Why immigration reform failed in Congress

[liberal N proud]

It was designed by the republicans to fail.

Immigration is going to the the wedge issue for the election season. The republicans think they can divide the Democrats over this issue and steal yet another election.
This issue is so complex that it very well could divide the Democrats or worse, alienate the voters. Both Hispanic and others who have strong feelings on this issue will keep this issue alive through November.

Congress says it will act on the issue when they return from their spring vacation, but you can count on no action because they will see this as the very issue that could save both houses of Congress.

[babylonsister]

1. I'm under the impression it divided repugs a lot more than

Dems, especially those up for mid-term elections.
I also think this initially started as a distraction, and snowballed more than anyone
would have thought. Kind of like the war.:eyes:

[AValdoux]

2. The gay menace for 2005

I think your right. It has fired up their "hate base" this year. The house had the hard-line bill and now GOP representatives who might have been in trouble in the polls, can say they did everything they could to pass the bill. Listen to what Hannity is talking about each day. Rush was for the senate bill but his fans are more moneyed and support free trade labor markets (slavery).


AValdoux

[Burning Water]

3. It's not stealing

if they find a wedge issue. That's just politics. Dirty, maybe. But not stealing. Stealing is Diebold. Stealing is blocking thousands of minority voters from voting. Stealing is not, however, having an issue, however much we might dislike it.

[Sinti]

4. It's the clever creation of a wedge issue

The law and intent is already in place to remove every illegal alien in this county by 2012, as per ICE and their Endgame strategy. The plan is to lock 'em up and ship 'em off, this legislative exercise is completely unnecessary and intentionally inflammatory.

PDF of Endgame here
http://www.ice.gov/graphics/dro/endgame.pdf

[gratuitous]

5. I think the GOP has miscalculated

The folks they're currently trying to screw over have seen real corruption on a huge and entrenched scale, and they aren't easily fooled by parliamentary flummery. As bad as the GOP is in the United States, it isn't a patch on (for example) the PRI in Mexico, which has been working for decades to enrich the wealthy and impoverish the poor.

John Kerry laid out the scenario very well yesterday on Pumpkinhead's program: The Senate had worked out a bipartisan compromise bill, but the GOP leadership (Bill Frist) wouldn't keep the bill from being gutted and stuffed on the Senate floor -- that is, the compromise completely undone by the likes of Tom Tancredo. Kerry further said that Frist had appointed a totally unacceptable bunch of Senators to the conference committee to iron out the differences between the House and the Senate versions of the bill, and Frist wouldn’t guarantee any debate on the conference committee report.
The whole thing reeked of a set-up, and the Democrats pulled out of the agreement, and joined by the Republicans who don’t want any bill that isn’t punitive, the legislation was killed right on the eve of the recess.

The failure of the bill is entirely Frist's baby, and the Democrats seem able to make that case quite easily.

[zbdent]

6. So that Repukes could run home to their districts and say that the Dems

blocked it (when they were the ones who derailed it - could have passed it free and clear) . . . and their little robots would slurp up the vanilla ice cream that shats out of their posteriors . . .