Harry Reid Still Set To Fight For Immigration Reform

By Stace Medellín

After leading the Senate in passing some major bills, whether you liked the bills or not, The New York Times political blog is telling us that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is taking somewhat of a victory lap.

And why shouldn’t he? The leader whose political career was thought of as dead actually defeated the vitriolic, anti-immigrant campaign of Sharron Angle. Whether one believes Reid made a political calculation or a sincere act of legislative kindness by promising (and delivering on the promise) to bring up the DREAM Act during the lame duck session, he doesn’t seem battle worn on the issue after coming up five votes short on Saturday:

For his part, Mr. Reid predicted, “We’ll get some things done,” naming comprehensive immigration legislation as one possibility. If Republicans’ vulnerability among Hispanic voters does not persuade them to compromise, he noted, “they have real problems with their mental capacity.”

So, whether it comes up in 2011 or 2012, it seems Reid is willing to get comprehensive immigration reform back on the agenda. Given some of the Republican speeches on floor on Saturday in which some showed verbal support only if it was part of a comprehensive plan, perhaps Leader Reid is going to call their bluff. Unfortunately, at the federal level, it becomes another waiting game for us.

We in Texas, though, have our own battle in the spring against a Republican-heavy Texas legislature which has targeted Latinos with everything from legalizing racial profiling (like the Arizona law) to Voter ID to the demise of the Texas DREAM Act. Of course, one would hope that they are more interested in figuring out the $20 billion budget shortfall to actually fund Texas critical services, like education, health care, etc.

Stace Medellín is a political consultant in Houston, Texas.