The Fence: National Security, Public Safety, and Illegal Immigration along the U.S.–Mexico Border

Chapter 6. Dubuque

Chapter 6 Dubuque C ongressman Frank James “Jim” Sensenbrenner , Jr., chair of the House Committee on the Judiciary, comfortably readjusts his large, tailored frame, then reaches for another piece of candy from the special stash by his right elbow. Exactly one day before President George W. Bush is to make his last defense of his immigration legislation before a crowd of supporters at Anzalduas County Park, Jim Sensenbrenner peels off the candy wrapper, casts it aside, then pops the sugar globe into his mouth. From behind a table less than three feet from the stage upon which the congressman and his committee are ensconced, I hear him sigh. As the sluggish Mississippi River rolls by the Grand River Center in Dubuque, Iowa, Congressman Sensenbrenner is poised to chair the twenty- first, and last, chance for the public to voice its concern about immigration to its elected House representatives. The first of these field hearings was held in San Diego in June 2006, and this final one is three months later on September 1. A Virtual American Dream 112 In accordance with the wishes of the conservative branch of the Republican leadership in the House, personified by Chairman Sensenbrenner, all across the nation, in cities and small towns in thirteen different states, immigration information, data, and perspectives have been presented before the committee members, each of whom professes a keen interest in public input on this wedge issue.1 Dissatisfied with the core of President Bush’s own immigration bill, only after the field hearings are completed will congressional Republicans, bolstered by conservative Democrats, offer their own legislation. Or at least that is what many in this Dubuque audience believe based upon the press releases from Sensenbrenner’s Washington office. At each stop on the tour the liberal Democrats on Sensenbrenner’s committee also have been trying to get their message heard and documented for the public record. The minority party in Congress has been pushing compromise to their own party, President Bush, and those Republicans, like Sensenbrenner , to the right of the president on immigration issues. All this is happening just as incumbent congressional candidates and their colleagues prepare for the final stages of campaigning and the elections in November. A career politician with eight terms as a representative from Wisconsin, Sensenbrenner has spent much of his adult life before audiences like the one now literally at his feet. While latecomers find their seats, the crowd of two hundred buzzes with excitement. No one in the audience can remember how long it has been since a Washington hearing was held in Dubuque. At the back of the auditorium the national media scurry around the room adjusting their cameras and sound equipment and, once finally settled, assume an attitude of perpetual boredom.2 Next to Sensenbrenner’s outsized wooden gavel lies a pile of candy wrappers. Only a few candies remain. In a deep public voice, Congressman Sensenbrenner calls the House Committee on the Judiciary to order. All the members of the audience, not including the four undercover officers in jeans and running shoes, their handguns bulging from beneath Hawaiian T-shirts, fall silent. Gazing down over the audience from atop his perch on the raised platform, Sensenbrenner soaks in the warmth of the artificial silence he himself has manufactured. The congressman appears genuinely to enjoy both the place and the moment . Carelessly, as if swatting a fly at a Fourth of July picnic at his home in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin—one of his three residences—he tests the microphone before he speaks. Next to his microphone and candy wrappers, as much symbol of the chair’s authority as the gavel, sits a black cube housing a digital clock. The clock, closely watched and controlled by a technician at the back of the auditorium , counts down by seconds from five minutes in dull red calligraphy. When sixty seconds remain, the clock’s digits flash rigorously. At thirty sec- Dubuque 113 onds, the red digits became even more frantic. Only Rep. Sensenbrenner, as chairman, possesses the power to override the clock and speak, or let others speak, for as long as he permits. Sensenbrenner first lays out the ground rules of his hearing. In a manner of his choosing, experts at the foot of the stage will give their invited testimony. His committee members will listen to this testimony and, when permitted by Sensenbrenner, will...