Fruits of House Committees' Immigration Hearings in Communities in August: Public Ignorance, Waste of Taxpayer Money, Ineffective Congress
News report indicates that the House leaders' anti-CIR campaigns in the form of hearings at the community level led by the Committees and Subcommittees conducting hearing in more than double-digit local communities in August have failed to attract the attention from the public and the only fruits which these hearings produced are to appease the conservatices to support the conservative GOP candidates in the November 7, 2006 midterm election. The Congress is scheduled to return to the Hill on September 5 after the Labor Day holiday on September 4 and is scheduled to adjourn on October 6, 2006, and there will be very limited working days ahead for the Congress before the election. Yet, the Democrats, the Republicans, and the White House, have failed to find a common ground for fear of the potential fallouts of the immigration reform on the midterm national election in 2006 and the Presidential election in 2008. Bush's role in this process has been substantially reduced due to his waning popularity rating and public support for the continuing Iraq war. The timid Democrats just sit in the backseat of a wagon and "observe" how things will unfold. The immigration community is divided between the so-called "legal immigrants," whatever it means, supporting conservative forces' so-called border security first proposal to gain their support for the reform in immigration quota system and "legal immigration" process, even at the sacrifice of the immigrant's right to the due process, civil liberty, and justice, and the "illegal immigrants," again whatever it means, that seek their opportunities to come out of the dark closet and participate in the American mainstreams. This politcal environment creates a political texture whch is different from the one that produced another comprehensive immigration reform legislation in 1986, salvaging the "legal immigration system" from vicious politcal attack by xenophoebic political forces. We want to watch closely how the political drama will unfold in the next one month.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060825/ap_on_re_us/immigration_hearings