Less than 100 hours until Bush is gone

ILW.com, pro-migrant but otherwise non-partisan, judges Bush's record on immigration policy:

As far as the executive branch is concerned, there's a lot of well-deserved criticism to hand out. One thing stands out as particularly bad. Immigration enforcement towards the last few years of Mr. Bush's presidency was heavy-handed to the point of being inhumane. Especially inhumane was the treatment of families with young children where unweaned infants were separated from their mothers, and parents were often arrested without provision being made for young children in their care. Also especially inhumane was the treatment of detained women who were often chained to a hospital bed even when in labor. The general treatment of immigration detainees bordered on the abusive, at least insofar as the mentality of the custodians and their high level supervisors is concerned. Mr. Obama would do well to quickly and forcefully undo this deplorable chapter of our immigration history.

The record is quite the opposite when looking at Mr. Bush's prodigious efforts on the legislative front. In our opinion, no President in American history has worked quite as hard and at so high a cost as Mr. Bush, to secure immigration benefits legislation from Congress. Despite suffering vicious attacks from racists within the Republican party, Mr. Bush tried valiantly several times (including with McCain-Kennedy and with Kennedy-Kyl) to get Congress to move on immigration. Mr. Bush will deserve some share of the credit when Congress ultimately gets around to CIR, in the sense of being the pioneer who paved the way, and has the arrows in his back to show for it. On this issue, Mr. Obama would do well to follow in Mr. Bush's footsteps and urge Congress to delay CIR not a moment longer.

Too bad Bush opted out of making the DREAM part of his legacy, urging legislators to abandon immigration discussions if they were not part of an overhaul discussion, by sendind a letter to the US Senate in late 2007.