February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Perhaps the Senate immigration bill, or more likely a future combined Senate and House bill, can be a legislative equivalent of the famed Italian actress.
The Senate bill is certainly loaded with imperfect parts. Virtually every line of it is drawing fire from some quarter. But that is to be expected. Immigration is an issue that has little trouble in firing up opinion.
Senator Edward Kennedy has rightly pointed out that politics is the art of the possible, not the perfect.
And it is the possible that Capitol Hill legislators must strive for in the coming days.
Which brings us to the idea of America, a nation where it is often said that nothing is impossible, at least in the human realm.
It is possible to make our borders more secure; it is possible to create a path to a new life for millions of people who are integrated into the American economy, but not its society; it is possible to stem, or significantly reduce, the number of undocumented or illegals in this country a decade or more from now by means of a fair and sustainable guest worker program.
All these and more simply require politicians to craft and pass legislation. The legislation doesn’t have to be perfect, merely reasonable.
If legislators can get it more or less right this year, what emerges can be fine tuned in the years ahead.
Immigration does need constant attention, not just every ten years or so when it gets out of control. With luck then there will be an agreed formula before this year is out.
If not, we will be left with the worst of both worlds: imperfection and chaos.