COMMENTARY
The Verdict is In: Faux Immigration “Field Hearings” Not Serious Effort to Find Solutions
National Immigration Forum
- House Republican leaders have spent the past month conducting 20-plus “field hearings” in 13 states, ostensibly to “listen” to the American people’s concerns about illegal immigration. Turns out the only listening they did was to carefully selected panelists who already agreed with them on most of the issues. Still, judging from the press coverage across the country, the hearings failed to pull the wool over many eyes. Dozens of editorials and news articles decried the political theatre of these hearings, and the fact that they were designed only to find fault instead of find solutions.
- If House leaders are serious about fixing what is broken and securing our borders, stabilizing our work force, and restoring the rule of law, they should sit down with their Senate counterparts to negotiate a comprehensive solution to our broken immigration system—one that deals with the 12 million undocumented immigrants now residing in our country, updates our employment and family visa systems, and intelligently enforces our immigration laws.
- As House Republican leaders prepare to take stock of what they learned over the summer, we commend them to analyze the real themes that emerged. Read on for some of the key findings from editorials, columns, and news reports about the House immigration road show this summer.
- 1. The witness lists were stacked to ensure that Members of Congress did not hear from anyone – God forbid – who disagreed with them.
- Example: “With his comments, U.S. Rep. Charlie Norwood made it clear he wasn't interested in gathering information. ‘What I wanted was witnesses who agree with me, not disagree with me,’ the congressman said. He also threatened to call the boss of an immigration specialist with the Congressional Research Service for no other reason than he didn't agree with what she had to say. Stunning.” (Gainesville Georgia Times editorial, “Closing our minds to facts won't fix immigration mess,” 08/20/06)
- 2. The hearings were a bald election-year political maneuver.
- Example: “In 2000, the U.S. Immigration Service, which is now part of the Department of Homeland Security, estimated that New Hampshire was one of eight states with fewer than 2,500 illegal immigrants. So that's not why the committee decided to hold a hearing in Concord. Could the decision mean Congressmen Charlie Bass and Jeb Bradley are in danger?” (Concord New Hampshire Monitor editorial, “Convenient time for immigrant crackdown,” 08/01/06)
- 3. The hearings ignored the fact that immigration is good for America and we need a system to regulate it effectively, not shut it down completely.
- Example: “Where some people see immigration as a benefit, others see it as a drain. If prejudice was taken out of the equation, and a little more evidence added in, we suspect there'd be very little left to the claim that immigrants (legal or otherwise) are hurting the country nearly so much as they're enriching it economically and culturally, as they historically always have.” (Dayton Beach Florida News-Journal editorial, “The immigrant next door,” 08/18/06)
- 4. The hearings showed that foes of comprehensive reform fall somewhere between “fact-challenged” and “just plain wrong.”
- Example: “At the Gainesville hearing, U.S. Reps. Charlie Norwood, Tom Price and Nathan Deal — all Georgia Republicans — took a turn declaring that the Senate bill would guarantee high wages to illegal immigrants in the private sector while consigning American laborers in the same jobs to lower pay. That's simply false, but it sounded good and helped whip up the immigrants-as-thieves theme that dominated their hearings.” (Atlanta Journal Constitution editorial, “Protect wages of all workers: GOP should seek immigration solutions rather than trolling for votes on the road,” 08/20/06)
- In case you actually were on vacation this summer, following are editorial headlines that further tell the story of how the immigration field hearings backfired on House leaders.
- Immigration: Act 2: Above All, Field Hearings on Immigration Have Illuminated the Public's Desire for Congressional Action: The Time Is Now (Raleigh/Durham News & Observer, 09/07/06)
- Lots of Noise, No Real Progress: Congress Must Address Immigration Issues (Kansas City Star, 09/06/06)
- Immigration Bill Hard To Come By In Election Year: It's Time to Put Up or Shut Up (Gainesville Georgia Times, 09/06/06)
- Return to Stalemate: Congress Has Given Itself Little Time in Which to Avoid Doing A Lot (Washington Post, 09/06/06)
- The Immigration Dodge: Congress Is Negligently Failing To Address Serious Immigration Reform. Thankfully. (Los Angeles Times, 09/06/06)
- Switch-Hitters: With Immigration Legislation Bottled Up In Congress, The GOP Turns To An Issue That's Worked For It In The Last Two National Elections. (Houston Chronicle, 09/06/06)
- Congress' Fiddling Leaves Cities Fighting Illegal Immigration (USA Today, 09/05/06)
- Congress's Last Stand: Congress Returns To Work Today, With The GOP Majority Down In The Polls And Only A Dozen Or So Legislative Days Left To Impress Voters Before Election Day. Can They Do Anything To Stop A Rout? (Wall Street Journal, 09/05/06)
- Congress' Unfinished Agenda: Immigration Reform Can Improve Economy, Security (Miami Herald, 09/05/06)
- Immigration Hearing: The Issue: A Small Group Of Congressmen Met In Evansville To Discuss Reform. Four Congressmen And A Few Experts Came To Evansville On Tuesday For A Field Hearing On The Issue Of Immigration. But Why? (Evansville Indiana Courier & Press, 09/03/06)
- Immigration Politics' Endless Summer: Let's Hope The Silly Season Of Field Hearings Won't Be Replaced By Bad Lawmaking. (Los Angeles Times, 09/02/06)
- Immigration Debate Must Focus On More Than Higher Walls: Four U.S. Governors - Two Republicans And Two Democrats - Urged Congress To Look At The Economic And Social Factors That Fuel Illegal Immigration (Walla Walla Washington Union-Bulletin 09/02/06)
- Ship Border Rage Up The Potomac: The Problem Of Illegal Immigration Demands Clear, Well-Reasoned Solutions. (Arizona Republic, 09/01/06)
- Immigration Hearing Misfires (Denver Post, 08/31/06)
- Let's Get Off the Fence and Into Border Reform (Albuquerque Tribune, 08/29/06)
- Fed-Up Governors Send A Plea: 'Get Act Together' (San Antonio Express-News, 08/29/06)
- More than Immigrants in ER (Nashville Tennessean, 08/21/06)
- Sideshow: Theatrical Anti-Immigrant Hearings Don't Excuse Congress from Doing Its Job (Houston Chronicle, 08/20/06)
- Immigrant Population Grows: Ride the Wave, or Drown In It (Philadelphia Inquirer 08/18/06)
- Immigrants ...For the Record: Illegals Aren't Eligible For Most Benefits (Hampton Roads, VA Daily Press 08/18/06):
- 'Field Hearings' A Waste of Time, Money (Denver Rocky Mountain News, 08/17/06)
- All Talk, No Action on Immigration (Boston Herald, 08/17/06)
- Facts, Not Fear, On Immigration (Berkshire Eagle, Pittsfield, MA, 08/17/06)
- Congress Leaves Work on Desk (Waco Texas Tribune, 08/14/06)
- Hearings on Lake, Immigration Need To Offer Answers (Gainesville Georgia Times, 08/13/06)
- Time to Start Negotiating On Immigration Reform (Flagstaff Arizona Daily Sun, 08/11/06)
- Get To Work; Congress Should Find Compromise to Curb Illegal Immigration (Columbus Dispatch, 08/10/06)
- Immigration 'Hearings' Are Just Sales Jobs (Tucson Citizen, 08/10/06)
- Right On the Border of Irony (Seattle Times, 08/10/06)
- Governing In a Vacuum: Congress Is In Recess. Maybe You Didn't Notice (Lompoc California Record, 08/10/06)
- Listen To the Experts (Arizona Republic, 08/09/06)
- So Much to Do, So Little Time ... So Congress Skips Town (USA Today, 08/06/06)
- An Emerging Force: Candidates Who Want To Win Should Note Increasing Numbers of Hispanic Voters (Las Vegas Sun, 08/06/06)
- Getting Nowhere Slowly: Congress' Ineffective Pace Is Unacceptable (Dallas Morning News, 08/06/06)
- A Failure to Communicate: Two Congressional Road Shows. Two Missed Opportunities. (Arizona Republic, 08/06/06)
- Hot Air on Immigration (Boston Globe, 08/04/06)
- Politics Trumps Critical Bill: Passing an Immigration Bill Is Seen By GOP as Less Important Than Politicizing the Issue (Las Vegas Sun, 08/01/06)
- Immigration Plan Needs Reality Check (Waco Texas Tribune, 07/31/06)
- Immigration Hearings Staged To Run Out Clock (Springfield Massachusetts Republican, 07/31/06)
- What Congress Says . . . And What It Does: Immigration Debate Spirals Into Realm of the Absurd (Miami Herald, 07/31/06)
- Hastert's Tour of Border Was Farcical Waste (Tucson Citizen, 07/27/06)
- Reconcile Immigration Bills (Charleston South Carolina Post & Courier, 07/24/06)
- Immigration: A Single, Coherent Policy (Philadelphia Inquirer, 07/23/06)
- Congress Misses the Harvest (Seattle Times, 07/23/06)
- Hazy Days of Immigration: Washington’s immigration debate is stuck in the political doldrums, becalmed and hot, going nowhere. The hard task of making policy has been set aside for a summer of theater. (New York Times, 07/20/06)
- Lynn Tramonte de la Barrera
- Senior Policy/Communications Associate
- National Immigration Forum
- 50 F Street, NW
- Suite 300
- Washington, DC 20001
- http://www.immigrationforum.org/
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