Good news on immigration

From The New York Times:

WASHINGTON, Sept. 4 — As they prepare for a critical pre-election legislative stretch, Congressional Republican leaders have all but abandoned a broad overhaul of immigration laws and instead will concentrate on national security issues they believe play to their political strength.

With Congress reconvening Tuesday after an August break, Republicans in the House and Senate say they will focus on Pentagon and domestic security spending bills, port security legislation and measures that would authorize the administration’s terror surveillance program and create military tribunals to try terror suspects.

“We Republicans believe that we have no choice in the war against terror and the only way to do it is to continue to take them head-on whether it is in Iraq or elsewhere,” said Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the majority leader.

A final decision on what do about immigration policy awaits a meeting this week of senior Republicans. But key lawmakers and aides who set the Congressional agenda say they now believe it would be politically risky to try to advance an immigration measure that would showcase party divisions and need to be completed in the 19 days Congress is scheduled to meet before breaking for the election.

This is good news indeed. We have a bad situation with between 12 and 20 million illegal aliens (mostly Mexican) in the country, but it isn't terminal. We are and can continue to survive for a good many more years with things exactly as they are right now.

What we cannot survive is amnesty for those illegal aliens and an open borders policy which would bring in as many as 100 million additional poor uneducated, often unemployable minorities and place them in the care of our already overburdened social service network.

We should all be on our knees thanking God that the gave the Republicans the strength to resist the "pass some legislation NOW even if it's bad so the rubes will think we're doing SOMETHING" temptation.

Since the overwhealming majority of Republicans in both the House and Senate voted the right way on this issue having immigration as an open issue will play to Republican advantage this November.

As things stand now the Republicans could lose control of the House this November. This may help them to hold on. At the very least it will help limit the damage. Passage of an open borders bill like the Senate immigration "reform" bill would have cost the Republicans so many seats that there would have been no coming back, even with a good year in 2008.