Electoral defeat inspires immigration reform

When President Obama delivered the State of the Union last week, his various policy proposals received praise and criticism, but one got bipartisan support.

To thunderous applause and a standing ovation from both sides of the aisle, the president called on Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

In the aftermath of the speech, the president was praised by Republicans, including former Vice Presidential nominee Paul Ryan, for his wording and delivery concerning the immigration issue.

Immigration reform has been one of the rare issues embraced by both parties, and by Congress’ standards, it is moving along relatively smoothly.

A bipartisan group of eight Senators — from the staunchly liberal Dick Durbin to the Tea Party Activist Marco Rubio — has already released a set of principles that should be included in an immigration reform package, which includes a pathway to citizenship and tighter border security.

Unsurprisingly, the force behind this drive for reform is not a newfound concern for the issue of illegal immigrants in the United States. The real reason for reform is electoral politics.

Specifically, the electoral drubbing the Republicans received across the country in part due to the Latino vote going overwhelmingly for the President.

Former presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain, R-Az., admitted in an interview a few weeks ago that a big reason for the need for bipartisan cooperation on this issue was his party’s defeat in the last election.

When asked how to convince members of his party to vote for an immigration reform package, Sen. McCain candidly stated, “I’ll give you a little straight talk. Look at the last election.”

Looking at that election, it is understandable why Sen. McCain and many other congressional Republicans have become so inspired to work on an immigration reform package.

While the president actually lost support from most other demographic groups compared to his first election in 2008, Latino voters sided with Obama by a larger margin than they did in 2008. Several swing states went for the president by larger margins as well.

Clearly the Republican Party has a national political problem with the ever-growing Latino voting bloc in this country, hence its sudden motivation to work with the Democrats on crafting legislation. The Republican Party is stuck between a rock and a hard place.

They need to change politically on a national scale, but individual congressmen represent gerrymandered districts in which a pathway to citizenship for immigrants is extremely unpopular, and supporting such a proposal could draw a primary election challenger.

This issue is entirely political for the GOP, the only question is which political motivation will win out in the end. The answer to this question remains to be seen, but there is a deeper issue at stake in all of this.

In the wake of an elementary school massacre, compromise is nowhere to be seen on the issue of guns, but the Republicans find no shortage of inspiration to work on immigration reform in the wake of an electoral defeat.

There is something terribly wrong with all of this, but I guess that’s politics.

­— samblatt@indiana.edu