The death of immigration reform has been imminent for some time, but it’s closer to becoming official today as two Republicans exited the so-called “gang of seven.”
And it’s Obama’s fault. Of course. via The Hill
Texas Reps. John Carter and Sam Johnson announced in a joint statement Friday they were leaving the group of seven, saying they could not trust President Obama to enforce an immigration bill that might pass Congress.
“After years of hard work and countless meetings, we have reached a tipping point and can no longer continue working on a broad approach to immigration,” Carter and Johnson said.
“We want to be clear. The problem is politics. Instead of doing what’s right for America, President Obama time and again has unilaterally disregarded the U.S. Constitution, the letter of the law and bypassed the Congress — the body most representative of the people — in order to advance his political agenda,” the two lawmakers said.
After years of hard work we couldn’t come up with anything that can pass muster. It’s too hard. We should just give up and go home. And let’s blame Obama. That usually works.
This fantastical line of attack may work on their constituents, but it’s not going to work on Latino voters.
I believe a failure to pass immigration reform now will make it the number one issue of the next presidential election in 2016, because this issue isn’t going away. And that should scare the shit out of Republican campaign operatives. We could be facing the third election in a row that Republicans invariably find themselves on the side of overt racists. An election in which it’s a very real possibility that Democrats could nominate a woman or a Latino, or both. Or a woman who chooses a Latino as her running mate.