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There’s some news in my book on @RahmEmanuel and the Sensenbrenner bill. This was a 2005 bill that kicked off the nativist wave we’re living with now. It would make it a felony to assist someone here w/o in any way, including communion /1
The Hispanic Caucus met and resolved to finally act as one. In a dramatic moment, Blue Dog Joe Salazar told the caucus he was with them, and ready to go to war. Sensenbrenner became an epithet in the immigrant community. The Catholic Church condemned the bill. But then Rahm.../2
Rahm heard Salazar was going to vote no and told him if he did, the DCCC, which Rahm ran then, would cut him off /3
So Joe Salazar votes for that horrific bill, on Rahm’s orders. Rahm hoped that the bill would be so hated by Latinos that they’d take to the streets and come out and vote Democratic in the midterms, and meanwhile the vulnerable Dems like Salazar could vote for it. People did /4
People flooded the streets in LA, Chicago, NYC and elsewhere. In response, the Minutemen and other racist and nativist groups boomed. Rahm did get a little bump in the midterms.
In 2009, as WH chief of staff, Rahm squashed immigration reform. CHC members and outside groups../5
In 2009, as WH chief of staff, Rahm squashed immigration reform. CHC members and outside groups../5
The groups waited for Rahm to leave so a real push on CIR could happen. It did, and it came close, but the tea party upset of Cantor stopped it. That energy had been cynically unleashed by Rahm just a few years earlier. 6
He deserves an extraordinary amount of the blame for the current state of our immigration debate. Yet @maureendowd goes to him to comment on a debate about immigration policy.
