Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez emerged from a White House meeting with President Barack Obama and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus earlier this week admonishing her Republican colleagues saying that “silly season is over” on immigration reform.
The lawmaker's words seemed stern enough, but as she appeared on MSNBC's NOW With Alex Wagner yesterday, Sanchez turned milquetoast. With the immigration debate heating up in the House of Representatives, chatter is mounting on a supposed compromise that would pilfer a pathway to legalization, but not necessarily citizenship.
With Known Nothing intransigent Republicans in the House, their contribution to immigration reform is expected to only further dilute the hopes for citizenship among those in the shadows. Time for House Democrats to grow a backbone? Nah…
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The Senate immigration bill is already a less than comprehensive approach, that, with the inclusion of the Corker-Hoeven amendment, doubles the size of la migra and adds hundreds of miles of fencing to an already militarized border. The years-long pathway to citizenship laid out in an uneven trade-off with enforcement provisions would be unattainable for millions of undocumented immigrants living in the United States.
When asked about that particular notion on the program, Congresswoman Sanchez didn't slam it and left it up for legitimate discussion.
“Are Democrats willing to accept a path to legalization and not a path to citizenship?” Alex Wagner asked her guest. Instead of affirming a strong commitment, Sanchez criticized her Republican colleagues before saying, “Every community has people that have been working here, that are part of the fabric of America, that need legalization.”
Needing more clarification, Wagner returned to the question. “Do you think there is room for debate…on that issue?” she asked the congresswoman once more. “There's always room for debate,” Sanchez replied, following up later saying, “There's always room to talk and we'll continue to talk with them.”
The MSNBC host wanted to address the DREAM Act, but the pressed-for-time lawmaker took a pass on the issue, citing the need to go cast a vote on the Farm bill.
Without voicing a firm commitment to citizenship, it seems 'silly season' politics has only just begun.
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Gabriel San Román is from Anacrime. He’s a journalist, subversive historian and the tallest Mexican in OC. He also once stood falsely accused of writing articles on Turkish politics in exchange for free food from DönerG’s!