Reid Promises Reform

Iincoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has vowed to make immigration reform one of his first 10 bills in the new session.

That is good news indeed for advocates of reform who believe that passage of a bill through the Senate as quickly as possible will be a major factor in ensuring maximum pressure on the House when it receives it.

Reid sat down for an interview with Gannet newspapers during which he gave the following answer to a question on immigration reform.

“I have the opportunity as the majority leader to come forward with 10 bills at the beginning of the session. One of those will be an immigration bill.

“Immigration is something that’s not easy. But it’s necessary. We have to address the problems we have in America. First of all, the border, our security. Second, we have to have a guest worker program that’s meaningful and works. Thirdly, we have to give people who are here living in the shadows the opportunity to come out of the shadows and be on the pathway to legalization.

“And finally, we need to do something to make sure that the employer sanctions work.”

His words will ease concerns among pro-reform advocates that Reid would slow track a bill as some feared. Obviously, this latest interview gives the lie to that.

Neal Top Friend

Congressman Richie Neal will be named the new head of the Friends of Ireland in Congress next week, according to sources. Neal, the likeable western Massachusetts representative, is so popular in his district that he was one of a handful of politicians countrywide who had no opposition to his reelection bid.

Neal will be taking over from Congressman Jim Walsh, who will now be in the minority. The Friends of Ireland group is expected to grow in numbers and visibility in the new Congress with its Democratic majorities.

Indeed, incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected to be a prominent member. Last year she co-signed the leadership of the Friends’ annual St. Patrick’s statement, an interesting decision given that she was the only non-Irish signatory on it.

While the Friends have been focused in the main on Northern Ireland, there is little doubt that they will also be looking at the comprehensive immigration reform issue in the new session.

Neal has been an outspoken advocate of immigration reform and has spoken about it at Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform meetings.

He will hold a series of meetings with Irish leaders over the next few weeks before he assumes office in January. It will be interesting to hear his plans.

Iron Lady Spurned

Former British Prime Minster Margaret Thatcher will not, after all, be receiving a gold medal from Congress as she had so dearly sought.

A recent article in Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper, makes it clear that the Iron Lady has been snubbed, thanks to Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank.

The report opens, “What a kick in the pants, or the skirt, as the case may be, to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

A revised floor schedule for Wednesday was sent out advising, ‘H.R. 6136 - Margaret Thatcher Congressional Gold Medal Act HAS BEEN PULLED.’”

A GOP source told the newspaper that the bill was rejected because Frank objected to it. Representative Mark Kirk of Illinois was the original sponsor. He is a right winger who is very active on the anti-immigration issue

Frank explained to the newspaper that he opposed giving Thatcher a gold medal because the bill “hadn’t gone through the regular rules” procedure and, frankly, it “was being used by Republicans for partisan purposes. She was a very conservative person….”

“I don’t think the Congressional Gold Medal ought to be used to make political points,” Frank added.

Good for Frank. It’s a pity more politicians don’t show that type of political courage.

Kashmiri to Study North Peace

Now Northern Ireland has become a model for possibly solving the vexed issue of Kashmir, claimed by both India and Pakistan.

This week a top Kashmiri separatist, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, head of the All Parties Hurryiat Conference, the leading moderate party, left for Belfast to study how the Good Friday Agreement led to peace.

“I will try to meet the parties involved and try to understand if there are any similarities between the Irish and Kashmiri problems and if that agreement can help in resolving the Kashmir dispute,” Farooq said.

Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan each hold Kashmir in part but claim it in full. A revolt against New Delhi’s rule since 1989 has claimed over 44,000 lives by official count and at least double that number according to the separatists.

Farooq is also lined up for a visit to Norway, where he will meet diplomats involved in talks between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers.

Northern Ireland was recently visited by several parties from Iraq trying to decipher how they might move towards a peace accord similar to the Good Friday Agreement.

It is an extraordinary turnaround that the North, once considered a basket case and a graveyard for peace efforts, has now become perhaps the most visited place on earth by politicians from similarly troubled regions.

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams has also been consulted in recent times by the parties in the Basque region in Spain where a civil war against Spanish forces is grinding down.