The truth about the 2007 Immigration Reform Bill.

[Vattel]

The Senators' Bargain is an old documentary, but worth seeing if you imagine that Sanders' vote on the deeply flawed 2007 Immigration Reform bill is an indicator of opposition to a path to citizenship or immigrant rights. From a 2010 article:

The Senators' Bargain, the last documentary in a twelve-part series that premiered on HBO last night, offers some takeaways from the 2006 and 2007 rounds. The movie provides an insider's look at the backroom deals between politicians, interest groups and mainstream immigration activists in the wake of the failed McCain-Kennedy bill and the awful slog through the failed Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill of 2007. We see a lot of conference calls, a lot of shaking of hands, a lot of Blackberries and people with tiny tv's tuned to CSPAN. We see a lot of frazzled looking immigration advocates counting the narrow margins on each potential vote, weighing compromises and ultimately always giving in. Unfortunately, the primary lesson the documentary offers those who hope for sweeping reform this year is that people had better be ready to concede a lot. The film follows several key players: Ted Kennedy, whose stature and clout and sincere commitment to immigration reform is matched by no other member of Congress right now. Esther Olavarria, the current Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security. Then, she served as General Counsel to Ted Kennedy. A rotating cast of conservative immigration restrictionists: Senators John Kyl, Jeff Sessions, Jim DeMint, John Cornyn. And then there're folks like Frank Sharry, the charismatic and smooth talking operative who represents the pro-immigration movement's best defense. In 2007 he was the executive director of the National Immigration Forum. In the span of several weeks while the 2007 bill is being debated and chewed to bits, there's an urgency to accept policy that calls for billions more in enforcement and an end to family reunification, a central part of immigration policy that enables families to be reunited in this country. Advocates are told to shut up and get behind the flawed bills that are rolled out, the hope being that if they can just get their bills to the floor, they can talk their way through the worst parts of these reforms. But it doesn't happen. The bills continue to move further and further to the right once they hit the floor. Horrific amendments that would give immigrants no confidentiality and demand English-only provisions pass. And yet advocates are told: we'll fix it in the House. Sharry is the person that White House staffers call to cut deals and gauge community reaction. He's passionate and smart, and a realist. In a debrief in the halls of Congress, he tells his fellow advocates, "It's not going to be a bill or no bill. It's a bill, or enforcement only," a gravely prescient observation. He gives plenty of "don't let the perfect stand in the way of the good" speeches. But he also urges community members to support the bill, even though he knows it compromises so much of the core of the immigration community's fundamental demands. Those are the most difficult scenes to watch. When Sen. Bob Menendez calls a meeting with Karen Narasaki, Cecilia Munoz, Clarissa Martinez, Angela Kelley, Frank Sharry, Wade Henderson, and other big-name immigration advocates who want him to vote for the bill, he scolds them for supporting policy that he calls "xenophobic." "I'm disappointed in all of you," he says, "Because in your desire to get something, you're wiling to let us...all become a punching bag in the process."

http://www.colorlines.com/articles/senators-bargain-sobering-lessons-2007s-failed-immigration-reform

[Vattel]

1. And may I add that the deep south actually does count in the primaries.

Lol, isn't that what passes for a serious post these days?