Bush can’t (or won’t) lead on immigration

April 11, 2006

One important angle to the debate over [tag]immigration[/tag] policy that hasn’t gotten much attention lately is that the president has decided that he simply doesn’t want to lead on the issue — and Republicans clearly aren’t happy about it. The House, Senate, immigration groups, civil right organization, and unions have been working on competing measures, but as the WaPo noted today, [tag]Bush[/tag] has “refused to get involved in the legislative details.”

When the delicate compromise was announced Thursday morning, Senate [tag]Republicans[/tag] said, [tag]White House[/tag] officials had told them that Bush would appear on television early that afternoon to strongly back the deal — a move that advocates say could have shored up support and deflected opposition from conservatives. Right on time, Bush appeared in Charlotte, N.C., at 12:36 p.m., but his message was to exhort senators “to work hard.” […]

Advocates of the compromise were mystified that the man who first called for a guest-worker program would go no further. “I think it’s a fair statement to say the president has provided great leadership on the tenor of the debate, the tone of debate. Now it’s time for him to provide more leadership on the substantive outcome,” said Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.).

Some conservatives believe Bush betrayed them by launching the debate, then letting Democrats such as Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.) and maverick Republicans such as Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) take control of it.

Kevin joked that Bush is just lazy, and while that’s certainly true, the fact that the president has been unengaged on the issue speaks to other problems as well.

For one thing, this is another consequence of weak national support. Bush knows he has no political capital left. Immigration policy is controversial and complicated, and no one at the White House wants to alienate anyone. Instead, the Bush gang seems content to just sit on the sidelines, rather than risk seeing Bush’s approval ratings slip into the 20s.

For another, as Peter Beinart recently noted, it’s not altogether clear Bush is sure where he wants the policy to go. Bush’s political self-interest suggests he should “dump the guest-worker program, sign the harshest border-security bill he can find, and jump into Rush Limbaugh’s adoring arms,” but the president doesn’t actually believe in such an approach. As a result, Bush prefers to do nothing, short of meaningless “work hard” pep-talks.

One thing’s for sure; [tag]Democrats[/tag] are more than happy to fill the void.

At the Washington rally on Monday, the issue took on starkly partisan terms, as Democratic lawmakers, including Rep. Jim Moran of Virginia and Rep. Albert Wynn of Maryland, took turns at the podium without a Republican in sight. That left the door open for [Sen. Ted] Kennedy to bash his right-wing opponents before a receptive crowd.

“Some in Congress want to turn America away from its true spirit,” Kennedy boomed. “They believe immigrants are criminals, and they are wrong.” The crowd applauded twice for each of Kennedy’s lines — once after he spoke them in English, and then again, a moment later, after the words reverberated across the Mall in Spanish translation.

“They say you should report to deport,” he said. “I say report and become American citizens.” And then, presumably, vote Democratic.

That sound you hear is Tom Tancredo banging his head against his desk.

“Instead, the Bush gang seems content to just sit on the sidelines, rather than risk seeing Bush’s approval ratings slip into the 20s.” – CB

Are the Know-Nothings one third of his remaining base? That’s a good question. Would being proactive on immigration win him back more votes than he would lose? That’s another good question.

Is anyone in the White House paying attention to immigration? Or are they just serial leaking plans and intelligence to distract from their prior leaking?

And frankly, I think the sercurity risks are getting tourist and student visas to come to America, and then overstaying their visas. Building a fence along the border does nothing to catch them.

  • After-action feedback for GOP: when scapegoating a group, make sure they are not politically well-organized, numerous, and intensely motivated.

  • I love the confusion of the Republicanites on this one.

    “Our economy is great but your job doesn’t pay enough because we have been letting illegal immigrants into the country for 20 years without punishing the companies that hire and exploit them because we call them illegals.”

    God, I’d love to see the Republicanites shatter into their constiuent pieces on this one.

  • There are Repubs on both sides of the issue. Both sides are rabidly proactive—and reactive, when it comes to this issue. Whichever side Kid George chooses, he slaps a big chunk of his support-base square in the face—and they’ll have good memories, come November. He’s playing his audience for saps, thinking that by not choosing a side to the issue, he can placate both by saying he wasn’t against “them.” This time, though, it’s just not going to work. I’m waiting to see him slide into the 20-somethings pretty soon. Maybe even—dare I say it—the teens?

  • I’ve never been a fan of the Democratic strategy of letting the GOP destroy itself and then coast to easy majorities. But on this issue, I think they’ve done the right thing. Who are the speakers at these rallies railing against? The GOP. Who looks completely nuts when they suggest deporting 11 million people, walling up our southern border, and jailing clergy and social workers? The GOP. Who has endorsed the actions of a racist militia along our borders? The GOP. Who just pissed away years of voter outreach to the Hispanic community? The GOP.

    The Kennedy-McCain bill is hardly perfect. It’s documentation provisions are unworkable, and it isn’t punitive enough against corporations and businesses that exploit the migrant workforce. But it’s a lot more palatable than the House bill. House and Senate Democrats should push their advantage and back this bill.

  • “The president has decided that he simply doesn’t want to lead on the issue.”

    Absolutely right, CB.

    The president has not taken the lead on any issue except to blindly pursue the neocon strategies that were scripted for him back in the days when people were still willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

    The ideas he pushes are ill-conceived and not thought through at all, merely hot-button items brought forward for the sole purpose of expanding Republican power. Then when they fall apart he has no way to respond except to withdraw and wait for people to stop asking about them.

    In every public appearance he makes these days his responses are basically, “Go away. Leave me alone.” As his poll numbers reflect, his wish is being granted.

  • Immigration is Bush’s Iraq War of domestic policy issues. By playing it safe and staying the course of not taking a strong position, he’s going to wind up alienating his entire base.

    Drop support for the guest worker program and lose his business sector support. Punish faith-based programs and lose the religious right. Punish immigrants and lose the Repubs nascent Hispanic backing. Don’t advocate strongly enough for border security and lose the fearful, security conscious “dark people are trying to kill me” right wing.

    Bush has entered the Democrat Zone where problems are complicated and aren’t easily solved by sound-bite politics and opponent bashing.

  • This isn’t about “immigration”. It’s about illegal immigration. All the marches are not supporting legal immigration, they’re supporting illegal immigration.

    How many of those that Kennedy was addressing are illegal aliens, i.e., foreign nationals, i.e., citizens of other countries?

    Kennedy and the others have turned their backs on what the majority of Americans want and they support what foreign nationals and foreign countries want instead.

  • “Kennedy and the others have turned their backs on what the majority of Americans want and they support what foreign nationals and foreign countries want instead.”

    TLB,
    I would add the US Marine Corps to your list of those who don’t know what America wants and who is under the thumb of foreign nationals and countries. Lance Corporal Jose Gutierrez, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala, was one of the first of our servicepeople to die in the Iraq war.

    Just shows how obviously stupid and naive Gutierrez was to think that “True Americans(tm)” like you would appreciate his sacrifice.

  • Well, I can see the right’s issue on this.
    Next thing you know, we’ll have wave after wave of non-Europeans coming onto our land;
    taking over our property;
    declaring what we considered to be ours theres;
    saying that we were not even considered citizens, and would be controlled by the military, and had to listen now to a new leader in a far off city;
    that we have to forget about our heritage, our religion, and our way of life, for a more “non-barbaric, civilized” way of life;
    and finally be forced to live on the most inhabitable parts of America, far from our homes;
    But on the bright side, in a hundred years or so, the new owners of America might let us build casinos.

  • “All the marches are not supporting legal immigration, they’re supporting illegal immigration.” – TLB

    The marches are about not criminalizing running red stop lights five years after they were run.

    America does not want to spend enough money or raise the taxes to afford a European style immigration policy. We don’t track people down who overstay their student or tourist visas. We don’t really guard our border. We just want to call people who enter this country to work ‘illegal’ so that they have no protections under the law and can be exploited by business.

    Charles Kruthammer says that it is not the job of U.S. businesses to check if their workers have legal documentation to work. Fascinating! Why then is it the job of U.S. Businesses to collect their employees’ income and FICA taxes and send them on to the Federal Government? Right now we are collecting social security taxes from illegal immigrants who don’t even have real social security numbers.

    This country is an immigrant country. If we change that, it will be the beginning of the decline of America. Is that what you are advocating?

  • “All the marches are not supporting legal immigration, they’re supporting illegal immigration.” – TLB

    Actually, the marches are against a draconian bill that would make millions of people felons, including churches and organizations that act as “Good Samaritans.” I have a real hard time accepting priests, nuns or volunteers being led away in handcuffs because they offered food, shelter, and clothing to someone without checking for proper documentation.

    I have a hard time with the racial undertones running through the debate as well. Build a wall across the Mexican border, but leave our northern border and ports unguarded and as porous as ever. And the argument is they not only want our jobs but our territory as well. If Mexico wants Texas and Arizona back, I say we give it to them. Neither state has done us a damn bit of good recently.

    Besides the upcoming election, what’s the urgency in ending illegal immigration now? A year ago, few people gave a second thought illegal immigrants picking fruit and vegetables, doing janitorial work, roofing houses and mowing lawns at below-market pay. What’s changed?

  • Every time in our nation’s history that economic conditions turned bad for the working class, they turned – not on the employers, who were usually behind the downturn – but on the most recently arrived foreigners. This was true even before we had a nation or, rather, when we were a Colony of England’s. Back then it was the Scots-Irish who were the boogeymen, the ones the British drove out into Appalachia to “do the work no one else would do” (settle the frontier, i.e., conquer the natives). If we hadn’t enslaved the Africans (so that they had no choice), I would include them in this litany of our treatment of “foreigners”. Later it was the Germans, the Scandinavians, then the Irish and Chinese (who built the eastern and western rail lines), then the Southern Europeans (e.g., Italians) and Eastern Europeans (e.g., Hungarians). We rounded up the Japanese along the West Coast, and now some of us (e.g., James Sensenbrenner and Tom Tancredo) are trying to get us to do it to the Mexicans in our midst. It’s a long and sad history.

    What I find particularly offensive in all is that those who seem to hate “foreigners” the most are those who only recently were foreigners themselves. Not only foreigners, but self-styled and loudly-proclaimed Christians. What Would Jesus Do? Better ask: what would any two-year-old do, before s/he learned to hate?

  • ” the president has decided he just does not want to lead on this issue.”?

    what’s news about this?

    bush has not lead on any issue since he has been president.

    not one.

    he does not lead

    he declaims.

    he does not talk with different stakeholders as a leader of a democracty would do.

    he does not search for a workable consenseus as a leader of a democracy would do.

    he just tells people what he is going to do.

    and karl rove intimidates republican congressmen into accquiessence.

    name me one issue in which bush had provided leadership, as opposed to simply leading by fiat.

    kaiser bush

    czar bush

    but not democratic leader bush.

  • “Maverick” my ass. Please don’t repeat Repug talking points. McCain is no “maverick”, he’s a right-wing party loyalist.

    Come on. Just because they lie doesn’t mean we have to repeat their shit.

  • “I would add the US Marine Corps to your list of those who don’t know what America wants and who is under the thumb of foreign nationals and countries. Lance Corporal Jose Gutierrez, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala, was one of the first of our servicepeople to die in the Iraq war.”

    He lied about his age to get a green card, and thus he enlisted as a legal immigrant.

    And, of course, unless 20 million illegal aliens are willing to join the Marines, we can’t base policies affecting hundreds of millions of people on unique circumstances.

    “We just want to call people who enter this country to work ‘illegal’ so that they have no protections under the law and can be exploited by business.”

    Sounds exploitative. Why do you support it then, rather than supporting ending it by supporting enforcement of our immigration laws?

    “Actually, the marches are against a draconian bill that would make millions of people felons, including churches and organizations that act as “Good Samaritans.” I have a real hard time accepting priests, nuns or volunteers being led away in handcuffs because they offered food, shelter, and clothing to someone without checking for proper documentation.”

    1. Sensenbrenner wanted to remove the felons provision, but the Dems voted to keep it in.

    2. Sensenbrenner and others have made it clear that those provisions are designed to fight people smugglers and wouldn’t be applied to humanitarian workers. Obvious, someone’s been lying to you.

  • Ah, but TLB, what did the Corps do when they found out about Gutierrez’s illegal status?

    Did they chuck his body (or its remainder) out on the street corner? Or ship him home in a Glad garbage bag as he clearly deserved, if I understand you right, rather than a steel coffin with a US flag on it?

    Why do the Marines hate America by condoning illegals?

    And, also, if you casually make an exception with even one illegal then how can you–with justice–take a hard line with the remaining 19,999,999? That’s the sucky thing if you allow precedents. That leaves you with two choices. You can admit that you don’t care about equity. Or you can agree with me that the Marines hate America and should go to jail when they allowed an illegal to serve under the colors.

    But seriously, the armed forces need all the help they can get with no True Americans(tm) signing up. Who’s to blame them for taking on illegals? At least they are trainable and they’re risking their lives for you. And at no extra charge. Unlike the retards the military has to now recruit in order to come remotely close to quota.

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