Immigration reform is a conservative issue that should be embraced by the Republican Party. It is simple: Immigration is about expanding economic opportunity, the labor force, and the productivity of the nation.
But Republicans who keep opposing reform do so by using racist stereotypes against the immigrant Hispanic labor force. “Invaders”, “Swarms,” “Hordes,” “spread communicable diseases” are some of the niceties I have heard in the last decade or so from so called “conservative” politicians and pundits.
If this is the company the GOP wants to be associated with, they will embody the story of a foretold political failure.
Former CNN anchor —currently at Fox—Lou Dobbs said less than a decade ago that “illegal immigrants” brought “7,000 cases of leprosy” to the United States in three years. In 2005, the radio personality Rush Limbaugh called “illegal” immigrants “invasive species.” In 2007, Rep. Virgil Goode (R-Va) said that “we will not surrender America and we will not turn the United States over to the invaders from south of the border.” And in August 2013, Iowa Republican Congressman Steve King called “illegal” immigrants drug smugglers “hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert.”
If this is the company the GOP wants to be associated with, they will embody the story of a foretold political failure.
Republicans will fail at attracting the new mainstream voter —those who are called “minorities” today. The Republican political message will get lost amidst the noise and disturbance of the politics of hate, ignorance, intolerance, and inflexibility. And finally, the GOP will end up bending under the firm plea of its own supporters.
Back in September, 104 corporations signed a letter addressed to the Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-California) advocating the legalization of the estimated 11.7 million undocumented immigrants working in the United States of America.
McDonald’s, The Cheesecake factory, American Express, Coca-Cola, Walt Disney, Sears, Verizon, Marriott, Johnson & Johnson, Verizon Communications, Hewlett-Packard… Retail, banking, telecommunications, entertainmente, restaurant, and hospitality industries are now among the supporters of an immigration bill that is still in limbo in Capitol Hill.
Last summer, the US Chamber of Commerce also sent a “Multi-industry” letter to Speaker Boehner and Rep. Pelosi stating that “Reform of an outdated, broken immigration system is essential if we are to achieve a fully revitalized economy that provides rewarding and lasting jobs and opportunities for all Americans.”
On the immigration issue, there is a fine line that separates political stubbornness and prejudice.
At the current pace, Republicans will end up like Rep. Steve King at The Tea Party Patriots rally against immigration reform in Richmond, Virginia, last August, according to reports: “A lonely-looking King under a gazebo in a mostly empty public park.”
