Donkeys and Elephants Can Both Support Immigration Reform

by Alex DiBranco · 2010-01-22 10:47:00 -0500
Topics:

Okay, so the Democrats lost the Masschusetts special election to a guy whose first act after winning is to advertise his daughter's single status to every rando watching T.V., giving Republicans that 41st potential filibuster-supporting vote. Scott Brown might have it in for immigrants, but unlike on other issues like health care or reproductive rights, his colleagues in the Senate aren't all in lock-step on immigration reform.

With even Sarah Palin and Lou Dobbs have made cooing noises toward the issue (even if I'm holding on to my skepticism regarding their intentions), you know some of the Republican party moderates have to want comprehensive immigration reform. They do still have moderates, right? Well, maybe not moderates, but conservatives sane enough to realize our system needs fixing.

Pulling out some more silver lining, previous immigration reform bills have received Republican support, and that was one platform John McCain held onto during his run for the presidency, as all his other values starting going out the must-cater-to-the-crazy-far-right window. Then there's the fact that, in the United States, the dollar is almighty, and recent reports on the benefits of immigration and providing a path to citizenship have dollar signs dancing in people's eyes.

Even the heavy law and order crowd will have to support immigration reform in order to get their security initiatives through. Besides, Democrats don't need 59 votes to get a bill through. They still only need a simple majority -- even though senators of the elephantine variety might not want to vote in favor of certain bills that do too much to support immigrants rights and don't deliver them on a platter to big business, this doesn't mean they'll all be willing to get behind a filibuster and go down as obstructing change on this altogether.

In the end, we just need to make sure Obama and the Democrats get on their game and don't let Republicans pull a fast one on what "reform" means. But if they can pull it together, then the votes are there.

Photo credit: LaMenta3

Alex DiBranco is a Change.org Editor who has worked for the Nation, Political Research Associates, and the Center for American Progress. She is now based in New York City.
PREVIOUS STORY:
Guantanamizing Haiti: Imprisoning the Country All Over Again
NEXT STORY:
Community Members Fight Detention of High School Graduate with a Mental Disability

COMMENTS (22)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.