For more than a year House Republican leaders have insisted the chamber would act on new immigration laws. And for more than a year, Republicans have done virtually nothing on the issue — despite intense pressure from activists, business groups, and the nation’s changing demographics.
And although there are a variety of reasons for inaction, one Republican lawmaker recently offered a frank acknowledgement that for many House Republicans, there’s one issue at play that’s not often discussed: race.
“Part of it, I think — and I hate to say this, because these are my people — but I hate to say it, but it’s racial,” said the Southern Republican lawmaker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “If you go to town halls people say things like, ‘These people have different cultural customs than we do.’ And that’s code for race.”
Republicans know that Latino voters will make up an increasingly larger share of the voting population, and while immigration reform is far from the top priority of most Latino voters, the absolute bigotry many Republican lawmakers display towards Latinos is going to keep them from ever winning the White House anytime soon, and they know it.
"Amnesty is wrong in any circumstance, and if we are going to fix our broken immigration system--and we should--it makes much more sense to do so next year, so that we are negotiating a responsible solution with a Republican Senate majority rather than with Chuck Schumer," Cruz said in a statement to Breitbart.
In other words, Republicans figure they can force President Obama to sign a ridiculous bill rather than a real, long-term solution. Because Republicans don't want to fix the problem. They need to keep the issue alive to rally the Tea Party.
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I had a couple of coworkers try that 'he wants to be a dictator' line in front of me. I almost blew my top. I was like 'they haven't done ANYTHING!' She responds with there must be 'checks and balances'-I'm like really? They didn't even think about these 'checks and balances' under previous presidents. I brought up him being disrespected because he;s a black man and she she was like 'that has nothing to do with it!' Yeah, right. These same coworkers defend Christie btw.
I think one of the fundamental issues with immigration reform is that Republicans like it just the way it is. It works for them on many levels.
Their base is comprised of people who run the gamut from complete imbeciles to the smarter ones who are merely below average IQ. Those are their "genius" golden boys like Paul Ryan - an idiot but smart for a Republican.
Thus they never figure out that the GOP is Lucy and they're Charlie Brown.
The GOP trots out immigration reform to fire up the base and that's all they need to do.
They have no intention of doing anything about it in practice because their contributors love the cheap labor. If they were to actually do something real in a reformy sort of way, a lot of that cheap labor would be lost. Citizens get paid more and more success in keeping illegals out means no cheap labor.
So the GOP will continue playing the game of giving lip service to immigration reform but never putting it into action. It keeps their base voting for them and crooked businesses donating to them.
Frustrating, isn't it? I've had a few co-workers like that in the past few years, but I work in mental health so it tends to lean liberal. The wing nuts who come along are very outnumbered so they don't tend to be real outspoken which is fine with me. Reading about stupid people with opinions they gleaned from a bumper sticker is frustrating enough.
Trying to explain reality to them in real life just ends up making me hostile.
Can't fix stupid!
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