MicEvHill.Com - Senator Graham Abandons Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Graham Digs In His Heels as He Completes His Abandonment of
Comprehensive Immigration Reform Legislation

By Micheal E. Hill

Tuesday, April 27, 2010 -- 9:45 am EDT

In a move that has thrown the prospects for Senate passage of comprehensive immigratio

n reform (CIR) legislation into serious jeopardy, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) yesterday made it incontravertably clear that he has abandoned the issue for the remainder of the 111th Congress.

Senators and staff members held numerous meetings on Monday in an effort to clarify what Graham meant when he sent a letter on Saturday to climate change supporters announcing that he would end his work on that measure if Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) moved CIR legislation to the Senate floor before moving climate change legislation. Early in the day, Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), one of Graham's climate change collaborators, expressed optimism that Graham was only concerned about the sequence of the Senate's consideration of climate change and immigration legislation. Majority Leader Reid made an effort to rescue the situation by making it clear that the Senate could, indeed, take up the climate change bill before taking up a CIR bill. However, late in the day, Senator Graham completed his walk away from CIR legislation, making it clear that he was not merely concerend about the order in which the Senate takes up immigration and climate change legislation but, rather, he wanted a commitment from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) that CIR legislation will be shelved altogether for the remainder of the 111th Congress. Said Graham to a group of reporters, "[h]ow much clearer can I be? Immigration brought up this year is nothing but a political stunt that will divide the country." The South Carolina senator went on to say that CIR legislation "has no chance in hell of passing" during the remainder of the 111th Congress. "Nobody believes it will pass, right? Does anybody believe it will pass? I don't believe it will pass." Not stopping there, Senator Graham continued, saying, "I think I've made it perfectly clear that if you bring up immigration you're breaking faith with me." He added, "[t]he faith was broken when immigration was interjected in the 11th hour."

For more than a year now, Senator Graham has partnered with Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees, and Border Security Chairman Charles Schumer (D-NY) on CIR legislation. The two senators have held numerous meetings with staff, themselves, and interest groups during the last year in an effort to craft a measure that could win bipartisan support in the Senate and the support of a wide array of pro-immigrant interest groups in the business, labor, ethnic, and religious communities. The two senators' efforts culminated on March 18, 2010, with the release of their bipartisan immigration reform framework. Unfortunately for them, the release of their March 18 CIR framework was the highwater mark for their effort. Later on that very same day, Senator Graham began a slow walk away from CIR legislation, issuing a statement warning that if the Senate took up health care reform legislation using the reconciliation process, it would spell the doom of CIR legislation.

While Graham had been slowly walking away from his collaboration with Senator Schumer on CIR legislation since March, he accelerated his march away from the effort on Saturday, April 24, when he sent his letter to climate change advocates. In the Saturday letter, Graham wrote, "[m]oving forward on immigration — in this hurried, panicked manner — is nothing more than a cynical political ploy." He continued, writing, "I know from my own personal experience the tremendous amounts of time, energy, and effort that must be devoted to this issue to make even limited progress.’’

Senator Graham's Saturday climate change letter sent official Washington into panic mode.

Majority Leader Reid issued a statement over the weekend saying both immigration and climate change were important. Said Reid in his statement, "[i]mmigration and energy reform are equally vital to our economic and national security and have been ignored for far too long. As I have said, I am committed to trying to enact comprehensive clean energy legislation this session of Congress. Doing so will require strong bipartisan support and energy could be next if it's ready. I have also said we will try to pass comprehensive immigration reform. This too will require bipartisan support and significant committee work that has not yet begun." Reid continued, writing, "I appreciate the work of Senator Graham on both of these issues and understand the tremendous pressure he is under from members of his own party not to work with us on either measure. But I will not allow him to play one issue off of another, and neither will the American people. They expect us to do both, and they will not accept the notion that trying to act on one is an excuse for not acting on the other." Significantly, the Reid statement also appeared to commit to putting any CIR bill through the Senate Committee on the Judiciary Committee before floor consideration, a process that could add a number of weeks to the debate before a bill could be brought before the full Senate.

While Majority Leader Reid had not commented on the latest developments at the time of this writing, a spokesman for him has suggested that it is Graham, and not Reid, who is playing politics with immigration. Reid spokesman Jeff Manly said in response to the Graham Monday tantrum, "[a]s far as breaking faith goes, Senator Graham has been demanding Democratic leadership on immigration for months, so it's difficult to understand why we have gotten this reaction to Reid demonstrating his commitment to the issue." Senator Graham was the sole Republican who had agreed to work with Senator Schumer to draft a comprehensive immigration reform bill. Losing him may mean that Democrats will be forced to either abandon CIR altogether for the remainder of the 111th Congress or draft a measure with no Republican cosponsors. The latter of those two options would make it exceedingly difficult for Democrats to assemble the 60 votes they would need to bring a CIR bill before the full Senate.

Senator Graham has scheduled a press conference for Tuesday. All of official Washington will be watching.