Climate Change and Politics

   When thinking about immigration, we can see that there are so many other issues that are wrapped into it. For example, when discussing immigration reform, opponents and proponents can mention economics, national security, morality and race. An often ignored sub-category of immigration however, is its role in climate change.

   In a recent article, Bill McKibbens of the LA Times discusses how climate change relates to immigration. Opponents of immigration reform often declare that more people in the United States only means more carbon in the atmosphere. Clearly, when one becomes more industrialized (which will surely happen when the United States absorbs immigrants from Mexico, Honduras, etc) more carbon will be produced because of the prevalence of First World amenities. 

  Recent studies show that while this is true, it cannot be used by immigration reform opponents. Why? Because when women become industrialized, they have fewer children. So, the statement that it will be more harmful for the environment is unfounded and erroneous. 

  Why is this significant? Even though this blog is not concerned with the environment, it shows that in the politics of immigration, anything is ammunition- even things that are not true. Yet, this very fact can, and may one day be used to further the push for immigration reform.

Boehner's/Rubio's Role in Immigration

   Immigration reform developments certainly has been heating up in recent weeks. As the gun-control issue cools significantly and the economy shows solid gains, attention is once again focusing on immigration reform.

   An article published yesterday shows why this is happening. The article points to 5 definitive reasons why immigration reform could be passed this year when it only a couple of weeks ago that seemed highly unlikely .

   The first is that the House is finally getting things done. House Speaker John Boehner is getting things done. 3 months ago, it looked like the convention was that unless the GOP was unified, any bill would not be passed. Since then, the House has passed notable bills including Sandy Relief and a new tax deal. I believe that this change is a recognition that immigration reform will make it to the floor and it is in the best interests of the GOP to find some sort of compromise of the immigration reform issue.

   Secondly, the bill that Obama recently created and was leaked was skewered by Republicans. This seems like a bad thing to immigration reform advocates but in reality it isn't. Senator Marco Rubio was an outspoken critic yet introduced his own views and it was not significantly different than President Obama's.

   Going off point two, Marco Rubio is inadvertently (or intentionally) engaging conservatives and Republicans in the immigration debate. And this time, the outspoken critics are not as loud, and some are even jumping on the
bandwagon calling for reform. Clearly, it is politically correct this go around to favor reform.

   In 2007, immigration reform went down in flames. While there were other hot-topic issues that are not as prominent this go around,


Senator Marco Rubio with wife Jeanette

(War in Iraq, looming elections) one of the main problems is that labor industries and big-business were at odds. This time, they are seeing the same goals and finding a compromise that supports reform.

   And lastly, when considering the highly-controversial topic of a pathway to citizenship, there seems to at least be a push, especially under Republican leadership, to have a bipartisan compromise. This bodes well for supporters of immigration reform.

Sequestration and Immigration

This blog post will discuss sequestration's role in the politics of immigration. A lot has been discussed concerning sequestration and fiscal cliffs over the last few months. The majority of those discussions has related to military cuts and other entitlements.

There is another side however. In the United States, there are droves of illegal immigrants that are detained in US prisons for a variety of reasons. Currently, the president is trying to use immigrants as a prop in the sequestration fight. Even though it is interesting that he is the one that signed the sequestration law into practice, he is using the sequestration to cause a rift in the republican party.

Typically, military cuts are used as props because it is such an important industry but President Obama recently found that the immigration issue can easily be used in politics.



 http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/as-sequester-nears-immigration-detainees-are-released/2013/02/26/bc00ffba-8038-11e2-b99e-6baf4ebe42df_story.html

House of Cards and Immigration

   This blog will tie in the current immigration reform developments that took place over the weekend with some pop culture/entertainment references.

   This last week I began watching a show called "House of Cards." The show is about a House Majority Whip that is an expert manipulator that uses his experience and finesse to postion himself as high up the political ladder as possible. The last few episodes have given me a new appreciation for the balancing act that many politicians have to strike. Ideas such as political capital were discussed. The main idea that I picked up was how much work goes into creating and passing an agenda.

   In the series, the agenda was education reform. In real-life, the agenda that we are looking at (and is a hot-button issue) is immigration reform. The series shows that much work goes into preparing a bill; not only as something suitable for the creator of the legislation but also passable in Congress. Recently, an immigration reform bill was leaked to the press and the GOP was extremely critical saying it is"dead on arrival." This was common in the show that I was watching and is being played out in real life.

   Another aspect of politics that we can see is in political capital. Political capital is the amount of leverage you have for the accomplishing of your entire agenda. In "House of Cards"the president and the main character attempt to pass education reform. They are successful but as they look to their next issue they approach it with caution. The president says "we spent a hell of a lot of capital on education, we can't afford another fight like that." I believe, as we discussed in class, that President Obama spent a lot of political capital on gun-control and backed off just in time to not waste it all when coming up to his main issue of immigration.

   The lesson that we can learn from the show and this week in politics is that you must be very careful when leaking information. He may have seriously hurt his plan simply by releasing it too early.

Immigration Reform (2-7-2013)

On Thursday, Raul Labrador (R- Idaho) released a statement basically saying that House Republicans will not vote for the proposed immigration reform that Democrats put forth. Democrats are seeking to pass a bill that provides a path to full citizenship for the 11 million illegal immigrants that are currently in the country.

The problem is that the Republicans hold the house and are saying that they absolutely will not vote for the bill. They state that they will "normalize" illegal immigrants' status (presumably reducing the fear of deportation for undocumented workers)  in this country but will not give full citizenship. The part that is tricky for Republicans is that Democrats are drawing a line in the sand and forcing Republicans to choose a side: compromise greatly or appear anti-immigrant and anti-minority in upcoming elections.

It seems like politics as usual. I feel that Republicans are in desperate need of finding a stance on immigration or they risk not winning another election. Hopefully something changes in their stance because it would be a shame if an issue like this put someone like Hillary Clinton into presidential office. 

Post 1

The first thing that I'm going to discuss in regards to the Politics of Immigration will aptly fit the title of this blog. This will not be a rant about any particular stance of immigration: those views may come clear down the road.

Instead, this will discuss the politics of the matter. The first story that I found relating to immigration was found on Yahoo!. (http://news.yahoo.com/fraud-concerns-linger-over-ill-license-law-155828827.html)

The news article discusses how undocumented workers will be allowed to receive driver's licenses starting in October in Illinois. It passed with surprising bipartisanship, yet there are still opponents of the bill.

The main argument for the bill is that it will force illegal immigrants to purchase insurance and will also weed out drivers that cannot pass the written and behind-the-wheel tests. On the contrary however is that fraud could become more prevalent because finger-printing will not be required (because few illegal immigrants would consent to fingerprints). Many states have case-studies that prove that fraud will increase.

So how did this get passed if it is basically understood that fraud will increase? The championing of immigrants rights, (which is an interesting statement considering their illegality) is what pushed this measure forward. It seems that all too often, politics gets in the way of common sense.

This is my blog on the Politics of Immigration.