James Carafano: Immigration reform kept behind closed doors, under wraps
By: James Carafano
Examiner Columnist
October 5, 2009
Call it an after-action review. The Bush administration's attempt to craft a "comprehensive" immigration reform bill had crashed and burned. As the legislative rubble still smoked, a high government official met with conservative groups that had balked at the White House proposal to grant amnesty to illegals.
He began his remarks with one word. "Ouch." He went on to concede that the administration had made several mistakes fatal to the bill:
» They had tried to ram it through without open debate.
» They had ignored or pooh-poohed legitimate concerns over how the proposal might affect other policy goals, ranging from sovereignty to security.
» Their approach was flat wrong.
The good news? They had learned a lesson. Excluding all sides in making public policy didn't make for good policies.
Now, as the Obama administration readies its own amnesty efforts, it appears that this White House has been learning lessons too. Unfortunately, they are all the wrong ones.
As a result, Obama's immigration agenda is bound to lead to bitter partisan squabbling and, ultimately, failure. It will further poison serious, honest reforms that could: reduce the unlawful population (and, hence, uphold the rule of law); get employers the workers they need to help grow the economy; and make our borders secure. All because of the secret plan.
In deciding how to approach immigration, Obama's White House has ignored the Bush debacle of 2007. In fact, it is writing a bill that is even worse.
The Obama bill will grant blanket amnesty to millions and do little to address fraud and abuse in qualifying for U.S. citizenship. Moreover, it won't include the kind of meaningful temporary worker programs that would provide a real alternative to an illegal work force.
A bill like that is a tough sell. But rather than draw marketing lessons from the experience of his predecessor, Obama is basing his sales plan on the blowback his administration got when it let Congress try to write health reform legislation this spring.
Lawmakers backing the "more government" approach to reform were rocked by withering criticism from their constituents. In town hall meetings from one end of the country to the other, angry citizens pressed their representatives to explain why they would support tremendously expensive reforms that would prompt employers to drop existing coverage for millions, leaving them with no option but enrollment in a one-size-fits-all government-run plan.
After witnessing the firestorm over health reform, Obama apparently has decided never to go down that "let Congress lead" route again.
Enter the new road map for immigration reform. Rather than have congressional committees hold hearings and draft legislation, the administration is drafting the proposal itself. In secret. One key author, a former Ted Kennedy staffer who helped draft the failed '07 bill, is now a policymaker at the Department of Homeland Security.
The draft is sequestered in an undisclosed location that happens to be the office of Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Its hundreds of pages of complicated legislative language completely rewrite our immigration law. Yet most members of Congress won't get a peek at the mammoth bill until Schumer dumps it, en masse, on the floor.
The second part of the secret plan is to hold off introducing the bill until next year. If Schumer were to bring out his bill this fall, members would have to talk about it when they went back to their districts during the winter recess. That would not be fun. Odds are they'd be pilloried by constituents unhappy with plans to gut immigration enforcement and hand out citizenship like candy.
And if "Obamacare" becomes law, then voters would also have something to say about the president's pledge not give to health care benefits to those in the country illegally. Amnesty will make all the illegals legal. The president won't have violated his pledge, but he will sock taxpayers with billions in new bills to pay for the health care of an additional 12 million or so.
But if Schumer keeps the bill up his sleeve, then there's no outrage, no problem. Lawmakers won't have their holidays ruined by citizens asking uncomfortable questions.
So the plan is simply to keep the bill secret till Congress comes back in January.
It's a bad plan, Mr. President. Americans deserve better. Publish now or let the bill perish.
Examiner Columnist James Jay Carafano is a senior research fellow for national security at The Heritage Foundation ( heritage.org)
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