Braley: Immigration reform unlikely to come soon

On May 12, immigration reform advocates will once again gather in Postville to remember the massive enforcement action there one year ago and to plead for comprehensive immigration reform, but U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley doesn’t see that issue as a part of the national debate anytime soon, despite his wishes to the contrary.

U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley

Braley, a Democrat who represents Iowa’s 1st District, has by far been the most publicly vocal of the Iowa delegation in calling for investigation and oversight of the actual immigration enforcement action at Agriprocessors and its aftermath. He provided testimony last summer when U.S. House committees on immigration and the judiciary launched a probe, and requested information from agencies who were both directly involved with the raid and who had previously launched investigations effected.

The core reasons that comprehensive immigration reform hasn’t been taken up by the Congress, according to Braley, are time and desire.

“Like everything we do, it’s all a matter of doing legislative triage and deciding what’s the best time to focus on a particular topic,” Braley said during a media conference call today.

“You could argue that the two issues we are considering right now — a revolutionary energy and climate change bill and a massive undertaking on health care reform — are the types of heavy lifting that could occupy a congress for an entire year. So, part of the problem is getting floor time. Part of the problem is deciding when the appropriate time is to move. And, quite frankly, part of the problem is that there hasn’t been much indication of bi-partisan support to move on this issue since Pres. [George W.] Bush spoke about it after the election in 2006, and then did very little in a substantive way to engage his party in a meaningful, bi-partisan discussion of immigration reform.”

Despite his intention to remain “engaged in trying to move forward on that front,” Braley said he has not seen any indication that discussions of comprehensive immigration reform will be held any time soon.

Braley admitted that due to his work on renewable energy and health care that he has not yet had time to read and fully digest new policy guidelines designed to govern worksite immigration raids released by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. But, he also pledged that he will continue to share the experiences of Postville with key Obama administration officials as they are confirmed.

“A lot of these people at an agency level are still learning some of the responsibilities of their jobs and trying to get a grasp as quickly as possible on some of these very meaningful and deeply divisive issues,” he said. “I am committed to making sure the administration has an appreciation for what happened in Postville and how that should shape their policies moving forward”

Although Braley stopped short of providing his unqualified support of Stephanie Rose, the career federal prosecutor that U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin has recommended to become the next U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa, he did express his belief that Harkin’s office did a thorough investigation before making its recommendation.

“I had conversations with Senator Harkin during the nomination process as he was considering a number of candidates for that position,” Braley said and added that the interviews done with Stephanie Rose were made available for his review. “I had no personal dealings with her, even though I had dealings with the U.S. Attorney’s Office. I’m relying on Senator Harkin and his strong interest in what’s going on in Postville to have taken into account those concerns.”

When asked if it was reasonable to believe a deputy prosecutor would have or could have acted autonomously during the criminal proceedings that followed the Postville raid, Braley drew from his own experiences as an attorney in Waterloo.

“Sometimes [practicing attorneys] are indentified as having a specific bent or personality trait simply because of the people you work with, whether that is justified or not,” he said. “My former partner, Dave Dutton, was a Black Hawk County Attorney. Sometimes people made judgements about me based on the fact that Dave was a partner and mentor of mine.

“So, I wouldn’t attempt to label Stephanie Rose as being of a particular mindset just because she had a responsibility to carry out certain duties while she was a deputy U.S. attorney.”