Republicans Voted For Criminalizing Immigrants Before They Voted Against It

Smell that? No, it's not pollen. It's desperation... and the Republicans reek of it.

We've all seen in the past few weeks how the Republican-authored immigration bill from the House of Representatives has caused great controversy. The bill would've made illegal immigrants felons and even criminalized anyone (ie. strangers on the street, soup kitchens) who provided aid to an illegal immigrant. Anger over these draconian proposals sparked massive demonstrations in protest all over the country, including some with over half a million people in attendance. Moderate voices on the issue in the Senate (including Ted Kennedy on the left, and John McCain and Arlen Specter on the right) tried to forge a compromise, but Republican hardliners (ie. Bill Frist) balked. And so the demonstrations continue and the backlash is growing. What was meant to be an election year wedge issue to rally the conservative base has turned into a major problem for the Republican Party.

So what's a battered GOP to do? How about running Spanish-language ads againt Senate minority leader Harry Reid, insinuating the Senate failure was his fault and arguing more broadly that Democrats were responsible for the House bill that sought to make the immigrants felons? Yes, that is what Ken Melhman and the GOP attack machine are trying. As stated in the Las Vegas Sun-

The 60-second spot says in Spanish that Reid "blocked our leaders from working together" and blames Democrats for legislation that passed the Republican-controlled House that would make illegal immigrants subject to felony charges.

"Reid's Democrat allies voted to treat millions of hardworking immigrants as felons," the ad says, "while President Bush and Republican leaders work for legislation that will protect our borders and honor our immigrants."

Yes, if there's one thing the Republicans are known for, it's honoring our immigrants.

Can you believe how pathetically transparent and false this? The immigration demagougery was to be the Republicans' signature issue for '06. It was the brainchild of people like Rep. Sensenbrenner and Rep. Tancredo. Passing the buck to the Democrats would be like blaming them for Jack Abramoff... oh wait, they tried that too. That didn't stick and I have to hope (for the sake of my sanity) that this won't either.

Luckily, the claims are being rebutted. From the above-linked Sun article-

The reference [about Democrats supporting a felony charge for immigrants] is to a House vote on an amendment that would have reduced the proposed penalty to a misdemeanor. Many Democrats, including members of the Hispanic Congressional Caucus, voted against the amendment, arguing they did not support criminal penalties. Nevada Republicans Jon Porter and Jim Gibbons also voted against the amendment, which failed. The felony provision remained in the bill, H.R. 4437, and it passed the House on a largely party line vote.

And Sen. Reid and Rep. Pelosi have issued a statement about this attack campaign. Key points-

"Speaker Hastert and Leader Frist's statement on immigration this week is a clear reflection that Republicans now feel the heat from the American people on the mean-spirited approach of the House Republican immigration bill, H.R. 4437, authored by Congressman James Sensenbrenner...

..."No amount of spin by the Republican leadership can change the fact that the Sensenbrenner bill -- including the felony provision -- was authored by Republicans and ultimately passed by Republicans.

"The fact is that Congressman Sensenbrenner's amendment, if adopted, would have still criminalized an entire population for the first time in our history, rather than charging presence violations as civil offenses as provided under current law. 11 million men, women, and children, with no exceptions, would still go to jail for up to six months under the revised Sensenbrenner amendment. That is why many Democrats voted against the Sensenbrenner amendment."

Let's hope the Democrats continue to push back... this is the Republicans' mess; they deserve it.

You see, they know now that they messed up. Karl Rove spent years suckering in the Latino vote with promises of faith and family and in a few weeks of wondrously xenophobic hysteria, the Republican Congress may have thrown it all away. With demonstrators vowing to keep marching through the election, Republicans realized their best strategy to recover was... to cut and run from their own bill (at least until they try to push through another one). And now they want to blame the party that was actually working hard to find some compromise on this sensitive issue. This issue should tell the hispanic community that not only does the Republican party base barely see them as human, they also think they're stupid.

It's no wonder polls show Americans trust Democrats more on the immigration issue than Republicans by a very wide margin. The Democrats' proposals on this issue, while maintaining the obvious need for secure borders and sensible laws to govern all of this, included something which the Republicans' version lacked... basic humanity. While Republican pundits moaned about the Mexican 'invasion' of our country and about immigrants 'dropping babies' on our soil like beasts and about how the purity of America is being compromised, the Democrats spoke of making citizenship available to those who seek it the and the importance of family. The Democrats sought a multi-layered approach to illegals depending on how long they'd been here (and wanted to junk the border 'wall' idea in favor of technological monitoring systems). To get citizenship, they'd have to- pay a fine, pay all back-taxes owed if any, learn English, and go to the back of the waiting list for citizenship. Other proposals existed as well. The Republicans blew this all off as 'amnesty' and walked away from the table.

These are the facts. A few ads aren't likely to make the angry Latino population forget that.

And so to the Republicans, I say- "Mejor suerte el próximo tiempo."

[PS- Perhaps Ken Melhman has bigger things to worry about- 2002 N.H. Scandal Shadows GOP Anew]