We begin today's roundup with
Eugene Robinson at The Washington Post, who looks at the GOP's immigration policies:
It’s hard to recall that not so long ago, the question about immigration reform was whether the 11 million undocumented men, women and children already in the country should be offered a path to citizenship or merely a way to attain legal status. Now, as far as the GOP field is concerned, it’s whether they can and should be rounded up and deported.
Remarkably, several of the tough-talking candidates are the sons of immigrants — and one of them, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, was born in Canada. (Could that be why Walker so pines for a wall? To send Cruz back over it?) But listen to Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, whose parents came here from India and whose given first name is Piyush:
“I think we need to insist that folks who come here, come here legally, learn English [and] adopt our values,” Jindal said on ABC’s “This Week.” “And the reason this is so important: Immigration without integration is not immigration; it’s invasion.”
That’s a long way from “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” But then again, nativism has long been a powerful force in American political life.
More on the day's top stories below the fold.
Speaking of immigration, Lawrence Downes at The New York Times adds his analysis of Chris Christie's suggestion that we track immigrants like FedEx packages:
Unless FedEx has some enlightened corporate shipping policy that takes account of the humanity and dignity and aspirations of its envelopes and boxes, I’m sticking with my initial assessment: Mr. Christie is being idiotic.
The point that seems lost on him is that packages, unlike people, don’t have Constitutional rights or families. They don’t take jobs to support themselves and their children, they don’t pay taxes and prop up the agricultural, restaurant and hospitality industries, or keep Social Security and Medicare afloat. They don’t revitalize ailing local economies or give the United States the youthful vigor, hopefulness and energy that other countries with advanced economies — and aging populations — lack.
Because packages aren’t human.
There is a suggestion, an insinuation, an ugly metaphor that undergirds the Republicans’ harsh talk on the immigration problem.
The Huffington Post's
Elise Foley:
Donald Trump released a video on Monday attacking fellow GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush for his comments about undocumented immigrant families, attempting to associate the former Florida governor with three undocumented men who have been charged with murder.
The video implies that Bush supports policies that allow undocumented criminals -- Trump seems to think many, if not most, unauthorized immigrants belong in this category -- to remain in the United States. Trump's attack features a clip of Bush from last year talking about people who come to the U.S. to provide for their children, but omits the context -- that he was talking specifically about families.
Meanwhile,
Dana Milbank looks at the GOP freakout over the renaming of Mount McKinley:
Actually, Obama is perfectly within his authority to make the change. If his opponents are really outraged, they can overrule him in Congress or they can elect a president who will change the name back. The problem with both of these is that Alaska, run by Republicans, want the name to be Denali and have been trying to make the change for decades. The Alaska delegations — Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and Rep. Don Young, Republicans all — heralded the move (even as Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan, who represents McKinley’s hometown, joined the opposition).
There’s also the small matter of conservatives claiming to support local control, and devolution of power; in this case, they’re demanding the federal government to continue to overrule a state’s wishes. A more ideologically consistent solution would be for the Ohioans to rename something of their own – say, Cincinnati or Columbus -- after McKinley. McKinley hadn’t even visited his eponymous peak, named for him by a prospector before McKinley was elected the 25th president.
More likely, the mountain will be added to other molehills of Obama overreach: Obamacare, the stimulus, Dodd Frank, the IRS, immigration, executive appointments and on and on. The common objection to all of these is less about what was done than who did it.