Shame on me for being so late to post this (double that guilt because I saw it before it went up and loved it) but Elana Levin at DMI (where I'm on the board) has put up a terrific memo on immigration, aimed at providing a framework for discussion on the part of progressive bloggers. As Elana says:
The netroots can play a critical role on this issue by facilitating a conversation that will lead to increased political will for a progressive immigration policy that will benefit America’s squeezed middle class and all those struggling to become middle class.
The immigraton debate has been successfully hijacked by the nativist Lou Dobbs Express just in time for primary season. The Republicans trip over each other racing to talk the manly talk of fences and deportation and denying school to little Hispanic kids - causing the radical anti-Latino candidate Tom Tancredo to joke that his work in the campaign is essentially done: all of the candidates had come around the his viewpoint. Only Mike Huckabee looked like a humane, decent American on this issue in the recent GOP YouTube shoot-out; no accident his poll numbers jumped. Meanwhile, Mitt Romney fires his gardeners and Rudy Giuliani repudiates his own moderate New York City policy. They'd all seen what happened to John McCain when he pushed the bi-partisan guest workers program .
You might expect this from the national Republican Party, which has always purchased votes with the coinage of fear, but the Democrats have been little better. Against the anti-immigrant backlash, they talk in mealy-mouthed asides about enforcement and "the failure of the Bush Administration" and the "path to citizenship." But they're running scared - the irony of the Philadelphia debate that laid Hillary Clinton low for a time was that she was scored by her "more progressive" opponents for trying to show some half-support for a more liberal policy. In truth, Mssrs. Dodd and Obama and Edwards don't much like the voltage on that immigration third rail. And they're all reacting to the Tancredo-Dobbs faction of American life.
Elana's memo creates a better framework, and aims to help bloggers find the right voice on comprehensive immigrant reform. She also makes the savvy point that business wants reform, and that the media tends to use the vernacular of the extremists:
Much of the toxicity in the current immigration debate stems not just from rhetoric used by pundits such as Lou Dobbs or Bill O'Reilly but by biased language used to report news stories in the legitimate press outlets. The default language politicians and the media use to discuss comprehensive immigration reform is inaccurate.
UPDATE: I should have also noted Amy Traub's great post on the same (terrific) DMIblog, which notes that: "Immigration policy is among the most divisive issues facing the U.S. today, and progressives often don’t know how to talk or think about it." And she hammers home a point that gets lost in the Sanctuary City debate - that immigrants make a massive contribution to the American economy, particularly the middle class. And Lindsay Beyerstein has her reaction to Elana's post, raising some greats points as well.
