February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
And in saying this we are not referring to the matter of who happens to be in the majority, or who must endure the frustration of minority status.
Congress works best and better serves the American people when its members work on a bipartisan basis.
This is especially so when the issue up for debate is immigration, a matter that is never less than stressful and divisive to be sure, but an issue that has been, and will continue to play a critical role in America’s future.
It really doesn’t matter which party holds sway in the House and Senate. Immigration is a grinder and truly comprehensive reform needs to be shaped by the best and most committed minds on both sides of the aisle.
With the midterm election now past, and the need to ratchet up uncompromising positions on immigration in order to appeal to particular groups of voters suddenly less of an imperative, it should be possible to look ahead to 2007 as the year when something more significant than border-fence building emerges from Capitol Hill deliberations.
And if reform is to emerge from the debate, it really does need to do so in the coming year, preferably in its first half.
Twelve months from now, the gravitational pull of the 2008 general election will have taken firm hold and politicians will be running to their partisan corners again.
On another level, it was encouraging to hear Irish government minister Tony Killeen expound recently on the idea of a bilateral and mutually beneficial visa deal between the U.S. and Ireland.
This idea should be further studied and advanced regardless of what next passes for the immigration debate in the new Congress.