A wall and a bus ticket: the new shape of immigration reform

President Bush made a high-profile trip to New Mexico and Texas Monday and Tuesday to lecture the country about the need for what he calls "comprehensive" immigration reform.

Speaking to Border Patrol officers in Artesia, New Mexico, the president insisted, in a voice so angry that he threw in an odd little half-laugh now and then as if trying to lighten it up, that the country must accept a guest-worker program and the gradual legalization of illegal immigrants.

The president's speech wasn't enough to help Democrat Francine Busby win San Diego's special election for jailed congressman Duke Cunningham's seat. An audio clip of Ms. Busby telling a Spanish-speaking audience that they didn't need papers for voting may have helped her lose to Brian Bilbray, a Republican lobbyist who surged past Ms. Busby in the polls after he came out against the president's immigration proposals.

That's right, the voters of San Diego chose a lobbyist over an immigration-rights supporter.

Any questions?

Members of Congress who aren't yet clear on the concept might want to note that on Monday, border-enforcement hard-liner Rep. Tom Tancredo won a GOP presidential straw poll in Michigan by a wide margin, defeating Rudy Giuliani, Condoleezza Rice and John McCain, among others. Sen. Sam Brownback, who supports the president's proposals for guest workers and citizenship, finished dead last with a single vote.

Still have questions?

Take note that Rep. Tom Osborne, the popular former Nebraska football coach, lost a GOP primary for governor after he supported a proposal to give in-state tuition rates to illegal immigrants. The incumbent governor, who vetoed the measure, beat him like a drum. Turnout was among the highest ever for a primary election in Nebraska, up from 21 percent in 2004 to more than 35 percent.

Even local politicians are feeling the heat. The mayor and several members of the Town Council in Herndon, Virginia, were just thrown out by voters after they supported a job center for illegal immigrant day-laborers.

It's over for immigration reform. The only thing supporters can do now is hope the Tancredo-Sensenbrenner administration has a plan to get us out of Iraq.


Copyright 2006

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