By Richard N. Baldwin T. /HispanicVista.com

By Richard N. Baldwin T. /HispanicVista.com
It is Dead, Dead, Dead.

     Let's face it. In my opinion, immigration reform is a dead issue for now and the near future. As long as the extremes in the US congress keep amending this bill with poison pills, nothing worth keeping will ever emerge.

     Let's look at some details:

     Take the "A" word; amnesty. To those on the right fringe, I would suggest that if you want to communicate in the language of your choice, you should consult the dictionary once in a while. Amnesty is defined as "the act of an authority (the government) by which a pardon is granted to a large group of individuals". Amnesty is closely linked to "pardon" in all definitions. You can't have amnesty or pardon unless the crime is forgiven. In other words, after granting this, no crime did was committed. The editor of this page, Patrick Osio, Jr., summed this up very nicely in his column of 1 June. In other words, if you are offering an amnesty, you can't require the payment of fines or other penalties. If you require this, you ain't offering amnesty. May I suggest that Hannity, Dobbs, Limbaugh, Buchannan, and even O'Reilly along with some of the right wing members of congress check their dictionaries?

     Then we have, from the extreme left like La Raza, with their idea of Mexicans reclaiming most of the US southwest. Keep in mind that much of the recent immigration was from people escaping México. They are going to where there is an opportunity that doesn't exist where they came from. Why would they want to return to the system that they fled? Get real. And expanding from immediate family eligibility to "extended family" was a clear poison pill. Same for the point system to favor PhDs over bean pickers. They are both needed.

     Then there are the accounting "figures" that the right wing think tanks give on the "true" cost of immigration. I remember a joke that an account of mine told once. It involved a company interviewing three applicants for an accountant job. They were a lawyer, a scientist and an accountant. To cut to the punch line, the accountant was asked what is 1 plus 2? After a lot of scribbling and mumbling, the accountant looked up and asked, "What are you trying to show?" In other words, figures don't lie, but liars figure. The right wing think tanks are cherry picking their figures to advance their agenda. It ignores how many of these immigrants end up founding their own businesses and creating jobs. In the 2002 census, it recorded 1.5 million Hispanic founded businesses in the US and still growing.

     Another columnist asks, why not consider taping the almost half TRILLION dollars that the Social Security System has in their accounts that was contributed by illegals that will never be able to collect any of it?

     Linda Chávez of the Creators Syndicate wrote a much-talked about column called Latino Fear and Loathing. One point she makes clear is that the history of incoming minority immigrants in the US is a litany of discrimination. This includes Germans, Swedes, Irish, Italians, Poles, Jews and Orientals. And this is holding true for the Hispanic immigrants of today. In time they all become part of the mainstream and enrich the greater culture. These new arrivals assimilate just as fast as the others did.

     O'Reilly worries that the big Latino influx will doom the Republican Party leaving a one party system in the US. I have a suggestion for the Republicans . . . reach out and get more members from this growing new voter pool. Keep in mind that it was Latino crossovers that had a lot to do with the Bush election the second time around. But as of now, this group rightly feels abandoned by the Republicans.

     The bottom line here is that comprehensive immigration reform for the foreseeable future is as dead as a doornail. What has, and will keep killing this bill, are the special interest and just plain racist groups that will keep inserting "poison pill" amendments. While Senator Byron Drogan (D) killed the latest version with his "sunset" amendment on the guest worker program, it was Senator John Cornyn (R) that started this fiasco with his amendment that cut the number of guest workers from 400,000 to 200,000 annually. This in the face of statements from the service sector (hotels, restaurants, etc.) that they alone need at least 300,000 annually. And why should politicians be the ones that set these limits? More realistically it should be based on the requests for visas submitted by the employers. It has to be sensitive to the ever-changing needs.

     When you get a bill of over 800 pages that no one has yet to understand for a serious issue as this, it is time to give up. And to give O'Reilly credit, his one page, four point bill makes more sense that what we are seeing. Iron out a couple of points and you would have something that would work. But that wouldn't give the politicians room to bury their special interest amendments, would it?

    And just wait. If and when this bill ever makes it to the House, there will be far more trying to kill it. You ain't seen anything yet. The way that they are going now will probably end up with a Wannsee Conference to come up with a "Final Solution".

     In my view, to expect that the congress find a realistic middle ground between the open borders people and the ship them all back people is to believe in the Tooth Fairy.
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Richard N. Baldwin T., a HispanicVista.com (http://www.hispanicvista.com/) contributing columnist, lives in Tlalnepantla, Edo de México. E-mail at: R1041643422@aol.com