Illegal immigration is a highly emotional issue, so emotional that some House Republicans want to make it a felony to help an illegal immigrant/alien/undocumented worker (use your favorite phrase according to your political preference).
So what does new White House Press Secretary Tony Snow do? He likens illegal immigration to a speeding ticket — proving once and for all that the swap meet isn’t the only place you can find figures with tin ears:
The White House on Friday said a Senate bill that would grant legal status to illegal immigrants is analogous to a traffic law that allows a speeder to pay a fine and continue driving.
“If you had a traffic ticket and you paid it, you’re not forever a speeder, are you?” White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said in response to questions from The Examiner.
“So the fact is, you have paid your debt to society,” he added. “And we have come up with a way to make sure that the debt to society gets paid. Then you move forward.”
It is a great sound bite — and there were some Republicans who felt the analogy bit:
The “traffic ticket” analogy raised eyebrows on Capitol Hill, where many House Republicans regard illegal immigration as a grave crime.
“I don’t know if Tony meant to trivialize it or not,” said Will Adams, spokesman for Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo. “But it’s certainly misleading.”
“The penalty for a speeding ticket is a fine,” he added. “The penalty for being here illegally is being removed from this country. But the president doesn’t want illegal aliens to go home.”
Oops, Tony, poor analogy.
In fairness to Snow, however, he was trying to calm some of the near-hysteria over illegal immigration on the far right. And he was trying to find a way to say that adjusting residential status (with whatever formula they eventually come up with) can be done in a way so that it is paying a debt to society for being here illegally.
But in doing so he minimized it to an extent where it’s likely to irk House members who don’t feel the administration is taking the need for strict border enforcement and possible deportations seriously.
Good intent, Tony; clumsy execution. But you probably have made a lot of conservative talk show hosts looking for material smile.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.