Deepak Bhargava, executive director of D.C.-based Center for Community Change.
All eyes are on the Democrats: Now that they control both chambers of Congress, will they finally fix America's broken immigration system?
After criticizing the previous Republican majority for failing on immigration, Democrats have a real opportunity to put an end to the xenophobic politics of 2006 and improve the life of millions of America's immigrant families.
But so far, the Democratic message on immigration has been silence. They did not include immigration reform on their list of short-term priorities once they take office early next year and they have yet to indicate what action, if any, they will take on the issue.
This is unfortunate for at least two reasons. First, immigration was clearly one of the most relevant issues at play last November. Second, Democrats have made overtures to the President for bipartisan action, and immigration is one issue where President Bush and Democratic leaders are not so far apart.
The so-called Sensenbrenner bill, H.R. 4437, is dead, and voters saw the billion-dollar border fence as a joke rather than a real solution. Democrats must craft an immigration bill that conforms to progressive values as well as pragmatic realities. Incoming committee chairs—Rep. John Conyers, Mich., on Judiciary; Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, Tex., on the Immigration Subcommittee and Rep. Bennie Thompson, Miss., on Homeland Security—interestingly, all African Americans, are in a position to lead the nation in healing the racial division over immigration that their Republican predecessors had provoked and to enact immigration legislation that makes sense for immigrants, workers, business and for all Americans.
But for now, the Democratic leadership appears to be reading the political tea leaves, calculating how pursuing immigration reform would help them hold on to the House and Senate in 2008 and help them retake the White House.
In this regard, the results of the elections in Arizona are instructive. Immigrant bashing proved to be a dud as a strategy for candidates—anti-immigrant zealot Randy Graf lost by a wide margin to Democrat Gaby Giffords and anti-immigrant Republican incumbent J. D. Hayworth lost his re-election bid to challenger Harry Mitchell. But Arizona voters also voted overwhelmingly for a slate of four anti-immigrant ballot initiatives. What lessons should Democrats draw from these results?
On the one hand, independent, moderate and even conservative voters rejected hard-line candidates and favored those with more pragmatic approaches to the complicated immigration issue. On the other hand, anti-immigrant ballot initiatives indicated a strong frustration among voters over the lack of solutions coming from their political leaders and they felt the need to take matters into their own hands. To be sure, the longer it takes to address comprehensive immigration reform on the federal level, the more attempts there will be by state and local governments to address the problem, attempts that are often impractical and disputable in our court systems on racial grounds.
Failure to act on immigration reform in 2007 could very well translate into poor marks for newly elected political leaders who, because of the results of the midterm elections, are expected to take a swift and fair approach to immigration reform. Failure to act could put their chances for a second term on shaky ground. This could be true in a number of Southern, Western and Midwestern battleground states in 2008.
Congressional Democrats have the chance to show some real leadership in enacting a comprehensive immigration reform that provides a path to citizenship to the millions of undocumented residents who are willing to work and make necessary amends to remain in the United States.
It's time to reunite families separated by our broken immigration system, and to acknowledge the contributions of immigrant workers who fill jobs needed by American businesses. Finally, it's time to reject policy proposals that undermine the civil liberties of immigrants and all Americans and that militarize the border at the expense of all residents, citizens or non-citizens, living there.
So the question is, are the Democrats ready to lead?
This article was originally appeared on the New American Media website.
