What a Difference a Year Makes

Ira Mehlman, National Media Director for FAIR

On Monday night, President Bush will be delivering his final State of the Union Address. With the economy slipping into recession, real estate prices falling and the stock market in freefall, putting a bright face on the president's domestic agenda for his last year in office will be a challenge for his speech writers. But one issue that Bush will almost certainly not address on Monday is immigration.

What a contrast from the president's 2007 State of the Union Address. Just a year ago, "comprehensive immigration reform" was the administration's highest domestic priority, as the president asserted adamantly that there would be deal that included legalization of millions of illegal aliens, new guest workers, and more promises of future immigration enforcement. Even as the deal unraveled under withering public opposition, Bush, on a visit to Europe, defiantly declared that he'd be seeing the White House press corps at the bill signing ceremony.

If Bush did see the press corps in the Rose Garden it was to admire the roses, because there was no immigration bill to be signed. In much the same way that President Bush's previous top domestic priority - comprehensive Social Security reform - disappeared from the White House's agenda and from his annual address to the nation when he did not get his way, any mention of immigration reform will likely be conspicuously absent from this year's speech.

For those who may need reminding, Social Security is still as badly in need of fixing as it was in 2005 (in fact, the system is three years closer to insolvency). And though the president may choose to ignore it, our immigration system is still in disarray and the public still very much wants something done about it - just not the massive amnesty and guest worker program that Bush has been trying to sell.

Unfortunately, President Bush, who has been a tenacious fighter for what he wants, has demonstrated a tendency to walk away from a problem when his preferred solutions are rebuffed. What the nation needs in his final year in office is leadership, not petulance. If the president is prepared to spend the meager political capital he still has in his account, a sensible enforcement-only bill is not beyond the realm of possibility.

The controversy over "comprehensive immigration reform" was limited to the amnesty/pathway-to-legalization and the expanded guest worker provisions of the bill. Everyone - from Ted Kennedy to Jeff Sessions - is in agreement (or so they claim) about the need to secure our borders and crack down on employers who hire illegal aliens. So, in the words of the Nike commercial, why not "Just Do It"?

For a president seeking to secure something positive for his legacy, addressing the illegal immigration problem might be a nice feather in his rather unadorned cap. A workable immigration enforcement law would also be nice gesture to his successor, who will take office next January inheriting an ongoing war and other foreign policy issues, massive budget and trade imbalances, a credit crisis, soaring energy costs and assorted other challenges.

Enacting the kind of immigration reform that has broad support from the American public during his last year in office will not be easy, but to borrow a phrase from pro-amnesty crowd, "Si, se puede!"