Congressman Gutierrez
Chasing Immigration Windmills
Sunday, October 04, 2009
By Carl Braun
Examiner.com
Don Quixote and Sanchp Panza (Picasso)
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Congressman Luis Gutierrez of (D) Illinois may not be the only Democrat in the House of Representatives watching “Man of La Mancha” these days, but he does seem to be the only one brave enough to take on the mighty immigration windmill; this despite his own parties apparent insistence that he back off.Frustrated by the lack of progress on immigration reform, Gutierrez has launched a nationwide campaign to talk to faith-based groups, labor groups, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and really anyone else that will listen to his plea for amnesty for 12 million or so illegal aliens.
President Obama actually selected Senator Chuck Shumer from New York to lead the initiative but an impatient Gutierrez plans to announce an outline of his immigration reform plan to the House on October 13th.
The Gutierrez Plan, if history is any indicator, will be soft on illegal aliens and again try to blur the lines between the plight of lawful immigrants and the illegal variety. In his words:
“We need a bill that says if you come here to hurt our communities, we will not support you; but if you are here to work hard and to make a better life for your family, you will have the opportunity to earn your citizenship. We need a law that says it is un-American for a mother to be torn from her child, and it is unacceptable to undermine our workforce by driving the most vulnerable among us further into the shadows.”
Additionally word is that Shumer’s plan will be “democrat tough” on illegal immigration but it is not expected to be announced anytime soon. The Dems have their hands full right now with the Healthcare debate and really do not need any distractions. Nonetheless Schumer has issued what he calls the “seven principles” of his forthcoming initiative likely to test the public’s temperature beforehand. Included will be biometric employment screening and effective operational control of our borders. That will be a tall order as DHS only has about 10% under control right now.
In the meantime Gutierrez will do what he has always done which is pander to the far left and flail away at the occasional windmill. If he’s not careful, his chivalrous intentions to help the poor illegal alien will result in a locking of swords within his own party.
We can only hope.
Carl Braun is an analyst for the Homeland Security Policy Institute Group and he's logged 5,000-plus hours on the border. He has written several books including his most recent on Border Insecurity, “Above All Else”
. Contact Carl at Carl.Braun@BPAUX.org.
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