Tuesday, May 30, 2006

An Immigration Compromise?

Not much time to blog much about this now, but people are talking compromise on immigration. Here are a couple of currently-percolating ideas.

The Pence Proposal

First, Rep. Mike Pence has a proposal that might gain some steam and provide a way out of the current immigration impasse. His idea is set forth in full here. John Fund provides the political analysis here, and summarizes the Pence solution this way:

His proposal . . . would have the U.S. government contract with gold-standard private employment agencies such as Kelly Services to establish offices called Ellis Island Centers in countries that supply the most illegal alien labor today. The centers would provide an incentive for illegals to leave the country and apply for guest-worker visas in the U.S. that would be granted within a week by matching workers with jobs employers can't fill with American workers. They would also make criminal and other background checks. Guest workers would be able to apply for citizenship, but they would have to follow current rules with no favoritism over those now waiting legally in line.

"It would encourage illegal aliens to self-deport and come back legally as guest workers," says Mr. Pence. "They would benefit from no longer living in fear or in the shadows of life and they could return home for visits. And since employers who hired anyone without such a visa would face stiff fines, it would make it increasingly difficult over time for those who weren't legal guest workers to get jobs."

Well, it might work, for now. Pence certainly deserves credit for actually leading, rather than simply shouting platitudes.

The "Enforcement Trigger" Proposal

No one has come up with such a proposal yet, but I've been meaning to blog about it, "when I get around to it." Some commentators have touched on the idea, as in John McIntire's Real Clear Politics piece today:
Republicans need to craft a compromise that puts in place a program to shut down the illegal flow, which upon the proven success of dramatically halting illegal immigration will trigger a process that provides a pathway to citizenship for the millions of illegals who have been here for years. This is the type of broad-based compromise that the majority of the American people can support and it will put the onus on the Democrats to put up or shut up about whether they are serious about halting illegal immigration. [Emphasis added.]
In other words, pass an enforcement bill providing that once certain enforcement targets are met, a citizenship pathway opens up. That might just work.

McIntyre has this sage advice too:
Tactically, however, Congressional Republicans should change focus in how they attack the Senate bill, away from the "pathway to citizenship" or "amnesty" issue and instead concentrate on the commitment to halt illegal immigration. This is not a small point, but rather a critically important distinction in the public relations battle.

From the Republican standpoint, the core of the argument over the next few weeks (and in this fall's election) needs to be the seriousness of stopping the illegal flow over the border, not about a pathway to citizenship. If Republicans make a pathway to citizenship the primary issue, they are making a serious mistake because this comes across to the Hispanic community as mean-spirited and anti-immigrant.
I wish I had said that. I guess I've been trying to say it for months, however ineffectely. Which should be a reminder to me that I'm no pundit, just a lawyer with itchy typing fingers.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Voters don’t consider granting legal status to those already here amnesty. Seventy percent (70%) of voters say illegal immigrants who have put down roots in the U.S. should be granted legal status after they go to the back of the line, pay a fine, pay back taxes, learn English, and have a clean criminal record; just 25% say that would be amnesty and we should instead impose criminal penalties on illegal immigrants in the U.S. Republican and conservative opinion is only slightly lower—68% of conservatives and 64% of Republicans support granting legal status over criminal penalties.


Voters want comprehensive reform, including a temporary worker program and legal status, not inaction. When voters are given the choice between a comprehensive reform plan of getting tough on border security and a temporary worker program or no reform at all (below), 71% choose comprehensive reform and 19% choose no reform. Support for comprehensive reform is even higher among GOP base voters—80% of conservatives and 72% of church-going Protestants want comprehensive reform over no reform.
















Republican candidates succeed when they support taking action on immigration. Our poll tested a number of messages, and found candidates who talk about comprehensive reform are more successful than those who focus only on border security. For example, a candidate using comprehensive reform language wins 71%—including 52% of Republicans—when matched against a seal-the-border candidate.


Candidate A “who only supports sealing off the border, stopping illegal immigrants from entering the country, and imposing criminal penalties on immigrants already here”

Candidate B “who supports comprehensive immigration reform that would beef up border security, enforce laws against companies that hire illegals and creates a temporary worker program that would allow immigrants to work here for a set period of time so long as they register, pay taxes, obey the law, and return home when their permit expires.”
25% are more likely to support Candidate A
71% are more likely to support Candidate B



This is from the RNC!

Sean Hannity and many others have been incorrect in labeling conservatives as against the Senate Immigration Bill. Lets go conservatives get your heads on straight.  

Posted by gregmn

Tuesday, May 30, 2006 5:06:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I read a post on another blog that ended with the following words:

" . . . Don't make the perfect the enemy of the good, or you may just get the worst."

I think that is a PROFOUND statement, and every conservative should keep it in mind in many situations.
 

Posted by Virginia

Wednesday, May 31, 2006 6:58:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"...68% of conservatives and 64% of Republicans support granting legal status over criminal penalties."

This is just more statistical manipulation and deception.

You can juxtaposition anything to distort reality.
I'm sure that (99% of die hard hysterical (your term)Republicans will be in favor of amnesty rather than torture and beheading of illegals. More games with statistics.

Just who is demanding jail for these people? We merely don't wish to reward them with citizenship because they've committed felonies for over five years(criminal tenure and pardons). We wish to secure the borders first. We wish to punish the employers of these people who are enticing them to break the laws of this country. We do not trust the politicians to enforce the laws they already have made -never mind new "reform" (That's always a scary politician's word that really means something fishy is going on)

It is a travesty of justice when lawyers are for rewarding the breaking the laws of this nation. 

Posted by DL

Wednesday, May 31, 2006 1:18:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

We as a country do not need to assemalate the illegal immigrants that are already here. All that does is just convince more mexicans to hop over the border. Instead we need to build a wall that is 50-100ft high , one mile thick, put a ton of border patrol gaurds with machine guns and gernades to police the wall, and have them shoot any wet back that comes within 100ft of the wall. Only after the wall is built, then we go around track down every single illegal alien and either deport them or kill them. Then we put the bodies on the other side of the wall show any other mexicans trying to hop the border what will happen to them if they come into our country. That will work!!! No peace, no love, no Amnesty, no nothing. JUST VIOLENCE!!! 

Posted by not needed

Wednesday, November 08, 2006 9:08:00 AM  

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