Immigration: Have The Debate This Year

by Deacon Blues

Gallup finds that the electorate wants Congress to make immigration reform and financial reform top priorities by roughly equal amounts. Partisan splits emerge however, wherein Democrats want financial reform to be the top priority this year and Republicans and some independents want immigration reform to be the top priority.

Right now, climate change and an energy bill are lower priorities to the electorate, yet Lindsey Graham and the Democratic caucus want to push these through this year, for different reasons. The Democrats want action and moderate solutions on these issues once and for all while they still have decent majorities in the Senate. GOP senators on the other hand want to straddle: they whine about immigration reform to throw red meat to their base, but don't want to actually do anything this year that may antagonize Latino voters, so the Senate GOP needs climate change to clog the agenda as an excuse.

Yet the GOP base wants action on immigration reform, and probably wants more aggressive measures than GOP senators want. So why isn't the Senate Democratic caucus making things difficult for their GOP peers by listening to the voters and elevating immigration reform to an immediate priority of the 2010 Senate?

As was said in this blog last week, there is no reason why Harry Reid should be letting the Senate GOP dictate the timing of immigration reform. The GOP base and independents want action this year. Democrats should force the Senate GOP to confront what their base demands of them, and make the GOP accountable for its craziness by shining a light on it this year. Latino voters need to see what the modern GOP thinks of them and their contributions to 2010 America.