will? John McCain could, but he won’t. You could, but will you? Please don’t blame the Republicans. They are easy targets, but playing the blame game is a cop-out that will lead to continued inaction. The American people want this problem solved, and they want it solved this year. At the end of the day, the buck stops on your desk. If CIR doesn’t happen this year, you can point fingers at whoever you want to, but the American people won’t be fooled. They will blame you, because this is a problem that you can fix. If you choose not to pass CIR this year, on Election Day you will want to blame someone for the consequences of your inaction. However, when the music stops, the person standing without a chair will be the person that states back at you in the mirror.