Immigration Newsletter

Friday, February 25, 2011

‘Nativist lobby’ is winning on immigration (The TandD.com)

Morton Konracke writes:

"The failure of Congress and two presidents to enact immigration reform is plunging the nation into an ugly future. Call it the Arizonification of America."

"...this represents a high-water mark in the influence of the "nativist lobby" -- a richly funded assemblage of national and local groups organized by Michigan ophthalmologist John Tanton."

"Tanton's groups are making use of economic hard times to argue that immigrants -- legal and illegal -- are stealing jobs from Americans and straining government budgets. It's largely bogus because immigrants tend to take jobs that Americans won't or can't do and because illegal workers pay taxes but can't get benefits."

The article is worth reading so I have linked it here -- http://thetandd.com/

The question that comes to my mind is (since I know of only two ophthalmologists that are politically active on the national level John Tanton and Rand Paul) is there something about this field of endeavor that draws right wing ideologues to it? If you are an ophthalmologist whose political stance falls within the range from Moderate to Liberal...please let me know you're out there 

Monday, February 7, 2011

Senators look for immigration deal - Carrie Budoff Brown - POLITICO.com

Senators look for immigration deal - Carrie Budoff Brown - POLITICO.com: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

He is a link to a story from Politico.com about the fact that Senators Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) are talking about immigration reform again.

While it is nice to see that Graham is willing to discuss immigration reform as long as he is as far away from an election as is possible, I don't hold out much hope for passage of Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) in this Congress. The article brings out some reasons for optimism - but really only ones of political expediency - that is, some Republicans are worried about losing the Latino vote in the next Presidential election.

I find it hard to believe that this tea-bagger inspired freshman class of the House of Representatives is going to care enough about Presidential politics to chance a vote against their own racist/xenophobic electoral base. So perhaps they will bring back Graham and even McCain will get back on the bandwagon along with Marco Rubio to try to convince Latinos that the Republican Party cares about improving immigration policy. It will be little more than a show when they know that the House has zero chance of letting CIR go forward. Just more dishonest political posturing, that's all it appears to be.