Rational Ground on the Rio Grande: George W. Bush and Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Abstract

During his second term, George W. Bush pushed comprehensive immigration reform (CIR), a policy that addressed illegal immigration through several provisions at once. Some of those provisions were favored by conservative border security hawks, including augmenting Border Patrol efforts with technology and increased manpower, while others were favored by pro-immigration liberals, including a temporary worker program and a clear path to citizenship. To pass both at the same time was clearly a challenge, but President Bush was the perfect man for the job, due to his security credentials and his left-leaning immigration stance. Bush seized what he thought was the perfect moment to capitalize on broad public support for the general outline of CIR. For nearly two years, his push for CIR ran into problems, including two counter-movements, a sweeping change of the makeup of Congress, and xenophobic hysteria stirred up by the right wing. Bush’s prolonged failure to garner public support for CIR became the defining domestic failure of his second term. To date, no explanation of his failure on CIR accounts for his rhetoric, an oversight that deprives the historical record of understanding presidential leadership. This dissertation combines social movement theory and a generally inductive method based in the rhetorical situation to explain how Bush failed to pass CIR.