GOP bets the house (and the senate) on immigration

Perhaps Republican congressional leaders failed to notice that Karl Rove was booed when he tried to talk to the National Council of La Raza about enforcement-based immigration reform. People know racism when they see it, and Hispanics are seeing it as the GOP seriously discusses plans to build border fences and ship millions of brown-skinned people out of this country.

Continuing their shameless appeals to the lowest impulses of the Republican base, congressional leaders have decided to go double or nothing on a "crackdown" approach to immigration. They are choosing to ignore the plain reality that illegal immigrants were drawn here, and remain here, because American employers are only to happy to exploit them as an off-the-books workforce. The substandard wages they earn in America are higher than anything they can earn in their own countries. It is a case of supply and demand.

But, as we have been told, Republicans make their own reality. In this case, their reality is one in which the best solution to the presence of millions of people they don't like is to militarize the border, and to round those people up and send them home.

House Republican leaders are scheduling a new round of immigration hearings, saying three already held have strengthened their case for enforcement-heavy legislation.

Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Wednesday the hearings have made clear that a Senate bill that opens an avenue toward citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants would undermine border security.

He contended that members of both parties are moving toward the House position that the nation's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants should be offered no guarantees against being deported.

"I think the hearings have been an absolute success, and they've put us in a stronger position to craft a responsible bill that secures our borders and strictly enforces our immigration laws," Boehner said.

Clearly, Republicans realize that their agenda is repellant to all but the most committed members of their caucasian, Christian, jingoistic constituency. Rather than try to broaden their appeal, the GOP has decided to narrow it and fire up the base for the mid-terms. After all, the conventional wisdom holds that such elections are won or lost on a party's success at mobilizing its base. The Republicans are willing to throw away twenty years of work to reach out to Hispanic voters for the short-term gain of holding on to its congressional majority.

This kind of demonstrated hostility toward an entire ethnic group of people does not go away when you're ready for it to go away. Some day soon, perhaps this November 7th, the GOP will regret turning its back on the fastest-growing bloc of voters in this country.