Opportunity doesn't have a specific location. It's that changeable place where chance lines up circumstances and means. You can't call 411 and ask for the address of Opportunity (and certainly not the phone number).
But for the past century or so, the United States has been "the land of opportunity." For both our neighbors and those from distant lands, America has shone strong as a beacon of hope and possibility - economic, political, religious and cultural - for countless decades.
The hopes of the tired, poor, huddled masses hoping to call America home got a small boost yesterday as the Senate Judiciary Committee, in a rare instance of Democratic influence, approved an amended immigration bill that grants greater opportunities to those who seek American citizenship, and is free of an earlier draft's draconian restrictions on illegal immigrants and those who would help them.
"All Americans wanted fairness and they got it this evening," said Mass. Senator Edward Kennedy. It's a weird moment in politics these days when Ted Kennedy can announce success, but it's even rarer when election year conditions produce legislation that isn't toothless, much less positive.
Due to rising minority populations in many states and the widespread popular outrage of the last few weeks over the immigration bill's other manifestations, however, Democrats were able to corral enough Republican support to actually amend the immigration bill for the better.
The good news is that the bill opens the door for millions of illegal immigrants to seek U.S. citizenship without first leaving the country. The bill reduces the penalties for illegal immigrants discovered in the U.S. and adds programs for temporary and agricultural workers. Perhaps least controversially - and according to some polls, most important to the U.S. population - the bill aims to double the Border Patrol over the next few years.
It also now includes an amendment from Illinois Democratic Senator Richard Durbin that protects charitable organizations providing non-emergency aid to illegal immigrants from being prosecuted. The House approved a measure in December that would make such offers of aid a felony.
The bad news, far more prevalent in Congress than its foil, is that the bill is not likely to pass on the Senate floor. In fact, immigration legislation of any sort is unlikely to get through Congress before the elections in November.
Congress' reluctance to take on this issue shouldn't surprise us. Immigration is an exceedingly complex issue, one which is becoming increasingly more politicized as we get closer to the midterm elections.
That's especially disquieting since immigration resides in a grey area where practical considerations and intuitive morals contradict. Even the New York Times' Paul Krugman, who describes himself as "instinctively, emotionally pro-immigration" - and rarely neglects an opportunity to opine - admits that "realistically, we'll need to reduce the inflow of low-skill immigrants" to improve inequality and unemployment.
The American people, the polls tell us, want their jobs and their borders protected first and foremost. But this does not mean that they want to punish those people who have already taken incredible risks for their piece of the American dream. Legislation like Durbin's amendment represents a small step in a moral direction. We owe all people, American or not, at least a basic level of decency.
In fact, according to a recent CNN poll, a whole 41 percent of Americans said the main focus of federal action on the issue of immigration should be "developing a plan that would allow illegal immigrants who have jobs to become legal U.S. residents."
That's no small chunk of the populace, and while they plan their strategies to defeat the immigration bill passed by the Judiciary Committee, Senate Republicans should take the opportunity to consider the opinions of this more hopeful segment of America.
The United States has long been a country of inclusion, and while inclusion doesn't mean that we have to let everyone be an American, the spirit of this land of opportunity should trump any xenophobic or isolationist tendencies.
If it weren't for the possibility of American citizenship, many of us (or at some level, all of us) wouldn't be here today. And while we shouldn't simply open our borders and jobs to all comers, we must at least realize this much about immigration: If it weren't for the opportunities America provides, there wouldn't be an American dream.
