Immigration is the next big battle on the agenda of the US Catholic Bishops. How this battle is waged and who ultimately wins cannot help but determine the future of the United States of America.
This article comes from the Catholic News Service, by way of American Catholic.
For more information on this topic, see my posts under the "Immigration" tag on the sidebar.
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Documentary Frames Tough Road for Immigration Bill
By Patricia Zapor
WASHINGTON (CNS)—A new documentary film, a poll of how churchgoers feel about immigration, a massive rally in Washington and a series of White House and congressional meetings in the last few weeks are setting the stage for the next big effort to pass comprehensive immigration reform legislation.
With health care now off the congressional agenda, advocates for comprehensive reform are hoping to get legislation through before this year's elections. However, there are already mixed signals coming from White House and congressional leaders about whether that will be possible.
They may be taking to heart the lessons of a new HBO documentary, "The Senators' Bargain," a "this is how the sausage is made" look at the legislative maneuvering that went into the last attempt to pass a broad-based immigration bill.
Comprehensive reform bills generally include a process for the estimated 12 million people already in the U.S. without permission to pay fines and back taxes and legalize their status; changes to make it easier for low-skilled workers to come for U.S. jobs and easier for immigrants to reunite their families without the current decades-long waits for visas; and enforcement programs that focus on smugglers and employers who exploit immigrant workers.
A March 22 showing of the film by Shari Robertson and Michael Camerini about the late Sen. Edward Kennedy's decades-long quest for immigration reform may be illustrative of the challenges.
The screening brought together many of Washington's leaders of efforts over the years to get a bill through Congress. In the theater were Victoria Kennedy, the widow of the Democratic senator from Massachusetts; Esther Olavarria, his former immigration counsel; and dozens of others who have been star players in this recurring legislative drama, as well as those with perennial bit parts. Before the film, the mood in the room was cheery, as former colleagues renewed acquaintances since the last big legislative effort in 2008, the principal subject of "The Senators' Bargain."
A day earlier, many of them had been at a rally on the National Mall that drew an estimated 200,000 people. There, immigrants and native-born citizens who were bused in from around the country enthusiastically and optimistically chanted "Yes, we can" and its Spanish version, "Si, se puede." Immigrants told their stories and political, civic and religious leaders promised to work together for new laws.
President Barack Obama sent a videotaped message, invoking Kennedy's push for reform and pledging he would "do everything in my power to forge a bipartisan consensus this year on this important issue." After a White House meeting with the president 10 days earlier, Bishop John C. Wester of Salt Lake City, chairman of the bishops' migration committee, said he and other advocates came away encouraged by Obama's personal commitment to seeing a bill through to signing.
A national poll released March 23 encouraged religious leaders who back comprehensive reform.
The Public Religion Research Institute survey of 1,201 voters found strong support across all religious groups for comprehensive reform, as opposed to piecemeal changes to immigration law. Those who attend church regularly were more likely to support a broad approach to changing immigration law, the study found. And they're supportive of their clergy and religious leaders talking about immigration from the pulpit and in public, it said.
But members of Congress with elections on the horizon remain wary of taking up an issue that, as "The Senators' Bargain" documented, is red meat to a vocal minority that attacks those who suggest anything other than border enforcement as a strategy for immigration problems.
The day after the upbeat rally on the Mall, not 24 hours after the conclusion of the grueling effort to get a health care bill through Congress, some religious activists who met with congressional leaders on immigration reform came away with the impression that expectations were being lowered. Key members of Congress told the supporters of reform that they would back legislation, but warned that with elections in November, a major immigration bill might not get to a vote in the Senate this year.
Still, going into the film's showing that evening, spirits were high at the E Street Cinema.
As ending credits rolled on the documentary, there was solid applause in the theater, then near-silence. Perhaps guests were waiting patiently for the Q-and-A session with the filmmakers.
But the atmosphere felt changed, perhaps muted by the film's graphic reminders of just how hard the people in the room had worked only two years ago. Then, they brought a bipartisan comprehensive reform bill— that had the active backing of the George W. Bush White House—to the brink of passage, only to have carefully negotiated agreements fall apart amid well-organized and blistering opposition. The bill failed.
The cautionary HBO documentary about how Washington works was a stark contrast to the optimism on the Mall the previous day. But Washington is never static.
With Kennedy's death last August, Obama seems willing to pick up the fight where his good friend and Senate mentor left it.
"Teddy's commitment to the cause never wavered, and neither has mine," Obama told the rally. "I have always pledged to be your partner as we work to fix our broken immigration system -- and that's a commitment that I reaffirm today."
A footnote to "The Senators' Bargain" may lend credence to Obama's pledge.
Since filming for the documentary concluded, two of its key subjects from the 2008 battle have taken jobs in the Obama administration.
Kennedy's immigration counsel, Olavarria, is now deputy assistant secretary for policy at the Department of Homeland Security, where Secretary Janet Napolitano has been tapped by Obama to lead administration efforts on immigration reform. And Cecilia Munoz, formerly vice president at the National Council of La Raza, now is White House director of intergovernmental affairs, where her portfolio includes immigration policy.
