The fight for immigration reform has landed in the lap of House Republicans, which is a bad place for it to land. Though it's hard to see a way that Republicans can retake the White House as long as they remain intent on denying citizenship to Latinos and Asians who are in the country illegally, the House Republicans seem blissfully indifferent to political consequences. By controlling just one house of Congress, they have discovered, they can bring government either to a standstill or close to it, and increasingly, that seems to be their raison d'etre.
In September, 2009 Atlantic Monthly named 
