Wrong. I am not against compromise, but there are certain issues/principles that can't be compromised. Everything is not negotiable, e.g., the future of this country. You sound like the "Better Red than dead" crowd during the 60s.
When you point to those dems who didn't vote for cloture, you don't realize that they are holding out for something before they compromise. Or, why the United Farm Workers would support the bill, and the AFL-CIO would oppose it.
Au contraire. I am involved in a grassroots immigration group that goes up to the Hill often about this issue and others related to it. I follow the issue very closely. What I do understand is how this issue cuts across partisan lines in terms of the public. My group contains dems, reps, inds, blacks, whites, and hispanics.
Very simply put, the dems are in the driver's seat. And the pivot point of the compromise shifts a little to the left every time the issue comes before the Senate.
The dems are definitely the ones pushing the issue behind the scenes. They just don't want to appear to be doing that publicly. They realize that many of their constituents don't agree with their position on immigration issues. It is a potentially losing and divisive issue for them. They want and need the WH/Rep cover.
This is because the GOP is split. And immigration is not the only issue on which the GOP is split.
Immigration splits the Dems even more. The rank and file Dems, except for Hispanics, agree with the majority of the American public on this issue. Why do you think in this Sunday's ABC Dem debate that there was not one question about immigration? The Dems are very afraid of the issue and Georgie boy knows that, which is why he took the line of questioning he did.
Grassroots organizations are springing up all over the country as the problem metastasizes outside of the border states. Oklahoma and Georgia have passed sweeping legislation dealing with illegal aliens. Local communities like Herndon, Manassas, Prince William County, VA, Hazelton, etc. are addressing the problem as well. Many of the states have passed propositions declaring English as the official state language, including AZ in 2006. Immigration is the elephant in the room and it is growing larger and larger. Today, one in eight residents of America is foreign born [including my wife and daughter] and in several years that number will be one in seven, the highest it has ever been in our history.
If you followed the debate as it was broadcast on C-Span, what were Dorgan and Saunders [sic] saying? What else do they want before they allow immigration reform to go forward?
I followed the debate very closely. Taped it and watched it all. Dorgan voted against the 2006 bill. He doesn't want any kind of guest worker program. Sanders is a socialist who is concerned about current workers pay and benefits. He understands how an endless supply of cheap, exploitable labor depresses wages and gives business more "evil" profits. My two senators, Webb and Warner, would like to vote for comprehensive immigration reform but they were overwhelmed by the size and volume of public opposition.
The Dems aided by Specter et. al. are getting ready this September to put forward another bill and/or do it on a piecemeal basis. They have invested so much into this effort politically that they must come up with something before the 2008 election, just as they did in October 2006 with the Fence bill, which passed the Senate 80-19 with even Hillary voting for it. As was the case in 2006, the politicians want the issue to be neutered by passing some phony legislation that won't be implemented and hide behind the WH, which most of the Dems did by saying that they supported the WH/McCain position.
If Bill Gates were to sit down at the table with the Communications Workers of America and make a deal, would he get his 200,000 H1B visas?
If he bought off the union leadership the same way that the corporations buy off Congress, both parties, thru contributions, yes he would get them.
We already have many guest worker programs in the form of various visas such as H1B, H2B, TN Nafta Work visa, L-1 Intra-company Transfer Work visa, Nurse Work visa, O-1 Visa, P Visa, R-1 visa, etc. We have millions of people working here as guest workers under those programs.
We don't need to increase the number of the current one-million legal immigrants we take in annually. We do need to change the existing immigration laws that are not serving us well as a nation. We are taking in more legal immigrants than ever before, just not the ones we need to provide us with the skills and talents required to keep us competitive in the global economy. We don't need to import high school dropouts from Latin America to keep our economy going.
And we are witnessing one of the greatest mass migrations in history, which has changed the demographics and culture of this country in less than 40 years. In 1950, Hispanics comprised 1 percent of the population. Today they are about 15% and by 2050 will be 24.4% per Bureau of the Census projections. What is going on is unprecedented. Little did anyone know that when the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 was passed, the demographics would be so significantly affected. Teddy Kennedy said on the effects of the act in 1965, "...our cities will not be flooded with a million immigrants annually.... Secondly, the ethnic mix of this country will not be upset...." The act's supporters not only claimed the law would not change America's ethnic makeup, but that such a change was not desirable.
Oh, how wrong they were. We are not only taking in 1 million legal immigrants a year [60% from Latin America,] up from 178,000 a year prior to the Act, but the ethnic composition of the US has changed dramatically and will continue to do so at warp speed. The additional 500,000 to 1 million illegal aliens, mostly from Latin America add to this flood of immigrants. In 1965 when the Act was passed, the United States was overwhelmingly composed of whites of European descent (89% in 1965), with the only minority group of significant size being blacks (10%). By 2050 non-hispanic whites will be 50% and declining fast. It is not politically correct to state what is happening in this regard, but the real question is can America retain its national identity and culture or will we become Balkanized along linguistic and cultural lines? Demography is destiny.
You rely on the antiquated "public opinion" position on immigration and fail to comprehend the modern immigration issue between the dems and the GOP which is, simply, "permanent visas versus temporary visas"
You, like many others, also have an antiquated view of immigration. As the world continues to shrink, and mobility increases, citizenship becomes more of a mental state rather than a physical state. Mexico is not giving all these immigrants to the US, they are merely "loaning" them.