Immigrant’s List - What 2010 Republican victory at the Congress means to you
Here’s an excerpt from Immigrants’ List (IL) that I found informative. IL works mainly for the cause of ILLEGAL immigrants, is VERY different than what we do at endlesswait - which is write about issues that are relevant to legal immigrants. We often differ in our opinion from what IL says and this following excerpt is in not entirely our viewpoint. But we do appreciate their efforts and believe that legal immigrants need to stay aware of the developments in the illegal immigrant reform since, unfortunately, legal immigration is always a much smaller issue in the minds of the Congress. Any reform that we expect in legal immigration, almost always comes as a footnote in a much larger immigration bill that is mainly about illegal immigration reform.
Election Night this year represented a bit of a mixed bag for Immigrants’ List candidates and a huge challenge for the cause of immigration reform.On the positive side, several IL endorsed candidates won despite the difficult political climate, notably Senate candidates like Harry Reid, Barbara Boxer, Patty Murray and Richard Blumenthal. And because of your help, we were able to provide support to these candidates. That support included money and an independent expenditure in Colorado’s largest Latino newspaper for Senator Michael Bennet, who won his race by just 15,000 votes out of nearly 2 million cast.On the negative side, many candidates that believed in fixing our broken and dangerous immigration system lost their races on Tuesday. That includes Virginia Congressman Tom Perriello, New Mexico Congressman Harry Teague and California Congressional candidate Bill Hedrick, among others. But perhaps Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold’s loss was the most devastating; this is a man who truly believed that the status quo regarding immigration was simply untenable and has been a champion of preserving due process. His role as the chairman of the Senate Constitution Subcommittee would have made him an essential player in reforming our system had he won re-election, coupled with this seniority in the Senate.These losses are compounded by the election of several candidates who made our Hall of Shame. Many of these individuals not only won but are now in key positions to stop immigration reform. Texas Congressman Lamar Smith, a man who has led the fight against immigration reform for nearly two decades, is now the chair of the House Judiciary Committee. Iowa Comgressman Steve King, a cultural assimilationist in the tradition of Tom Tancredo, will serve as the Immigration Subcommittee Chair.We knew that if election night went a certain way, this would make it difficult for the pro-reform movement to bring about change. Clearly the environment has become more challenging. But the fight is hardly over. The anti-reform movement made strides this week, but they have not won the battle.
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