February 13, 2008 10:09 AM
Message to the three candidates who still have a chance to be president (Sorry Ron Paul):
Our local politicians are able to demagogue the immigration issue because Washington has failed to come up with a solution.
Washington needs to step in and take some action so individual jurisdictions are not forced to pick up the slack, at their own expense. We need comprehensive immigration reform now.
Most Suffolk pols are sick of seeing the wingnuts showing up at the leg demanding that Suffolk close its border with Nassau. But as long as Washington dithers, the Minutemen rule the roost.
Whoever is elected president next fall has to resist the temptation to move this controversial issue to the backburner. It will be easier to pass a bill early in the first term to give the Congress some time to recover from its inevitable drubbing on Dobbs before the 2010 election. If comprehensive immigration reform does not get passed early in the first term, it may not come up again until 2011 or even 2013.