Originally posted at America’s Voice:
The Immigration community was deeply saddened by the passing of Senator Ted Kennedy this week, who, throughout his life, advocated for more inclusive policies toward refugees and immigrants. In fact, his first major legislative initiative was actually the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.
Since then, Senator Kennedy had championed immigration reform, and fought hard on behalf of those who couldn’t always fight for themselves. He struggled to help fix an immigration system that has long been broken.
In yesterday’s Roll Call, Morton Kondracke suggests that the proper tribute to Sen. Kennedy’s life would be to pass real immigration reform:
Along with a health care reform bill, it would be a fitting tribute to the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) if Congress could act on his other great-unfinished cause: immigration reform.
Kondracke further states that Kennedy understood the importance of working “on a bipartisan basis to get legislation passed,” and collaborated with members of the Republican Party on various legislation, and most notably, with McCain on legislation that would allow immigrants with a clean record to earn legal resident status. Kondracke notes that:
The bill also would have ended the unconscionable delays that keep family members of recent immigrants waiting years — sometimes decades — to be admitted…And though his motives for reform might have been primarily humanitarian…he understood the need to get America’s borders under control.
As if it were convening in true Kennedy-like spirit, a bi-partisan panel at the Council of Foreign Relations recently issued a report advocating just that. They put the urgency to do reform this way:
Our immigration system has been broken for too long, and the costs of that failure are growing. Getting immigration policy right is fundamental to our national interests – our economic vitality, our diplomacy and our national security.
The distinguished task-force consisted of Clinton Aide, Thomas F. McLarty; former FL Governor, Jeb Bush (R); and Bernard L. Schwartz Senior Fellow, Edward Alden — all of whom noted that get-tough enforcement strategies alone are not solutions to our broken immigration system.
President Obama has consistently promised to make comprehensive immigration reform a priority during his first year in office. In the wake of Senator Kennedy’s death, and considering his leadership and tireless work on the issue, perhaps Congress should finally make creating a rational immigration system — one which allows the 12 million undocumented immigrants currently in the United States to come out of the shadows — a priority.
As Kondracke suggests, they should do it in Senator Kennedy’s honor.
Categories: Massachusetts, comprehensive immigration reform
Tags: immigration reform, obama and immigration, senator kennedy, ted kennedy
