This is an anxious time in the history of the land of the free home of the brave.
All too many of those who would find freedom in a new land are not only being denied that chance, but are being hounded and hunted not unlike the native tribes back in the 19th century.
In those times the U.S. government created reservations for people who were, for all intents and purposes, seen as being illegal aliens on non-reservation land - despite being native to it.
America exists because of immigration. It is important to remember that all Americans come in just four categories: Immigrants, the descendants of immigrants, the descendants of slaves, and Native Americans.
Restriction on immigration is nothing new; neither is hostility towards immigrants. Both are as American as, well, apple pie.
By contrast, America has also celebrated immigration and has rewarded and honored immigrants.
What transpires, and what stands as the dominant mood of the moment, seems to depend on the zeitgeist of the time and the political circumstances we find ourselves in.
Not all that many years ago, 2013 to be precise, it seemed that for a brief moment the country was in a giving mood with regard to immigration.
The United States Senate no less was moving towards the adoption of a bill that would attempt to bring some order to the immigration process, while addressing the presence of millions of illegal and undocumented individuals living in the fifty states.
The bill, born in April of that year, was in the hands of the Senate's so-called "Gang of Eight," a bipartisan group of eight senators. - four Democrats and four Republicans - who had crafted the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013.
The gang consisted of Senators Michael Bennet, D-CO; Dick Durbin, D-IL; Jeff Flake, R-AZ; Lindsey Graham, R-SC; John McCain, R-AZ; Bob Menendez, D-NJ; Marco Rubio, R-FL, and Chuck Schumer, D-NY.
The bill seemed to cover all necessary bases. In June of that year, what would be formally listed as S.744, would pass in the Senate with a strong majority of 68–32 with 14 Republicans joining all Democrats.
Reform backers fell two votes short of the "Magnificent 70," but the margin of victory was nevertheless impressive.
President Obama, at this point, was likely sharpening the nib of a non-auto pen.
The Senate bill offered a path, albeit a long and tortuous one, to millions of undocumented and illegal immigrants.
By some estimates at the time there were 50,000 Irish nationals in this total, most of them living in the shadows for many years.
However, the United States House of Representatives under Speaker John Boehner did not act on the bill, and it expired at the end of the 113th Congress.
This happened despite the fact that House members were actually working on their version of a reform bill.
Go figure then! Go figure now!
During the 2016 Republican Party presidential primaries, Marco Rubio, who was running for president, faced attacks from opponents such as Ted Cruz and Donald Trump for his role in the Gang of Eight.
By way of illustrating that there is always a possible second act in political life, Rubio is now President Trump's Secretary of State.
So, yes, just about anything is possible.
And that would include a second act for S.744, or something along its lines.
Crafting a comprehensive immigration reform bill in the face of a literal ICE storm would seem, at first glance, to be an act of political folly, indeed absurdity.
But it would also be an action formed by bold imagination.
Why not a little constructive news from a Congress that seems to be lately sidelined with regard to a whole range of issues?
The fact that this a midterm election year would offer many Congress members running for re-election an albeit political hot potato that they could take to their constituents who would react in multiple ways: for reform, against reform and maybe. Regardless, voters would be certain to react.
It's pretty well certain that all Democrats on Capitol Hill would be supportive of a new reform effort.
It is by no means certain that all Republicans would oppose a resumed reform effort.
A bipartisan push to steer us away from the current grim state of affairs on our streets and across so many communities would be a positive.
Sure, it would be a steep uphill climb and ultimate failure would be looming at every turn.
But once upon a time politics was the art of the possible.
It can be so again.
