A risky new push for immigration legislation [McCain-Kennedy reborn]

The Los Angeles Times ^ | 2009-03-27

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Advocates of legalization have crafted a plan that could alienate businesses and key Republicans, including Sen. John McCain. But it is designed to lure a powerful new ally -- organized labor.

BY PETER WALLSTEN

With their prospects in Congress sinking along with the economy, liberal advocates of giving undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship are launching a risky strategy to push lawmakers and the White House to take up their cause.

They are devising a proposal in which millions of undocumented workers would be legalized now, while the number of foreign workers allowed to enter the country would be examined by a new independent commission, and probably reduced.

It is a calculation designed to win a new and powerful ally, organized labor, which favors a limit on foreign worker visas. But it risks alienating businesses that rely on temporary workers and could turn off key Republicans such as Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who in the past has crafted his own compromise plan for legalization.

. . . . .

Any new legalization plan is likely to look similar in some respects to the bill crafted by McCain and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), which stalled most recently in 2007...

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fyi

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Looking for Cinco De Mayo to be an interesting day this year. A witches brew of La Raza, Aztlan, SEIU, UFW and anarchists taking to the streets.

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July 25, 2007: Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, an architect of the Democratic campaign that regained control of the House last year, says his party will not attempt comprehensive immigration reform until at least the second term of a prospective Democratic president.

They need all the votes they can get in the senate. If they wait until Kennedy and Byrd (who voted against amnesty) are replaced, and Franken steals his seat, it may be too close to 2010. From a strategic point of view, it would be be worth it for Dems to lose an election or 2 to get tens of millions of future voters, but an early amnesty push really might fail, and individual congresscritters are concerned with their own positions.