On immigration, US deserves better than Boehner, Obama, Tea Party

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) was against immigration reform before he was for immigration reform before he was against immigration reform before he now refuses to allow a vote in the House that would pass immigration reform because a number of House Republicans support immigration reform.

President Obama supports but fails to seriously fight for immigration reform before he refuses to visit the Texas border to visit immigrant children, saying he does not want to make a photo-op visit to the children hours after he organized a photo-op shoot playing pool, drinking beer and turning down the offer of a marijuana joint, which might not be the worst idea for everyone in dysfunctional Washington. Nothing else has worked. Perhaps if Obama, Boehner, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) toked up together, something might actually get done in the capital city, and the favorable numbers for Congress might rise in the next poll above the 7 percent from a recent Gallup poll.

{mosads}Meanwhile, the Tea Party and the far right, believing Republicans stole a Mississippi GOP Senate primary by mobilizing black Democratic voters to vote Republican, then accuse Democrats of playing the race card, then take out their aggression against the immigrant children. Looking like European rightist parties with names such as the National Front, with one of them writing a comment for The Hill under the username “Mein Kampf” (really), some of them surround a bus full of children in California and angrily shout and scream at them. With chants of “U.S.A.” in the background, one who must have cut his American patriotism class in school spits in the face of a pro-immigration supporter.

Not to be outdone, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), who has not yet said “oops” this year, implies there is a conspiracy (presumably by Democrats who want 10-year-old immigrants to vote Democratic in 2022) to foment the immigrant children walk who 1,000 miles in search of a better life. Texas State Sen. Wendy Davis (D), the Democratic nominee for governor, has a much better idea. Davis is calling on Perry to stop his public relations campaigning and call the Texas legislature back into session to address the border immigration crisis.

America needs immigration reform. America needs this Washington theater of the absurd to end. America needs a president who fights for immigration reform and the House needs a Speaker who will allow a vote on immigration reform because a majority of House members will vote for it.

Democrats will come out ahead on the issue, because the rabid anti-immigrant faction would never vote for Democrats anyway, but the large wave of Hispanic voters will vote Democratic for a generation by the time this is done.

As for Obama, he should say that if Congress does not pass an emergency immigration package, he will call Congress back from its next prolonged recess in August.

Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and former Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.), who was then chief deputy majority whip of the House. He holds an LL.M. degree in international financial law from the London School of Economics. Contact him at brentbbi@webtv.net.