CNN: Commentary: House GOP pushes immigration 'reform for dummies'

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Commentary: House GOP pushes 'reform for dummies'
September 25, 2006
By Ruben Navarrette Jr.
Special to CNN

SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- In tackling the immigration issue, Republicans in Congress really outdid themselves. Call it: "Immigration Reform for Dummies."

Republicans squabbled for months over whether to pursue the enforcement-only approach favored by House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner and other hard-liners or the comprehensive plan supported by Sen. John McCain and two dozen GOP senators.

Along the way, the GOP hardliners in the House brushed aside a reasonable compromise proposed by Rep. Mike Pence, R-Indiana, and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, that rejects amnesty, puts border security first and requires illegal immigrants to go home before re-entering the country legally as guest workers.

Then, this month, House Republicans caught a glimpse of the calendar, discovered that the November election was around the corner and trembled at the thought that their own conservative voters might not look favorably on the people who represent them offering nothing on a hot issue except hot air.

So they hurriedly cobbled together a slate of 10 enforcement measures, as if the immigration problem could be fixed with spit and glue....(N)owhere in the GOP's 10-point enforcement plan do you find any mention of employer sanctions....(T)he Republican Party is the party of business, and, more and more in America, businesses depend on illegal immigrant labor....

(Ruben Navarrette Jr. is a member of the editorial board of the San Diego Union-Tribune and a nationally syndicated columnist.)

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/09/25/navarrette/index.html