SEVERAL OF THE lawmakers behind the bipartisan immigration agreement being discussed in the Senate noted movingly when they announced the deal that the time they spent together crafting it reminded them of high school civics -- their experience of government finally living up to the ideals that got them into politics in the first place.
The more you think about it, the more remarkable a statement that is. The negotiations had, after all, been anything but pleasant. The group had spent two hours a day, three or four days a week for many weeks, stuck in a small, stuffy room talking about the details of immigration policy. Voices had been raised, ultimatums leveled. On at least one occasion, lawmakers stormed out. And in order to get to a deal, they all had to compromise -- to listen, really listen, then stretch and give up things they'd long believed in.
But this painful process was precisely what the senators found so gratifying. It's the essence of democratic politics: Everyone sacrifices a little so that we all can win big.
The question now is, can the rest of the Senate and the House keep it up? Can they and the constituencies behind them -- from the Minuteman Project to the organizers of the immigrant rallies, from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to the AFL-CIO -- pull off anything like what these 10 senators accomplished in that room? Because that's what has to happen if we are to pass a law this year that fixes the immigration system.
Why is it so hard? Think about the scope of the issues and how differently different factions see them.
Traditional immigration reformers believe that 12 million people who have broken the law should be put on a path to citizenship. Arizona Republican Sen. Jon Kyl and his followers believe that's an abomination. What's most important to Kyl is the immigration system of tomorrow. He believes most permanent visas should go to skilled workers and the rest should be strictly temporary. Democrats think the criteria for admission should be family ties, not work skills, and that all newcomers should have a chance to stay permanently.
Meanwhile, many Americans think we're letting in enough legal immigrants as is, while most reformers believe we need more -- hundreds of thousands more.
