America for me, not for thee!
:
John Boehner is planning to unveil a set of Republican principles for immigration reform before President Obama's State of the Union address, aiming to show the GOP is not hostile to legislation that might win them Hispanic voters.
What's today? State of the Union day. And where are those "principles for immigration reform?" Nowhere to be found. Apparently, coming up with a way to say "get the fuck out, but we'll say it nicely so you don't keep voting against us" is
much harder than Boehner expected.
U.S. House Republican leaders will outline their principles for immigration reform at a party meeting this week, House Speaker John Boehner said on Tuesday [...]
"We're going to outline our standards, principles of immigration reform and have a conversation with members," Boehner told a news conference after a party meeting near the U.S. Capitol.
"Once we talk to our members, we'll have more to say about how we move forward," Boehner said.
So we went from "before the State of the Union," to "we'll chat about it with our members, and then they'll have their say which will pretty much be 'no amnesty!' and 'border walls with a moat and laser-wielding alligators!' and then maybe we'll have more to say, or maybe not!"
One of the things they'll supposedly chat about is a plan to legalize the status of undocumented immigrants without giving them a path to citizenship.
That would be better than the status quo, particularly if paired with family reunification. But Republicans are being pushed toward reform not out of altruism or ideological imperative. They don't want to talk about immigration, they don't want to act on immigration. They are being forced into it because of the electoral reality of our nation's demographic math. And saying, "we won't deport you, but you'll never be American in our eyes" won't exactly endear them to the millions of Asians and Latinos who can vote.
In other words, these kind of half-measures won't solve their problem. You don't act out of desperate need to repair your image in a way that does the exact opposite. Well, unless you are the GOP, apparently.
