Former President George W. Bush reportedly is going to weigh in next week on immigration reform.
You go, W.
The former president is taking part in a panel discussion at his newly opened presidential library and museum in Dallas. The Dallas Morning News reports that it isn’t clear how specific he’ll get but that he’s going to speak at least in general terms about the need to reform the nation’s immigration system.
The immigration reform movement got a needed and welcomed (in my view) boost when the United States Senate approved — in a sweeping bipartisan vote — a package that includes a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million or so illegal immigrants; it also beefs up border security and spends money to finish a wall along our nation’s southern border.
Now it sits — some think it languishes — in the House of Representatives, where Speaker John Boehner says it is going nowhere without a majority of support among Republicans in that chamber. Thus, a minority of the full House is holding the reform package hostage.
It is patently unreasonable to think immigration cops that round up the millions of illegal residents and toss them out. President Bush has understood that going back to when he served as Texas governor. His successor, Rick Perry, is right on immigration reform as well. And what should one expect from governors of a large border state? There exist here realities that other governors and other elected officials elsewhere simply don’t get … such as the fact that even though there are illegal immigrants among us, many of them have carved out productive lives.
Immigration reform legislation seeks to show a bit of compassion to those who desire citizenship in the United States.
I’ll await former President Bush’s remarks in Dallas next week. I just hope they don’t fall on deaf Republican ears.