Catch me up, please. What started this whole "immigration crisis"?

[Brotherjohn]

I fear it is nothing but a very large, and successful, DISTRACTION, set up by Republicans in Congress.

I mean, immigration is an important issue. It always has been. But all of a sudden, people are marching in the streets in untold numbers. It's at the top of the headlines day after day.

Now I admit, I haven't been keeping up on this issue, so help me out..

Did the marches start AFTER draconian legislation was proposed in Congress?

Was this really such a major issue of imminent importance until a couple of weeks ago?

It seems to me that if you put forth legislation that includes locking up any illegal immigrant and charging them with a felony, and then you propose alternative legislation that proposes giving illegal immigrants total amnesty, that you've catalyzed both extremes.

\\POOF!//... you have a major issue.

And Juan Williams is being asked this morning if "the immigration issue will decide the November elections".

Not the war (Iraq).

Not the other war (Afghanistan).

Not the lies that got us into those wars.

Not the pending war (Iran)...

... nor the lies being told to get us into that one.

Not gas prices.

Not Katrina.

Not even the distinct possibility that treason has been committed by a sitting president and vice president.

No, it's immigration that will decide the November elections.

How convenient.
:sarcasm:

[havocmom]

1. As the situation has not suddenly changed: GOP dog & pony show de jour

Illegals - the new gays who want to make legal commitment

It's really just a distraction, but if it gets enough press, it allows them cover for programs to avoid prosecuting Illegal EMPLOYERS. A diversion that throws a bone to the small businesses that rely on VERY CHEAP labor at a time they are waking up and noticing the junta policies are killing them too.

[madokie]

2. I think you are correct, the party that governs with wedge issues

as their tool.

[LostinVA]

3. Mid-term elections

[RedEarth]

4. I agree..... I think it's a smokescreen

The radical right is trying to take the attention off of not only Iraq, but also energy, affordable healthcare, the environment, etc, as well as all the corruption through-out the republican party.

[rodeodance]

5. the 'citizen' patrols along the border (and Hannity)--played a role in

the border issue--along with lou dobbs night after night. then the House passed that draconian meassure and now we have an 'issue'

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. The repugs erecting another bogeyman. This time with a sombrero.

It's blowing up in their faces because the immigrants are fighting back.

[Brotherjohn]

10. But I don't know if it's blowing up in their faces. They may lose on ...

... on this issue (polls show they are, anyway), but what they gain by the eye being taken off the ball is immeasurable.

By all accounts, they were slated to lose in November by a landslide (in any competetive district, anyway). But make this election mainly about immigration, and it becomes tit-for-tat, a much more evenly matched election.

[leftchick]

7. well it had to be something

gay marriage and missing white girls are so "yesterday". :eyes:

[rucky]

8. It is backfiring on them.

If the MILLIONS protesting aren't scaring the piss out of them, it should be. It doesn't matter how they lose, as long as they lose.

Meanwhile Dem leaders should stop letting minorities twist in the wind & stand at their side for once.

[Bridget Burke]

9. Yes, the Protests were a direct response to the new proposals....

That would make being "illegal" a felony & penalize any group helping the undocumented.

Blaming all our problems on immigrants is a good smokescreen for the problems caused by Bush & his pals. If we weren't bleeding tax money in Iraq & in crony corporate deals--& if the rich & corporations were paying their share--we'd have plenty of money. Money to spend on health care & schools. And increasing Workers' Rights would help all US workers--no matter their legal standing.

Handling immigration is definitely worth careful discussion. But it is not a Crisis.

[Brotherjohn]

12. Thanks (and rodeodance, too) for the background of events.

I know I posed my post in a way that kind of answered the question I was asking (I can see what's going on; these guys operate pretty transparently if your eyes are open). But I was actually out of the loop on the events leading up to the immigration "crisis".

[Demit]

11. Distraction, yes, but also Divide and Conquer.

They've always got something in their hip pocket to pull out when reality gets inconvenient, don't they? The whole Is the Media Deliberately Not Reporting Good News Out of Iraq thing, to distract from civil-war conditions there. And the Media kindly obliges, by taking up time "investigating" whether that's true or not, lending credence to a preposterous idea by pretending to debate it.

This immigration exercise seems also designed to pit faction against faction--never really addressing the real issue of exploitative low-pay jobs--and to create a disarray that the administration can stand outside of and look like the strongest element in the mix. It's cold and calculated and right out of the Dictator Playbook.

[bananas]

13. I read that it was their plan for the 2006 elections

I read a while back that the republicans were going to make illegal immigration the issue for the 2006 elections. I forgot where I read it, it was quite a while ago.

[bananas]

19. Here it is - a fax to Rove from last year

It was discussed on DU, originally reported by Larissa at Raw Story.

http://www.mydd.com/story/2005/9/19/164323/020

(image of fax to Rove)

There's your Rovian strategy for you, bait and switch, while all the while the Republicans build a bigger bureaucracy (via Atrios linking to Raw Story).

First, talk tough; then cast liberals as oppossed to enforcement; then having framed the debate, open the borders to guestworkers and create a permanent second or third class group of "residents", not citizens. Come to think of it, with Bush having lifted the requirement of minimum wages in the Gulf Coast, I'm sure we are going to see alot of "residents" arrive in the Gulf area to work for those low wages..

[5X]

14. Juan Williams has always been a total bush shill...

he said this morning the marches were to promote
immigration reform. They are of course backlash
to felonizing all of the immigrants, building fences,
denying any rights.

[Bridget Burke]

15. On CBS news this morning....

They said the marches were meant to win citizenship for all the immigrants.

And they pointed out that they DON'T PAY TAXES. Actually, some do end up paying Income Tax, although many don't. But all of them pay Sales Tax & Property Tax (sometimes indirectly).

[Brotherjohn]

18. Yeah, just like the anti-war marches before Iraq were to free Mumia. (nt)

[Brotherjohn]

16. Yeah, I nearly choked when they asked "will immigration decide the Nov...

... elections?"

While he didn't ask the question, it was his story, and that was the thrust of it.

[Mutley]

17. It's an election year.

These sorts of issues always come up during election years.

[lonestarnot]

20. Is the majority of hispanic and latino vote repuke?

[daa]

21. Republicans need a bogey man

They had communism. When they had nothing, Clinton won. So now they use blacks, gays and now Mexicans.

Chip Rogers, R GA passed the "if you are brown get out of town bill. 82% of Georgians don't want immigrants, sorry, illegals. I always forget to use those republican code words.

[GeorgeGist]

22. Lou Dobbs.