Rancorous Debate, Jeb Bush Anger, Catholic Hunger Strikes Over Bipartisan Immigration Bill

As Chicago priests began a hunger strike today in support of the Senate Judiciary Committee's bipartisan immigration bill, Cardinal Roger Mahony Cardinal, Archbishop of the Los Angeles Diocese with 5 million Catholics, asked all Catholics to fast today, April 5, 2005, in solidarity with undocumented immigrants. Mahony also celebrated Mass today to pray for legislators and all undocumented immigrants in the US.

Cardinal Mahony proclaimed on his website, "At this important moment, it is crucial that we focus our minds and hearts on our goal: achieving just and humane immigration reform, reform that respects the dignity of each and every person....the Gospel calls us to love and to stand in solidarity with the poor, the stranger, the least among us."

At this moment, though, odds are not in favor of the Chicago priests' and Cardinal Mahony's prayers being answered affirmatively.

The New York Times editorialized today: "When the week began, it looked almost as if it was time to celebrate a springtime blossoming of good sense in Washington. The Senate appeared to be closing in on solid bipartisan support for a comprehensive overhaul of the nation's immigration system. That meant adopting an approach that has been on the table for months in a bill offered last year by Senators John McCain and Edward Kennedy, then revised and passed last month by the Senate Judiciary Committee. It combines, sensibly, tighter borders with a path to citizenship for people here illegally."

The Times continues, "The Judiciary Committee's bill apparently remains stuck in the amnesty trap. While it has enough votes to pass, it may not have enough to avoid a filibuster by hard-core Republicans. For them, anything other than punishment and border enforcement smacks unforgivably of forgiveness."

The Senate Judiciary bill is so bipartisan and the debate has become so rancorous that.....get this....Jeb Bush supports the bill. And he's angry at conservatives over debate ugliness. Bush, younger brother of the President, emailed to the Los Angeles Times, "My wife came here legally, but it hurts her just as it hurts me when people give the perception that all immigrants are bad."

Reports the Los Angeles Times today, "Accusing politicians of 'pounding their chests' on immigration for short-term political gain, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Tuesday that the tone of the debate had been 'hurtful' to him and his Mexican-born wife, Columba. Bush...reserved some of his sharpest criticism for conservatives in his own Republican Party, calling it 'just plain wrong' to charge illegal immigrants with a felony, as a provision passed by the Republican-led House would do."

The Senate debate, and closed-door negotiations, rage on, with a vote expected this week, perhaps even today.

I wholeheartedly agree with the New York Times when it wisely writes, "This country has been on a long and improbable path to immigration reform. The more it has wrestled with the issue, the more distance has grown between the thoughtful Americans and the nativists who long for a Great Wall of Mexico, or for a two-tiered nation of citizens and of immigrant hired hands, free to toil forever as guest workers but never to fully join our society....We need to get it right this time, once and for all. "
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Related Article - Catholic Cardinal Mahony Pledges to Defy House Immigration Bill HR 4437
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