Opinion

No ‘Hispanic Heritage Month’ without ‘immigration summer’

Font Size:

House Republicans emerged from their first immigration meeting in seven years this Wednesday to reiterate their refusal to allow the bipartisan Senate reform plan to even come up for a vote. The House GOP’s “piecemeal” approach ensures that no reform at all will happen until Congress returns to Washington in September — right about the time of the Republicans’ annual “Hispanic Heritage Month” PR ritual.

In past years, you could almost hear mariachi music in the background as candidates including Mitt Romney read lines like “the Republican Party is the rightful home of Hispanic Americans.” When Romney delivered that particular line to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Los Angeles last year, it drew stone cold silence.

In 2009, then-Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele went so far as to put out both a video message and a news release that was translated into Spanish. The party’s exuberant brownnosing didn’t extend to hiring a capable translator, though — within hours, the blogosphere erupted with stories counting at least nine major translation errors.

This year, unless House Republicans get serious about immigration reform, they can save themselves the trouble.

The Senate’s immigration measure, approved by a lopsided 68-32 margin, should, by any reasonable standard, satisfy even the most die-hard opponent of immigration reform.

Border security is enhanced (almost to the point of overkill) and the path to legal status is complex and arduous, with fines, tax assessments and background checks. Opponents’ concerns have been amply addressed, and what’s left from opponents is a frustrated nativist wail.

Texas Republican Lamar Smith is typical of the House GOP naysayers. After the Senate’s overwhelming vote in support of the measure, Smith took to his Blackberry with Tweets using the hashtag “#NoAmnesty.

With all due respect, Congressman, those seeking legal status under the bipartisan Senate bill face fines, fees, a background check and a minimum ten-year waiting period before even obtaining a Green Card. Those wanting to complete the process will have to wait at least 13 years. Amnesty? Hardly.

The Senate measure calls for an additional $46.3 billion in border-security measures that include the deployment of everything from Blackhawk helicopters to aerial surveillance drones and other military hardware.

An additional 20,000 trained, full-time, active-duty U.S. Border Patrol agents would be deployed along the southern border, effectively doubling their current number.

For good measure, no individual will be allowed permanent lawful residence in the United States until what’s called the Comprehensive Southern Border Security Strategy is deployed and operational. At least 700 miles of additional fencing will have to be constructed and all employers in the United States must implement an electronic employment eligibility verification system.

Some House Republicans are determined to stop any immigration reform measure from being considered, fearing the compromise that could come out of the House-Senate reconciliation.

At the same time, it is becoming clearer that while not a majority, there are enough moderates in the GOP Conference to ensure passage of the Senate proposal — if only it were allowed to come to the floor for an up-or-down vote.

In other words, a bipartisan House majority is being stifled by Republican immigration opponents on a point of party procedure known as the “Hastert Rule,” which allows floor votes only on measures supported by a majority of the Republican Conference. The “Hastert Rule” has been breached three times in the last year alone, allowing bipartisan majorities to pass Hurricane Sandy relief and the Violence Against Women Act. Certainly, an immigration system Speaker Boehner has repeatedly called “broken” is at least as important as those.

If House Republicans persist in their stubborn refusal to consider the Senate’s bipartisan reforms, the GOP can skip its “Hispanic Heritage Month” pablum and fire their Spanish language translators — permanently.

Unless they deliver an “immigration summer,” Republicans can forget about “Hispanic Heritage Month” in the fall.

Jacob Montilijo Monty is a nationally-recognized immigration attorney in Houston and a leading Republican activist.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel