Finally, House GOP Gets a Spine

The House GOP Confernce has introduced an immigration reform bill which appears to be based on the principles that most Americans and certainly most Republicans believe in.

The measure's core principles include gaining control of the border and enforcing existing immigration laws. It does not provide a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, as the Bush plan does.

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The authors of the House bill also are pushing for a congressional resolution detailing ways in which they think the federal government has failed to enforce immigration law and has made it easier for illegal immigrants to stay in the U.S.

"The current illegal immigration crisis is a direct result of this and previous administrations failing to enforce or adequately enforce at least eight immigration laws," the resolution said.

The bill's authors, Reps. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) and Peter T. King (R-N.Y.), said it was meant to challenge the immigration bill the Senate planned to return to this week.

That measure, King said, goes "against the wishes of the American people."

It is about time.

While the House GOP bill has zero chance of even making it out of committee, let alone being passed, I take the move as a hopeful sign that at least some GOP leaders are listening to their constituents and the base. At least the GOP is not totally vacuous.