Colin Powell Tells Moderate GOP to “Come Out,” Back DREAM Act

[pampango]

Source: ColorLines

Colin Powell this weekend urged moderate Republicans to “come out” and support the DREAM Act in particular and immigration reform more broadly, inserting himself in Washington’s immigration debate at a crucial political moment. Powell’s is a now-rare conservative voice in support of creating pathways to citizenship and it comes as Democrats are frantically rallying votes to pass the DREAM Act as part of the defense authorization bill this week.

In a Sunday morning appearance on “Meet the Press,” Powell assessed the influence that tea party activists have had on the GOP. “I consider myself a moderate Republican,” Powell began. “I have very, very moderate social views, and I’m pretty strong on, on defense matters. And I think there is a party in there that wants to come out.” He then focused on immigration reform as the core example of how and why moderate Republicans like himself need to step up.

It would have been nice to hear Powell, who is the child of Jamaican immigrant parents, talk about immigrants—whether documented or not—as not just workers but people who start businesses and become leaders and fall in love and have families that integrate into society. He did say that we should “treat our immigration population with respect, dignity and give them a path to citizenship.”

But whether the argument is economic or moral, it’s been quite some time since a national Republican has supported immigration reform that goes beyond policing the border. Republican leadership has been united this campaign season in drumming up anxieties with unfounded assertions about violent crime involving immigrants and in calling for more border enforcement, despite the fact that the Obama administration has put more resources into closing the border than ever.

Read more: http://colorlines.com/archives/2010/09/colin_powell_talks_up_dream_act_and_urges_gop_to_rethink_immigration.html

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For repubs congressmen to back any kind of immigration reform would really represent "coming out" as Powell calls it. Don't think there is much chance of it happening, but nice try, Colin.

[Alcibiades]

1. Moderate Republicans like him do need to step up

and become Democrats. There is no room for moderation in Tea Party USA.

[Javaman]

2. Does anyone actually pay attention to what he says anymore?

dems hate him because of the water carrying bullshit he did at the UN.

And frankly, I think the nut repukes hate him because he's now looked upon as an evil moderate.