We’re as close as we’ve ever been to achieving significant immigration reform. The results of the last election, with its lopsided Hispanic support for President Obama, showed Republicans paid heavily for taking a hard-core stance against any reform that didn’t emphasize deportation.
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators put their weight behind a proposal that didn't short border security or enforcement, but provided an earned path to citizenship for the 11 million who came here illegally. They'd go to the back of the line, behind those who did it the right way, would pay back taxes and learn English. Meanwhile, they'd get a green card and have permanent resident status until their turn came, which could take years.
At last, it seemed, genuine bipartisan reform would be within reach.
But now it appears some Republicans are eager to snatch another defeat from the jaws of their last electoral defeat.
In the first of several planned congressional hearings on reform, a few Republican representatives bristled at the thought of providing a path to citizenship. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) all but whined, "How is that a compromise?"
Gowdy and other hardliners have no interest in bringing illegal immigrants out of the shadows, where they can work and pay taxes. Instead, they wonder, why can’t we seal the borders and keep punishing those who are here already? Short of costly deportation, let’s keep them twisting in the wind. The thought of a path to legalization — amnesty, as many right-wing bloggers will screech at you — is offensive to them, akin to waving the white flag of our impotent laws.
What they should find deeply offensive is the idea of creating second-class citizens, a constant underclass with no incentive to join the mainstream of American society.
Obama has acted in good faith: Deportations are up since he took office. He has shifted the enforcement to criminal aliens, not law-abiding families. Sealing our borders is impossible and expensive, but managing them better has been accomplished to some degree. Eight of nine sectors along the Mexico-U.S. border in Tucson, Ariz., showed higher rates of apprehension in recent years.
Even business leaders and labor unions have put aside their differences to promote a path to citizenship that would help hotels and farmers get the seasonal workers they need without undermining American workers. The number of workers allowed into the country would be tied to the unemployment rate here under one proposal. Unions have also decided they can live with E-Verify, the federal electronic system that verifies a worker is here legally.
Republicans digging in their heels need to get with the plan, the one that doesn’t insult American traditions, and gives those here a chance to prove themselves worthy of citizenship.