DEMOCRATS, OBAMA ARE LYING ABOUT IMMIGRATION REFORM

Immigration reform is not going to happen in 2013, and if it does happen in 2014 before mid-term elections where the issue is being used as a political football and wedge issue by Republicans, it will be quite remarkable. This, according to immigration experts I’ve been talking to lately for my reporting work, is the best that we can expect from our representatives.

The Democrats are going to propose immigration legislation to fulfill campaign promises, some of which President Barack Obama made as far back as 2007 or 2008, and it will probably pass the Senate. But the legislation is unlikely to get thru the House still high on Tea Party fumes. So the whole exercise ends up being a dog and pony show, albeit one meant to show how Democrats are powerless against the meanie and hateful GOP.

I’d like to take a step back, though, and remember the last time we were in this position.

It was 2010 and I was in my pajamas, watching C-Span on my computer, as the Senate was voting to vote on the DREAM Act — but they came up short. Five votes short, to be precise, just the number of Democratic Senators who voted against bringing up the DREAM Act for a vote.

A total of 55 Senators voted “yes” that December day: three of them were Republicans and two of them were independents. Of course the overwhelming majority of the “no” votes were Republicans and 50 of the “yes” votes were Democrats. So it’s not totally fair to say that the five Democratic senators who voted “no” cost the DREAM Act that day — is it?

Democrats were still able to make bad guys out of Republicans, while the GOP has been able to bring up their “alternative” DREAM Act plans and play into the political theater. The whole vote, the massive push of phone calls that lead up to that vote, and all of the president’s promises at the time, the DREAMers who were being arrested for sitting in politicos’ offices — all of that lead up to a moment when the votes of five Democratic senators could have made a difference. The sad thing is, people who knew how to look behind the curtain of the political theater knew that the Senate wasn’t going to be able to vote on the DREAM Act. It was all a public ruse.

So I can’t help but feel that we’ve been here before. President Obama and the Democrats shaking their fingers at the contrarian Republicans, GOP Senators promising to bring something bigger and better along, the 2014 mid-terms looming, with both parties anxious to scoop up each others’ seats.

Are we going to get immigration reform in 2013? When it comes to taking a politician’s word for it, or believing what the third-party expert has to say about it, I’m going to have to go with the expert. I don’t think we’ll see immigration reform until after the 2014 midterms, but I certainly hope we see something happen before President Obama leaves office.

Copyright 2013 by Sara Inés Calderón

Sara Inés Calderón
sarainescalderon.com
@SaraChicaD
Skype: SaraChicaD