When the Republican congress decided to take on immigration reform under the banner of "national security" this year, it awoke a sleeping giant. Rep Sensenbrenner's house resolution 4437, which would make felons out of 'illegal aliens', and criminalize the aid given by churches who support them, was instantly met by fierce opposition and drove millions to stand up and speak out. Revelations about detention camps for immigrants being built by Halliburton solidified fears about the lengths the Bush administration was willing to go to to deal with the problems - cloaked under the guise of 'reform'.
While the American public is strongly divided, the Republican-led congress and the White House are as well. Bush supports the idea of a guest worker program and, surprisingly, has Democratic members of congress behind him while some in his own party accuse him of selling out and offering amnesty. If it is amnesty, it's via a process that takes over a decade to actually achieve - as immigrants must follow very detailed steps to ensure citizenship in the end. Republicans are concerned that giving undocumented people such a chance allows them to 'jump the queue'. What is the proper response then? Rounding up the estimated 11 million and deporting them? That hardly seems logical or practical and it certainly is not the most humane way to deal with the situation.
Ironically, the high visibility of the huge numbers of protesters may have had an unintended consequence:
Large immigrant rallies against the House bill have done nothing to shake that belief, [House Majority Whip] Blunt said. If anything, the images of a sea of immigrants, many of them illegal and many waving foreign flags, have bolstered the get-tough views of most Republican constituents.
"I think they're hardening positions," Blunt said of the rallies, another round of which is planned for today. "It just convinces the people we work for that the problem is bigger than they knew."
The rallies have also shown the public the complexities of the reforms that are needed, xenophobia and racism on a scale not seen since the civil rights movement of the 1960s and the fact that people on a massive scale are unwilling to allow the demonization of undocumented people in their midst to continue.
With the Republican-led senate and house at odds, Bush once again finds himself in an impossible situation. But, many members of his party have already begun to distance themselves from their president, thinking ahead to what will help them keep their seats in the upcoming mid-term election instead. It's difficult at this point to envision a solution that will be favourable to most of the Republicans involved and it's clear that the party has taken on an issue with far greater consequences that it seems to have imagined when it took up the challenge. Immigration reform may well be the platform that brings down the party as it has brought skeletons out of the closet that have been hidden for a very long time and the ugliness of those old bones is certainly reminiscent of a past in which tolerance of those who are different was a rare commodity.
Resources:
Left-wing blogger coverage of today's events and the broader immigration issues:
Man Eegee - Latino Politica
Ductape Fatwa
Migra Matters
¡Para Justicia y Libertad! (English site)
Arizona Latino Democrats
Media:
CNN has live, online coverage of the various rallies.
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