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RANDY STAPILUS The Idaho Column |
Raul Labrador, Idaho's first district Republican member of Congress, has been giving some good television. After going mano a mano on Meet the Press (July 7) with the New York Times' David Brooks, on July 10 he got into it with a whole panel on MSNBC's WOW.
Topic A being, of course, immigration, on which Labrador has been a significant national figure almost since he arrived in Congress: A Latino Republican with actual expertise in the field.
On WOW, Labrador shot back, “If you want to have a debate on the discussion, we can do that. I actually have my own mind. I was an immigration lawyer for 15 years. I think I know more than you do about immigration and on immigration reform. So let’s not try to insult people when trying to have an honest discussion about what’s happening in America.”
Labrador does in fact have expertise on immigration law. Discerning exactly what he proposes to do about it, however, is trickier.
He has said, “I hope we’re going to get a bill. I think immigration reform is necessary.” The main immigration measure in Congress now is the bill recently passed the Senate (opposed by both of Idaho's senators); Labrador said he opposes that bill, partly because it would provide legal status for 11 million people not legally in the country, and that it was inadequate on providing security. The bill, House Republican leadership has said, is DOA in that chamber.
In the House, Labrador was for a time part of a Group of Eight (not to be confused with the Senate's Group) working on a bill there, but in early June he very publicly quit it, citing disagreements over how health care for immigrants would be paid for. He said he would continue to work on the issue.
Blame (or credit) for failure to get a bill passed, he has said, should be placed at the doorstep of the Democrats, not the Republicans. He also said, last weekend on “Meet the Press,” that "If we don't do it right, politically it's going to be the death of the Republican Party," (more…)