A few weeks ago at a ridiculously long press conference at the Capitol on how raising the minimum wage 70 cents this year was going to allow Latino families to pay for college, quit 2 of their 3 jobs, and even pay for POPCORN (yes, popcorn was mentioned specifically), the Hispanic Caucus tried to avoid talking about how they haven´t done anything about immigration….but of course if the Hispanic Media is there, you KNOW there will be a question about immigration.

The answer, was something like: we can´t do squat because it is all the fault of the republicans in the Senate, and evne though the Democrats are in the MAJORITY we can´t do anything  like a hearing or a bill … yada yada yada…

Well it turns out they are right after all: All they can do is react to what the republicans do…. case in point:

110th Congress Congressman Joe Baca, Chair

For Immediate Release

Hispanic Caucus Calls on Administration to Focus on Comprehensive Immigration Reform

As the President has stated before—enforcement-only policy does not work

Washington, DC – Today the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) issued the following statement in response to new enforcement initiatives released by the administration.

“Strict enforcement at every level is a part of real comprehensive immigration reform and the immigration principles of the CHC. However, enforcement-only is not a real solution.

Today’s proposal should serve as a reminder to Republicans in Congress that we need to get back to work on real immigration reform–including enforcement, but also a pathway to earned legalization for hardworking immigrants that our country and businesses depend on,” said Congressman Joe Baca, Chair of the CHC.

“The responsibility of providing immigration reform lies with the federal government, and the administration should not pass the buck to the local governments or the business community.

Instead, we ask the President to persuade Republican Members of the Senate–who overwhelmingly opposed comprehensive reform–to reconsider their positions.”

“As we have said countless times, and this administration has agreed, enforcement alone will not fix our broken immigration system,” said Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez, Chair of the CHC Immigration Task Force.

“These new proposals will only drive people further into the shadows, rip more families apart and hurt our economy. There is a general rule in Washington that when you want to hide something, you announce it on a Friday in August. For an administration that talked so eloquently about comprehensive immigration reform, I guess they are not too proud that they caved into the most extreme anti-immigrant wing of their party.”

One Response to “Reaction Politics: We Support Immigration Reform but Won´t do Anything About it Except To Send Press Releases in Reaction to Whatever the Bush Administration Does…”

1. Pachacutec says:

   August 15, 2007 at 9:53 am

   It’s a real problem, and one you’re highlighting on this site really well.

   Have you ever considered creating a voter scorecard for the CHC?

   I know a progressive blogger group that is doing this for the CBC and it’s begun to cause a lot of discomfort and get more stories written when reps do the matador strategy of waving a cape around the issues the base cares about, only to slack off and collect checks later when no one is looking, and making really bad votes.

   Email me if you’d like kick some ideas around. My friend, I think, got some funding for her team’s efforts.