The Politics of Immigration Reform

The President has made it clear that one of his top priorities of 2013 is immigration reform and some democrats also insist that there will still be time left over for solving this issue even in the midst of gun control policies being debated and that thing called a budget that politicians in general have grown to despise. Now only time will tell which of these issues will really get tackled since the president has floated the idea of using executive privilege to temporarily ban assault weapons; that is until the court slaps his wrist a year or so from now for over-stepping his legal powers. Rest assured the President will tackle this issue and soon.

Like so many other issues that confront us as a country it seems that both parties are stuck in their ideological mud puddle. Let's be clear...If Republicans were to craft a bill tomorrow that had everything the president wanted, he would still veto it in order to make sure they were not the ones to get the credit for it. I fear the reverse of that is also true. If the President were to craft an immigration plan that had everything the republicans wanted, they would cry out against it as liberal and the next day make one that contained basically the same ideas. Both parties have been playing these types of games for years and in this case it is even more important, all because the politics of this issue rests in the hands of the fastest growing voter bloc in the country...the all-important Hispanic vote.

I am confident that enough republicans understand that too hard of line on immigration reform will mean more years of democrat control in the oval office. Continuing to alienate this large voting group does not seem to be a very good path forward for them. However, any bill that has too much of the president attached to it will mean they will still not get the credit.

To be honest, I have never agreed with what has been considered the conservative stances on this issue. Borrowing a trillion or more dollars from China in order to have the resources to round them all up, tax payer and non-tax payer alike, and deport them. However, I also no longer buy into the notion that somehow we can starve them all into self-deportation. I have never understood the moral logistics of treating children and youth, that are here on no fault of their own, the same as the parents.

I have also struggled with the lefts plan of handing them all a green card, several thousand dollars of borrowed money, a voter id card with the party affiliation spot reading democrat, and then a stern reprimand that says..."You really should not have done this."

I think the solution must lie somewhere in between and for what it’s worth I have actually agreed with some of the ideas that Obama has put out there for discussion. I do think for some of those which are currently here milking the system that they should be deported and ultimately the price of doing so will be far less than the free health care and money they are receiving. However, to those which are trying to benefit our economy through hard work and ingenuity, then an imposed fine and path to citizenship should be considered.

Regardless, of which way this debate goes, it ought to be very interesting. I anticipate both sides saying basically the same thing, but refusing to agree in order to avoid alienating their key supporters.