Thomas D. Elias: Little chance for an immigration amnesty bill
Posted: 03/21/2010 07:03:27 AM PDT
Every poll shows there are few things California's burgeoning Latino community wants more from government this year than immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship for persons now in this country illegally, also known as amnesty.
But despite happy talk from President Obama and some other leading Democrats, chances of this happening are very slim.
For Democrats who now possess large but shaky majorities in both the U.S. Senate and House are not nearly as united on this cause as they are on health care - and their brand of unity on that cause has produced nothing close to what Obama promised as a candidate in 2008. There is no publicly-run health insurance option on the table. The proposed requirement that all citizens must have health insurance has all but disappeared, and more.
If Democrats who once appeared united on health care reform can't even pass a truncated version of that, there's not much chance they will produce an immigration amnesty no matter what their leaders might say. For there's nothing even approaching unity on immigration reform. That's because politicians of all stripes well know that no matter how many requirements and fines they might impose on illegal immigrants seeking permanent legal status, there will be strong opposition back home.
Why would Democrats bother keeping on talking about various combinations of immigration amnesty and tougher border and employment enforcement when they know it won't pass?
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