Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The Arizona Republic, formerly known as The Arizona Republican, the media arm of the Republican Party establishment in Arizona (namely Senator John McCain, see the pushback to the Arizona Republican Party's crazy base censure of McCain on Sunday, Arizona GOP censure riles McCain backers), published a schizophrenic editorial opinion on Sunday extolling the Tea-Publican House "principles" on immigration reform released last week. A step to the middle:
There was a national sigh of relief when the House Republicans released their principles for immigration reform last week. Their plan creates space for genuine debate that could lead to finally reforming fatally flawed immigration policies. The biggest divide is over what to do about 11 million undocumented people. The House principles are a welcome step toward the middle.
In calling for [permanent] legal residency and citizenship [only] for young people who were brought into the country illegally as children, House Republicans have recognized what the nation has long understood: You don’t punish children for the actions of their parents.
In calling for legalization for the larger undocumented population, House Republicans have moved away from the more extremist factions of their caucus who denounce anything short of deportation as “amnesty.”
They now have to find accommodation with Democrats who denounce anything short of a path to citizenship as a sellout.
The key word here is “incremental.”
Legalization now would provide peace of mind to many hard-working people who live in fear. But it becomes a sucker punch, however, if it is merely a provisional status tied to unreasonable border security triggers or other conditions that individuals cannot control.
A legalization plan cannot preclude citizenship in the future, though. Creating a permanent second class for millions of people would be antithetical to America’s ideals.
I am certain The Arizona Republican monitors FAUX News all day for the conservative media entertainment complex talking points, so it cannot be an oversight that the editors fail to mention Governor Jan Brewer's interview with Stuart Varney on FAUX News on Friday behaving as an hysterical anti-immigrant extremist who "denounced anything short of deportation as 'amnesty.'"
I hate to cite this web site, but The Daily Caller reported on Friday, 'How many times do we have to go through this?' Ariz. Gov. Jan rejects amnesty for illegals (video of interview):
Arizona Republican Governor Jan Brewer agrees with Texas Senator Ted Cruz’s prognosis that their party will suffer if it pursues amnesty for illegal immigrants, asking, “How many times do we have to go through this? The border needs to be secured.”
Brewer spoke with Fox News’ Stuart Varney on Friday about the immigration debate, which has picked up in recent weeks after years of inaction. Rumor has it that Republican leadership will work with the Obama administration to enact a “pathway to citizenship” for the estimated 12 million immigrants here illegally. Some in the party — including Cruz — call this strategy a serious blunder that may jeopardize their hopes for the Senate in the fall.
The Arizona governor agreed. “I think that Senator Cruz is correct,” she said.
“I think at the point that we are at today, our people want solutions found. But before any solutions are found though, we need our border secured.” She noted that even her own state, border security was spotty at best. “The Tucson sector is not secured, it’s wide open,” she claimed. ”How many times do we have to ask the federal government to come into the state of Arizona and just look at it? President Obama doesn’t come. The Homeland Security people, they come but they don’t talk to me.”
Brewer’s heard promises of increased border security after amnesty before, and this time she isn’t buying it.
“My hero, Ronald Reagan, promised us that the border would be secured, and he gave amnesty back in 1986,” she explained. “And he didn’t do that! How many times do we have to go through this? No, we fought too hard. The border needs to be secured and they need to understand that. And if everybody is so concerned about resolving this, don’t they hear the American people calling out? Secure our border! Do your job!”
The hard-line governor also told Varney she would “throw out” all illegal immigrants if she could. ”Wow,” Varney reacted. “That’s a tough stance.”
“Maybe I’m being too harsh,” Brewer admitted. “Particularly with the DREAMers. But nobody is going to come to the table and try to resolve that until the border is secured.”
It's not just our hateful, hysterical governor opposed to immigration reform. The conservative media entertainment complex is four-square against immigration reform. Conservative columnist Ross Douthat at the New York Times on Sunday wrote the base is right to just say no to reform. The G.O.P.’s Immigration Delusion. Ed Kilgore summed up the earlier conservative commentariat in “Establishment” Not the Only Republican Deceivers in Immigration Fight:
Conservative reaction to the instantly famous House GOP “Principles on Immigration” has been pretty harshly negative, and a variety of complaints are popping up. Heritage’s Derrick Morgan focuses on the dangers of trusting the Obama administration to enforce any new law, nicely connecting with the over-arching conservative argument that Obama is a tyrant who regularly ignores law and Constitution alike. National Review’s Mark Krikorian dismisses the pledge not to go to conference with the Senate bill as a bit of legislative legerdemain the Senate can easily get around. RedState’s Daniel Horowitz argues that legalization of the undocumented without sending them home first is already the “special path” to citizenship the Principles claim to deplore. Just about everybody complains about the suspiciously secretive process by which the Principles were drafted, and just about everybody smells a rat (viz. the Daily Caller’s Mickey Kaus, who calls it all a “scam”).
But aside from the growing backlash to legalization as a Trojan Horse for “amnesty” (or as “amnesty” itself), the main flashpoint on the Right, which represents sort of the Sum of All Fears, is expressed by Byron York of the Washington Examiner:
[I]n the very last sentence of the principles, comes the key to the whole thing: “None of this can happen before specific enforcement triggers have been implemented to fulfill our promise to the American people that from here on, our immigration laws will indeed be enforced.”
It is not an exaggeration to say that the future of immigration reform in Congress depends on whether Republican leaders mean what they say in that single sentence.
If they do, and the GOP insists on actual border security measures being in place — not just passed, not just contemplated, but actually in place — before illegal immigrants are allowed to register for legal status, then there will likely be significant Republican support for such a bill. (It might well be a deal-killer for most Democrats, but that is another story.)
If, on the other hand, GOP lawmakers wiggle around the clear meaning of the principles’ last sentence to allow legalization to begin before security measures have been implemented, then the party will be back to the same divisions and animosities that have plagued Republicans since the terrible fights over immigration reform in 2006 and 2007.
York goes on to cite the same Paul Ryan quote on legalization proceeding alongside border enforcement that WaPo’s Greg Sargent identified as a promising sign that an ultimate compromise was possible.[As the Arizona Republic editorialized.]
And it’s increasingly clear that compromise is precisely what these conservatives want to rule out, even if it’s a compromise that appears to abet every major demand about immigration reform save one: no legalization at all.
And speaking of the GOP's alleged boy genius, Ayn Rand faboy and zombie-eyed granny starver from the state of Wisconsin, Paul Ryan was on the Sunday morning bobble-head show This Week admitting that the Tea-Publican House's immigration "principles" are just an election year sham, echoing Governor Jan Brewer. US immigration bill 'in doubt' this year, Republican Ryan says:
Republicans will be unlikely to compromise on immigration reform unless U.S. borders are first secured, and the possibility of a broad immigration bill reaching President Barack Obama's desk this year is "clearly in doubt," Representative Paul Ryan said on Sunday.
"Security first, no amnesty, then we might be able to get somewhere," Ryan said on ABC's "This Week."
* * *
Ryan said Republicans have made it clear that they will not be forced to compromise with the Senate on a deal and refuse to go to conference committee with the Senate immigration reform bill.
"This is not one of those issues that has a deadline," he said in the ABC interview. Ryan emphasized that securing the U.S.-Mexico border was a crucial first step before changing rules around legal residency.
"We don't know who's coming and going in this country. We don't have control of our borders," he said. "Doing nothing on the security side of this isn't the responsible thing to do."
* * *
Asked if Obama would get a bill to sign this year, Ryan replied: "I really don't know the answer to that question. That's clearly in doubt."
So let's cut the crap and delusional fantasies that the GOP is serious about immigration reform. They are not. It's an election year sham to make it only appear that they are "willing" to do something, but because they just can't bring themselves trust that black guy in the White House, the secret socialist Muslim tyrant from Kenya, they will not do anything about immigration, so it's all Obama's fault! Too many lazy media villagers and Beltway bloviators are playing along with this transparent GOPropaganda sham right now.
Immigration reform will not happen this year. That failure lies squarely at the feet of the nativist and racist anti-immigrant hysteria of the GOP. Remember in November and vote them out of office.
UPDATE: More evidence: There’s a growing fear within the party that bringing up immigration reform now would depress conservative voter turnout and damage their standing in the 2014 elections. Republicans: Immigration Reform Will Doom Us In 2014 Elections.
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