Immigration What we will — and will not — hear in the upcoming debate.
Will the bill pass?
We can be assured only that the debate will be as nasty as the one over healthcare. Yet recent developments may suggest greater difficulty than the administration imagines.
We are in a deep recession. Unemployment is still over 9 percent in some of the southwestern states, and nearly 20 percent in the inland counties of California. The old myth that native-born Americans will not clean hotel rooms or weed gardens is fading, as the unemployed now seem willing to work at jobs once considered taboo. That trend will only increase if the recession endures and unemployment benefits finally wind down.
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The administration has decided that winning another legislative victory in an agenda aimed at remaking America is worth the cost of dividing the country and whipping up heroes and demons. Momentum, not compromise, is the order of the day.
