Politics as Usual: Senate Amendments Make Bad Policy, but Great Theater

It’s time to take a deep breath and recognize that you can rarely take Senate votes at face value when it comes to immigration. The amount of posturing and political preening that goes on is directly proportionate to how close we really are to pushing a substantive immigration proposal. So, what have we seen this week? Senator Schumer announces that there will be a comprehensive immigration reform bill by Labor Day. That’s good policy. The Council on Foreign Relations says comprehensive immigration reform is vital to our nation’s interests. Also good policy. Enforcement only amendments win on the Senate floor—bad policy, but great political theater. Unfortunately, political theater is often hard for politician to resist when they are dealing with complex issues that defy simple solutions. Read more at ImmigrationImpact.com. (July 9, 2009)