By Tiara Etheridge

President George W. Bush’s efforts to court the GOP after the immigration reform bill collapsed two and half weeks ago have resuscitated the hotly-debated legislation.

The Senate revived the controversial bill Tuesday with a narrow vote margin of 64 to 35 (60 votes are required to pass the procedural vote.)

Although supporters contend the bill will address “the needs of a failed system,” opponents balk vehemently about the legalization plan within the reform as nothing short of amnesty.

For a bill that was designed with numerous bipartisan compromises and labeled the “grand compromise,” relatively few people seem to be completely satisfied with the bill in its entirety.

A June 26, 2007 Los Angeles Times article lists the most common complaints from religious groups, business owners and conservatives: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-ex-immig26jun27,0,2681594.story?coll=la-home-center.

Lawmakers hope the two dozen amendments Senators have scheduled for consideration address some of these complaints, but the truth of the matter is each amendment has the potential to assuage one group while offending another.

A bill that seeks to accommodate every agenda can, in essence, become its own death knell by creating so many measures it isolates everyone. The immigration reform bill seems to be taking such a form. I want to see a change to what I believe is a system riddled with failure, but I don’t think this bill has a chance of being passed unless some measures are relinquished in favor of what the general public wants.

So what does the general public want? Surveys seem to indicate that the majority is in favor of legalization for illegal immigrants currently residing in the United States. However, the Conservative voice is much louder, having exercised their political agendas through modern “grassroots” protest, such as blogs, online forums and other resources.

Americans, political and non-political, need to step up to the forefront and express their opinions through similar means. Start that blog, join the forum, email your Senators. Let your voice be heard, whatever that may be. Only through the expressed sentiments of the public can Capitol Hill see which direction to take in this split, polarized issue.