Voices of Mexico no. 79

Our Voice

We are finished with this for the time being,” said Senator Harry Reid, Democrat from Nevada and majority leader, as he turned the Senate to work on energy legislation. That was his reaction to the Senate vote (50-45), which was insufficient to end the debate on the immigration reform and put it to the vote. Those in favor of ending the debate and voting on the bill needed 60 votes. In other words, the reform will not be approved in the short term.

Thus, temporarily at least, the Senate and its leader concluded a debate that has been harsh and ferocious from the beginning. The latest summary of the proposed reform, in its last stages backed by the White House, had a rocky beginning and was clearly promoted at a bad time, when the U.S. political class considers this a toxic issue, which, as such, cannot be dealt with as freely as they would like. Even so, though it seems very contradictory, presidential pressure led the issue into a tense congressional debate that resulted in the polemical senatorial vote. In the same sense, we have commented here and elsewhere, the political moment in the United States does not admit anomalous issues in the political debate. Much less when the overwhelming weight of the enormous foreign policy failure of the war against terror and particularly the tragic adventure in Iraq are added to the priorities of the presidential primaries, all of which has a huge impact on the debate about this and other sensitive issues in Washington and throughout the country.