As far back as April I said that immigration reform could not pass this year and that the president would be crazy to try. I was critical of Harry Reid for ‘jerking around’ the Latino community by suggesting that immigration reform would come up before energy legislation and then reversing himself. I was a bit worried that I would upset some my Latino friends and readers with my analysis, but I had to say what I thought was true. And I still think I was right about the politics. In fact, it’s worse that I feared. The top story at the New York Times this morning is about Democratic governors being upset with the administration for legally challenging the Arizona immigration law. They don’t seem to care about the merits, they just know it’s bad politics. It’s this kind of friction within the Democratic Party that makes an effort to pass immigration reform this year a hopeless task. Advocates for undocumented workers are not going to care about the politics and that’s not their job. But my concern is that the administration gets credit for doing the politically courageous thing. The temptation is to argue that they are punting on the issue, but they’re actually going out on a limb. And people should be grateful rather than griping.
