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We are extremely distressed by the course of
events leading to the 46-53 defeat of comprehensive immigration reform
in the Senate this morning. Not because we supported passage of
the bill under debate -- we did not -- but because the state of
discourse over immigration and the choices given to the American people
have become so poor.
The discourse brought us to a lose-lose
situation where a bill containing so many harmful provisions -- one
likely to become even more harsh as the process unfolded -- could be
presented as the only opportunity to achieve some limited measure of
humanity for the undocumented workers and their families who
disproportionately perform some of the nation's toughest and lowest
paying jobs. It brought us to a situation where those arguing
passionately on the Senate floor for such a problematic bill included
many of the senators who are most committed to the cause of fairness for
immigrants. They pleaded for the Senate to let the process go
forward, in the hope that the bill would be fundamentally improved prior
to enactment.
Now we will never know whether that would
have happened, though there is reason to believe that the same dynamics
that pulled the bill further and further from decency in the Senate
would also have prevailed in the House. That is very sad.
Still, this is not the end of the quest for
just and humane immigration reform. Realistically, no one bill was
ever going to solve all of our immigration problems. Likewise, no
single vote can be allowed to end our struggle. We are now in
the middle of one of the periodic flare-ups of anti-immigrant hostility
that have recurred throughout the nation's history. Those flames,
like the previous ones, will eventually die down, whereas the
demographic and economic realities that require resolution will endure
and continue to grow, as will the movement for justice by immigrant
communities and their supporters.
For more information, contact
Josh Bernstein, director of
federal policy. |
