Julian Zelizer: Inaction on Immigration Reform a Travesty
[Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School. His new book is "Arsenal of Democracy: The Politics of National Security: From World War II to the War on Terrorism," published by Basic Books. Zelizer writes widely about current events.]
Republicans and Democrats in Congress seem to have found one issue on which they agree. Neither party wants to get near immigration reform, the new "third rail" in American politics -- an issue so politically charged that politicians risk their careers by touching it.
Since Congress failed to reach agreement on legislation in 2006 that would have offered undocumented immigrants amnesty and a path toward naturalization, both parties have kept as far away from this issue as they did from health care after President Clinton's reform went down to defeat in 1994....
We are a country of immigrants. We were immigrants from the start. Colonial and Early Republic America was itself composed of a diverse population whose members came from England, Scotland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany and more, as well as the people who were brought here as slaves from African nations.
From the 1840s through the 1890s, a huge wave of immigrants arrived in the wake of downward business cycles and famines in Eastern Europe, as well as persecution. About 15 million people entered the country from Germany, Ireland, Britain and Scandinavia.
Another wave of immigration hit between the 1890s and 1920s, with almost 18 million people arriving from Italy, Austria-Hungary and Russia. As President Lyndon Johnson said in 1965, when he signed immigration legislation of his own, "Our beautiful America was built by a nation of strangers. From a hundred different places or more they have poured forth into an empty land, joining and blending in one mighty and irresistible tide. The land flourished because it was fed from so many sources -- because it was nourished by so many cultures and traditions and peoples."
Both political parties have sizable factions who strongly support liberalizing and stabilizing the treatment of undocumented immigrants. Although both parties agree on the need to establish limitations on who and how many people can enter the country and to secure the borders, they also recognize that government must ensure opportunities for citizenship for those who have worked and spent dollars in our economy....
President Obama has stated his support for liberalized immigration reform, but thus far his party has not taken action. We will have to see whether Obama is willing to demonstrate the same kind of political courage he did with health care, when he took on another issue that everyone thought to be a third rail in politics.
Read entire article at CNN.com
Republicans and Democrats in Congress seem to have found one issue on which they agree. Neither party wants to get near immigration reform, the new "third rail" in American politics -- an issue so politically charged that politicians risk their careers by touching it.
Since Congress failed to reach agreement on legislation in 2006 that would have offered undocumented immigrants amnesty and a path toward naturalization, both parties have kept as far away from this issue as they did from health care after President Clinton's reform went down to defeat in 1994....
We are a country of immigrants. We were immigrants from the start. Colonial and Early Republic America was itself composed of a diverse population whose members came from England, Scotland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany and more, as well as the people who were brought here as slaves from African nations.
From the 1840s through the 1890s, a huge wave of immigrants arrived in the wake of downward business cycles and famines in Eastern Europe, as well as persecution. About 15 million people entered the country from Germany, Ireland, Britain and Scandinavia.
Another wave of immigration hit between the 1890s and 1920s, with almost 18 million people arriving from Italy, Austria-Hungary and Russia. As President Lyndon Johnson said in 1965, when he signed immigration legislation of his own, "Our beautiful America was built by a nation of strangers. From a hundred different places or more they have poured forth into an empty land, joining and blending in one mighty and irresistible tide. The land flourished because it was fed from so many sources -- because it was nourished by so many cultures and traditions and peoples."
Both political parties have sizable factions who strongly support liberalizing and stabilizing the treatment of undocumented immigrants. Although both parties agree on the need to establish limitations on who and how many people can enter the country and to secure the borders, they also recognize that government must ensure opportunities for citizenship for those who have worked and spent dollars in our economy....
President Obama has stated his support for liberalized immigration reform, but thus far his party has not taken action. We will have to see whether Obama is willing to demonstrate the same kind of political courage he did with health care, when he took on another issue that everyone thought to be a third rail in politics.