Fake Immigration Fever

With the midterm elections on the horizon and politicians scrambling for votes, Democrats suddenly have developed renewed interest in immigration reform. Unfortunately, it's not because they have any hope of passing significant legislation, but because — to fool Latino voters — they have to pretend they are actually doing something.

Seeing how the GOP has become self-destructive in the Latino community, Democrats simply sat on their hands for too long, expecting the Latino vote to come to them by default. Yet now that some Democrats are fighting for survival, in races in which Latino voters could make a difference, they are extending a hand, pretending to be our best amigos once again.

Why else would Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have reintroduced the pro-immigrant Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors, or DREAM, Act only a few weeks before the elections? Why as a last-minute amendment to a major defense bill? Why now?

Could it be because he desperately needs the Latino vote in his tight re-election bid in Nevada? Seeing as we've waited so long and the election is only a few weeks away, wouldn't it have made much more sense to introduce such a controversial matter after the elections, when it would be easier to reach a consensus with at least a few moderate Republicans?

Wasn't it obvious that most Republican lawmakers would reject any kind of immigration reform before the elections, especially when many of them seem to be so busy posturing for the support of xenophobic conservative extremists?

Of course it was! We didn't need Tuesday's Senate vote to know that the DREAM Act would be defeated at this time. Although this legislation has received some bipartisan support in the past, on Tuesday, Democrats couldn't get a single Republican to support attaching the DREAM Act to a defense bill in the Senate.

The Democrats knew this would happen, but they felt they had to do it — if only as a political ploy to embarrass Republicans.

In fact, President Barack Obama and the Democratic leadership in Congress already are telling Latinos that — for lack of a better option — we must continue to vote for them.

"What are you going to do?" Democrats are asking Latinos.

And they may be right! Republicans deserve to be punished for all the immigrant- and Latino-bashing they have done over the past few years.

But the Democrats' sudden eagerness to fight over immigration reform before the midterm elections was clearly a cheap political ploy. It wasn't realistic to expect a pro-immigrant vote in Congress before the Nov. 2 elections. In fact, the renewed debate may have served only to alienate moderate Republicans — the same people they would need to get something done after the elections. And it is likely to be more harmful than helpful to eventually passing comprehensive immigration reform.

The DREAM Act, intended to help only a small portion of the undocumented immigrant population, should be able to breeze through Congress without problems. After all, out of some 11 million undocumented immigrants, it would grant a path to citizenship only to 800,000 youths who were brought here illegally by their parents and have been raised as Americans. You have to be totally heartless to want these young people deported back to countries they hardly know.

Nevertheless, under the current anti-immigrant climate we are enduring, heartless Republicans and opportunistic Democrats abound.

Mean-spirited Republicans claim that the DREAM Act is really a nightmare because it would be a form of amnesty that they claim would open the floodgates for other undocumented immigrants to come here in the future. The opportunistic Democrats wanted to appear as if they were trying to do in a few weeks what they had little desire to accomplish during the past few months.

"You have every right to keep the heat on me and keep the heat on the Democrats, and I hope you do," Obama told the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute at a recent gala. "But don't forget who is standing with you and who is standing against you. Don't ever believe that this election coming up doesn't matter. ... Don't forget who your friends are."

Friends?

Perhaps if he told us not to forget our Republican enemies, he would have a valid argument. But friends?

Dear Mr. President, a true amigo is one who cares about you all the time, not just when it is politically convenient.

To find out more about Miguel Perez and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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