Back to the past

For the House of Representatives, what immigration reform apparently means is locking up undocumented immigrants instead of helping them become part of society. These lawmakers would prefer to declare them all criminals rather than individually consider them for citizenship.

That is the content of the Strengthen and Fortify Enforcement Act (the SAFE Act), H.R. 2278, which the House Judiciary Committee discussed on Tuesday. The bill has several provisions, including expanding detention centers to hold the undocumented for indefinite periods of time and allowing all states to have their own immigration laws like Arizona, among others. Meaning, the bill is even more detrimental than the despised Sensenbrenner bill of 2005, H.R. 4437.

This is the result of the lower chamber’s decision to consider immigration reform in a piecemeal way instead of comprehensively, as the Senate is doing. For example, today the committee is considering visas for the agriculture sector.

This strategy shows the power that representatives opposed to the reform have in the House. They refuse to put all the necessary elements, like economic matters, security and legalization, into the same bag.

Bipartisan efforts by lawmakers still have many obstacles to overcome. Yesterday, these obstacles worsened with the decision House Speaker John Boehner made not to bring any bill that does not have the majority of support from House Republicans to a vote.

Sensenbrenner’s bill was extremely detrimental to the Republican image among Latinos. The House’s short-sightedness won’t only derail the reform; it will extend for a long time the perception of a party that is deeply resentful of immigrants.