Before We Move On To Maybe Real Immigration Reform, How We Got Here

I think that the real turning point in the raucous debate over the "comprehensive immigration reform" bill-scam came on May 1, 2006.
Do you remember that day? That is the day thousands, if not millions of Hispanics marched all across the country in support of "comprehensive immigration reform." But, try as many might, including the DDBMSM, they could not hide this fact. Few, if any, were protesting with American flags. Most had the Mexican flag and flags from assorted Central and South American nations. For many Americans, that was enough that no matter what was done, there was a feeling that if a plan were made into law, these people really did not care about becoming Americans. There is no doubt in my mind because I know it is how I felt. Later protests the organizers were smart enough to have the protesters with American flags. It was reminiscent of the protests just before election day in 1994 in California in which Proposition 187 ended up passing by a wide margin.
What that kind of stuff does is give credence to the wackadoo crowd about a "swarm" of Mexicans trying to reconquer the American Southwest and incorporate in into Mexico and rename in Aztlan. It may have not been the goal, but it had a profound, negative effect nonetheless.
Once the midterm elections of 2006 were done and the Democrats took back control of congress, President Bush knew he might have an opening to have the "comprehensive immigration reform" done because it would not fly with his own party while they controlled congress.
But, instead of having an open, honest debate on the merits, the White House, and a group of "grand bargainers" from the senate tried to draft legislation in the dead of night and literally ram in through the senate in an unbelievable fashion. Few, if any, senators knew what was in the legislation. And, that is what the cabal wanted. And, a new way to rub an already testy America the wrong way began.
In this instance, the "grand bargainers" and a new ally, Sen. John Kyl (R-Ariz). But, I think he knew the bill was in trouble when many fellow senators complained about the way it was crafted and concerns about not really knowing what it really meant other than, in a word, amnesty.
But, and this is very important, Sen. Kyl gets an amazing amount of credit. He did two things. He willing went on any conservative talk radio show to try to explain and sell it. And he listened to the concerns of hosts like Hugh Hewitt http://hughhewitt.com and really tried to do the right thing and try to add provisions that might save it. In a weird sense, he is a real hero in all of this.
And a great divide and unusual alliances occurred.
Liberal Democrats did not like a lot of it, particularly in what is now known as chain migration. That is where family members from the illegal alien's home country could come and be part of the "path to citizenship." Also, they did not like the emphasis on so-called guest workers.
Conservative Republicans main objections were where was border enforcement, which included the 854 mile fence, which they cut down to 370 miles along the southern border. Also, they did not like the "path to citizenship" because it appeared that people who broke the law to get here were being moved to the front of the immigration line and given amnesty.
And, all sides were right, which only exacerbated the fact that the flawed legislation was drawn up with no hearings, in the dead of night, and no one who participated seemed to have a clue.
So, what did proponents of the bill-scam do? Well, the oldest and dirtiest trick in the political book. Try to paint the opponents as "nativists" and bigots and outright racists. They had no logical explanation why this legislation was needed right now.
Let us be clear right here and now. People like Sen Lindsey Graham and company should be ashamed of themselves. They chose to emphasise a small minority of bigots and racists. They did not want to really hear the opinion of the American people. So they played up the racists as if they were in the majority of those opposed to the bill-scam. I will say occasionally some callers to conservative talk radio were on the edge. But, I think it is because many remembered the 1986 so-called comprehensive immigration reform. No border enforcement, but at least they had the guts to call it amnesty. They, like myself, did not want a worse repeat. Also, the Graham crowd really had it in for conservative talk radio, another big mistake. Many listeners voted for people like Sen. Graham, and the buffoon Trent Lott. Sen. Lott came on many of the same shows to beg forgiveness for his tacky remarks regarding former Sen. Strom Thurmond. How soon they forget.
So, in a game of we will give you a bone, senate majority leader Harry Reid (D-Nev) came up with a last ditch effort, which was pushed along by the White House. Why even President Bush tried to twist some senators arms in a Capital Hill lunch last week. Ahh, but when one keeps screwing up, the mistakes just get better and better.
Sen. Reid would bring the legislation up for another cloture vote this past Tuesday. Had they not gotten 60 votes to invoke cloture, the bill-scam would have died, again, and for good this congress. He promised each side could offer 22 amendments. Oh, and no senators could see which ones he would choose to come up for a vote.
In a game of cat and mouse, the senate voted 64-35 to invoke cloture and see what can be done to save the sinking Titanic of a bill.
Again, the American people came to rescue to senators from themselves and called the senators , jamming the phone lines at the Capital and once the senators, particularly the Republicans, saw none of their amendments given any serious consideration, sanity returned today when the senate voted 46-53 to keep the debate going. Sen. Reid right then and there stopped the madness. The roll call vote http://www.senate.gov was impressive. Many Democrats joined the overwhelming Republican majority to put a stake through this beast.
It was not pretty and showed the worst in governing.
Now that the enforcement view has prevailed, let us see how serious those who supported it as an afterthought were. I think Republicans would be wise to reach out to someone like Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va) because he ran as a populist Democrat and he more than likely shares their concerns.
It is time to work on enforcement first and true border security. Let us see and make it happen.