White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Friday the administration has to be “realistic about what this Congress is going to be willing to do” with regard to comprehensive immigration reform, all but pronouncing chances for a bill dead.But some are skeptical about this declaration (e.a.):
“I think that the leaders in Congress have decided that this is not something that they’re going to take up,” Perino told reporters. “And so I think the president, while he would like to have seen comprehensive immigration reform, does not believe that the Congress will be able to get that done.”
“Perhaps it’s my previous experience with this administration that is making me hesitant to jump for joy, but it seems to me that many of these tough-on-illegal-alien programs have existed for some time, and this may simply be cover for the White House to bring back their amnesty push next year,” Tancredo said.So is "comprehensive reform" still napping? Due to be revived under another name? After all, when the first cloture vote on the "grand bargain" failed early in June, a lot of folks called that legislation dead--and, as we all know, it came back later that month.
UPDATE: Some agree with Tancredo's suspicions. The Chicago Tribune writes (e.a.):
As conservatives gave cautious praise to the plans while unions, business groups and immigrant advocates predicted massive layoffs and other heartaches, both sides wondered whether the vise on the nation's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants is intentionally being tightened to make more friendly measures easier to pass when Congress returns from its summer recess.The Politico has more reactions.
"If they're trying to make another effort at amnesty in the fall, then this is a pretty smart thing they're doing," said Roy Beck, executive director of NumbersUSA, a Virginia-based organization that helped engineer a fierce grass-roots campaign in June to defeat a bipartisan Senate bill that would have offered legalization to undocumented immigrants.
