Maniacal Immigration

As hard as it may be to believe, there is some truth to the Donald’s seemingly ridiculous assertion that Romney’s immigration policy lost him the election. 

Trump is wrong to attribute the GOP’s mad immigration stance to Mitt Romney, let’s just get that out of the way. Romney, as in most things during the election, was merely dancing to the tune of his party’s most extreme factions.  The “self deportation” policy that the conservative candidate touted as the panacea for all U.S. immigration maladies was crafted by the GOP’s braintrust, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. 

But Mr. Trump is right that their immigration policy hurt Republicans this election.

The turning point that separates the two prevalent and radically different positions on immigration is the definition of the immigration problem itself. While the left sees it as a humanitarian crisis, the right vision is one of an invasive national security menace that must be fought and not necessarily resolved. What both sides have shared is a desire to get an electoral advantage out of this problem with better results going to the Democrats -even though they’ve made little  progress in achieving a real solution.

Long before Mr. Romney had nailed the Republican presidential nomination, Mr. Kobach had written the infamous Arizona SB 1770, also known as the “papers please” law as well as the Alabama Anti-Illegal Immigration Law which included strict action like asking public school students to prove their citizenship. The core of the “Self Deportation” idea is to make the life of the undocumented immigrant so miserable that they would leave by themselves and by Mr. Kobach’s own estimate, if implemented nationwide would rid the nation of 5.5 million immigrants in a relatively short time.

The results of the general election on November 6, was a harsh eye opener for the Republican party. Now while the moderates in that party are talking about softening their position on immigration to try to lure the Latino support and their precious votes, the radical wing remains quiet.

Departing republican senators Jon Kyl of Arizona and Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, having nothing to lose, introduced in Congress the ACHIEVE ACT. It’s a  watered down version of the DREAM ACT which doesn’t give a path of citizenship to the dreamers, but at least gives them legal status. While Congress’ Hispanic Caucus has publicly rejected the bill it has been recognized as a step in the right direction for the GOP. From here we wish the GOP the best of luck convincing their base - one that has been trained for decades that the immigrant is the enemy and not a partner in the enterprise of achieving the progress  - that smart immigration policies are better for everybody than brute ones.

Follow Latinzine and Legal Alien on Facebbok.