As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, Republicans need to get off of their butts.
Well, maybe I didn’t state it precisely like that, but a new Democratic initiative to reform illegal immigration just backs up my statement. Some of the top Democrats in the senate laid out a plan Thursday to reform immigration by beefing up border patrol and creating a fraud-resistant Social Security card.
Our immigration system is broken,” said majority leader Harry Reid.
Optimism was my first reaction. But then I had to think again. What lies behind this? Are Democrats really pushing for actual reform in the problem of illegal immigration.
And what chance does any such piece of legislation have, really? Republican representative John Boehner of Ohio accused Democrats of trying to sway some votes from conservative-leaning individuals before the November elections, calling the move, a “cynical ploy to try to engage voters, some segment of voters, to show up in this November’s elections.”
Boehner also argued that the legislation wouldn’t make its way through Congress.
All this discussion takes place as the first legal challenges to Arizona’s stricter immigration laws popped up Thursday.
Just to catch anyone up to speed, last Friday, Jan Brewer, the governor of Arizona, signed a law prohibiting the harboring of illegal aliens and making it a state crime for any alien to carry out particular federal crimes. Perhaps most notably, however, the law allows police officers to detain people they think might be in the country illegally with no more than reasonable suspicion.
Personally, I am thrilled with Brewer’s decision. It makes me wonder if perhaps California could ever be on board with a plan like that. Likely not. But I think it’s worth a shot.
I firmly disagree with the New York Times editorial that chastises Arizona’s government for taking matters into their own hands and making aliens carry documentation with them. If the Feds can’t handle the problem, then more power to any state that can. And it is far from unreasonable to require people from out of the country to be able to verify their identity and place of origin.
I could probably spend the rest of my blog posts talking specifically about illegal immigration. But alas, I probably won’t. It’s an issue I’ve been arguing over since the beginning of high school, and one I have a very firm stance on.
If Arizona continues to be in the spotlight, I will likely expound upon that a little bit more.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/30/us/politics/30immig.html?ref=politics
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