Are the Democrats Trying to Keep the Felony Provision in the Anti-Immigrant Bill?

They are being accused of just this by some of the most vile, reactionary Republicans. It's easy to doubt the honesty of these guys, but on the other hand I wouldn't be surprised if their claims turned out to be true. Notice that none of the Democrats in this CNN story outright deny the claims. Democrats don't really have much to say about this besides spout rhetoric about "national security" and "our best values and our humanity," as Edward Kennedy says. They stay out of the fray - make it a debate within the Republican party - and face none of the consequences from supporters - either moderate Hispanic groups like LULAC or racist labor union leaders.

Why aren't Democrats making the 700 mile fence a bigger issue? Well the Republicans all seem to like the fence idea so they can't muddy the waters there. Why aren't Democrats making a big deal out of the guest worker program that would basically be a modern day "bracero program"? Again, why stick their neck out on something that would just become a debate between Republicans and Democrats? And why oppose something that many of their big business/agriculture/industry donors like?

As always the debate in Washington remains on the right of the spectrum and the rest of America can either go with the default Democrats or demand something better.