The Grass Roots Killed the Immigration Bill

Washington is still in shock over the destruction of the vaunted Immigration Reform Bill, carefully crafted by a handful of Senators without the nuisance of hearings or public comment and thrown to the Senate floor with a "take it and don't change it" attitude on the part of the creators. The grass-roots voters didn't like the bill, didn't like the way the writers attempted to ram it through the Senate, and when the President questioned the patriotism of the bill's opponents, all hell broke loose across Capitol Hill.

We were told that this bill was better than doing nothing, but when people actually read this bill and understood what it would and wouldn't do, it became clear that this bill would not fix the problems nor was it an improvement over the status quo. With modern communications technology, the reaction from opponents was swift and vigorous:

Supporters of the legislation defended it as an imperfect but pragmatic solution to the difficult problem of illegal immigration. Public opinion polls, including a New York Times/CBS News Poll conducted last month, showed broad support among Americans for the bill’s major provisions.

But the legislation sparked a furious rebellion among many Republican and even some Democratic voters, who were linked by the Internet and encouraged by radio talk show hosts. Their outrage and activism surged to full force after Senator Jon Kyl, the Arizona Republican who was an author of the bill, suggested early this week that support for the measure seemed to be growing. The assault on lawmakers in Washington was relentless. In a crucial vote Thursday night, the bill’s supporters, including President Bush, fell short by 15 votes. While there is a possibility the legislation could be revived later this year, there was a glow of victory among opponents on Friday.

“Technologically enhanced grass-roots activism is what turned this around, people empowered by the Internet and talk radio,” said Colin A. Hanna, president of Let Freedom Ring, a conservative group.

Mr. Hanna suggested the passion and commitment were on the side of the opponents.

“The opposition to the amnesty plan is so much more intense than the intensity of the supporters,” said Mr. Hanna, speaking of the bill’s provisions to grant legal status to qualifying illegal immigrants, which the authors of the legislation insisted was not amnesty.

In the end, supporters conceded that they were outmaneuvered by opponents who boiled down their complaints to that single hot-button word, repeated often and viscerally on talk radio programs and blogs.

That word, of course, was amnesty, and no matter how hard the supporters tried to claim that no amnesty was involved, the specifics of the bill just didn't support that. When you instantly legalize 12 million people through a "probational" status, it's amnesty. Can you deport them after the bill is signed? No. That's amnesty.

This week as the bill lay dying on the floor of the Senate, many common sense amendments were offered to fix some of the problems, like denying legalization to felons and others under deportation orders. The common sense amendments were defeated in favor of more watered-down fare. The defeat of those amendments just further stoked the fire of the opposition.

I firmly believe that the ability the voters have to instantly connect with members of Congress is a great thing. Not too many years ago this bill would have been introduced and quickly passed before the grass-roots even knew what was happening. Thanks to the internet, blogs, talk radio and email, that can never happen again, and that will make for much better lawmaking in the future.