Opponents on immigration reform gear up for forthcoming battle

[pampango]

Source: Christian Science Monitor

Immigration reform is far down on Washington’s “to do” list, after healthcare reform, the Afghanistan war, and job creation. But outside the Beltway, in America’s community centers and protest venues, you’d think someone had already pushed the hot button to bring this always-simmering issue to a boil. The end of 2009 saw opponents of reform organizing dozens of anti-immigration “tea parties,” while pro-reform groups coordinated thousands of strategy sessions with local activists across the country.

For its part, the Obama administration appears to have begun laying the groundwork – increasing border security and law enforcement – to move soon on reform legislation.

“Americans have a more knowledgeable and nuanced opinion than they did a few years ago,” says Mr. Brodnitz. “They understand that the issue is really complicated and not lending itself to easy solutions.” Benenson’s most recent poll in June found that 86 percent of American voters given details of comprehensive reform want Congress to pass a plan.

Other polls show a slightly less rosy picture. A Pew survey from April found that the proportion of Americans who favor a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants – if they pass background checks, pay fines, and have jobs – has risen since 2007, up from 58 percent to 63 percent. But it also showed that partisan differences have grown: Democratic support for reform has jumped from 62 to 73 percent, while Republican support for reform has fallen from 56 percent in 2007 to 50 percent in June.

There’s a sharpening sentiment in favor of restricting immigration, says Joseph Nevins, a political scientist at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., who has studied illegal immigration and the US-Mexican border. He points to “birthers” who question President Obama’s citizenship, as well as Rep. Joe Wilson’s shout of “You lie!” in response to Mr. Obama’s assertion that healthcare reform would not insure unauthorized immigrants, as evidence of a deep-seated skepticism that may be hard to overcome. “At a time of deep economic downturn, and with anti-immigrant sentiment strongly in the air, the present-day possibilities of passage of any legislation aimed at reducing the repressive laws and exclusion endured by immigrants are daunting,” says Professor Nevins.

Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2010/0105/Opponents-on-immigration-reform-gear-up-for-forthcoming-battle

[Romulox]

1. Obama has made no secret of his desire to sign an amnesty bill. nt

[Don Caballero]

2. And I applaud him for that

The racists will be out in full force trying to stop the amnesty bill when it comes up. We must make sure their voices are not heard.

[Romulox]

3. The OP wants to both applaud him for it and pretend it's not true (simultaneously)

Hence the tension in the article between what everybody knows and the view put forward in the OP.

"The racists will be out in full force trying to stop the amnesty bill when it comes up."

And the cheap labor shills will make common cause with the very peculiar variety of "poverty activist" who cares nothing for poverty in her own country. :hi:

[Kolesar]

4. They issued death threats to members of Congress when bush* attempted "reform"

It was on Bill Moyers' Journal

A show that is being dropped from PBS, btw.