House Republicans crafting Dream Act-like immigration bill

The Hill ^ | 7/11/2013

[markomalley]

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) are drafting legislation to provide a path to citizenship for immigrant children who were brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents, their offices said Thursday.

The bill, which a Cantor spokeswoman said is in its “early stages,” would be the first House Republican proposal to address the status of illegal immigrants, but it would not go nearly as far as Democrats want. While the legislation resembles the Dream Act that is part of the Senate immigration bill, aides said it would not be as broad.

The Senate Dream Act provides an expedited path to citizenship for children and for young adults in college or who have served in the military. The House GOP proposal, by contrast, may be limited to younger people. “As part of the step-by-step approach the House is taking to address immigration reform, Leader Cantor and I are working on a bill to provide a legal status to those who were brought illegally to the U.S. as children by their parents,” Goodlatte said in a statement Thursday.

“These children came here through no fault of their own and many of them know no other home than the United States,” Goodlatte said. “This is one component of immigration reform — any successful reform plan must improve our legal immigration programs, strengthen border security and the interior enforcement of our immigration laws, and find a way to fairly deal with those who are currently in the country unlawfully.”

Aides said there is no timetable for when the proposal would get a committee hearing or vote.

The Judiciary Committee has already approved four immigration bills dealing with interior enforcement, an e-verify system for employers, high-skilled visas and an agricultural guest-worker program.

Democrats said the move was a welcome sign from Republicans who have been reluctant to provide any legal status to illegal immigrants. But they said it is not enough.

“You’ve got to deal with all aspects of the broken immigration system,” said Rep. Xavier Becerra (Calif.), the House Democratic caucus chairman who is working on a bipartisan, comprehensive bill. “You can help the kids, but if you leave the parents behind, you still have a very broken system.”

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has said the House would move immigration reform on a step-by-step basis rather than with a comprehensive bill. Becerra said the system could not be fixed with “band-aids” or “in pieces.”

“I’m not in the Republican conference. I’m not the Speaker,” Becerra said. “The Speaker has to determine how he can try to move things forward. I will simply say that we know what it takes to fix the broken immigration system. Pieces don’t fix the machine. You’ve got to fix the machine. You know, man up, do it right, get it done.”

Several lawmakers made compelling cases for approving some version of the Dream Act during Wednesday’s closed-door House GOP meeting on immigration reform.

“It seemed like a lot more people [thought] that if you were brought here as a child and you graduate valedictorian — how can we be against it?,” one veteran lawmaker told The Hill after the meeting. “A lot of people said that and I was surprised.”

An embrace of any form of the Dream Act would represent a shift by the GOP, especially since just last month the House voted to kill policies that give officials discretion to not deport illegal immigrants considered low-risk.

Only six Republicans opposed the amendment sponsored by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) and approved by the House in a 224-201 vote.

Republican leaders have consistently voted against the Democrats' Dream Act over the last several years.

According to one member of the Republican leadership team who spoke to The Hill on the condition of anonymity, it was apparent at Wednesday's lengthy meeting that "there was a growing recognition" the GOP needed to deal with the issue.

"I think there's growing support to deal with that in immigration — that immigration is changing before our eyes because our kids have grown up with these kids, they're in the families, they're in the neighborhoods, they are graduating with our kids and it's like, what the heck are you going to do with a 18-year-old valedictorian who was brought in when they were one or two?," the lawmaker said.

Cantor's effort on a Republican Dream Act is consistent with a post-election speech he delivered at the American Enterprise Institute in February. When it comes to immigration reform, Cantor said at the time, "a good place to start is with the kids."

He added, "One of the great founding principles of our country was that children would not be punished for the mistakes of their parents."

Last year, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) planned to offer the a Republican version of the Dream Act, but later opted not to.

[Wisconsinlady]

I hate the Republican leadership worse than the Dems. The Dems can’t help it-they are what they are. But the Republicans KNOW what We the People feel and think, and they are screwing us anyway.

[Wisconsinlady]

fox news is making me ill with their zimmermann coverage.

[onyx]

Excellent point.

[ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas]

Thanks. Maybe the article is wrong. It says that Cantor and Goodlatte are writing a bill with a path-to-citizenship for Dreamers, but every other source I have read about this says that Goodlatte is opposed to such a path-to-citizenship. Or maybe he changed his mind recently, who knows. The article later quotes Goodlatte as saying "legal status" instead of path-to-citizenship.

I have to say, that FR is posting way more than 100 times more on Zimmerman trial threads than on immigration threads is a bad sign. It's sad where we are putting our attention....

For what it's worth, I think FReepers will pay more attention when they have real bills written and start voting.

[Ray76]

Yeah - and he has the audacity to call it an Act, as if the Executive were the Legislature. And the complicit Congress allows it. And the Republicans are mum.

There a lot of trees on the Mall. Don’t make us decorate them.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Post-facto "anchor babies".

They will then petition to have their illegal parents, grandparents, uncles and nephews to stay (so as to "not break up the family") Just watch. Then they will also petition for more immigrants OUTSIDE the USA to come in, with no skills and just seeking to get on the dole. The WHOLE FIASCO WILL CASCADE INTO A BIG PILE OF CRAP. Guaranteed.

MAN do we ever have some traitors on our side of the aisle. Primary their hides!

"Pathway to US Destruction" is more like it.

[Lakeshark]

I hope you're right about the attention coming later, but later may be too late. At this point it's hard to not see why we lose so often......I think the Zimmerman trial is a travesty too, but this issue is waaaaay beyond one person getting screwed.

As to what's really happening with the leadership, until I see the actual evidence, until my congresscritter's aide tells me something different, I'm not biting on the MSM attempt to demoralize us. It's what they do and what they will keep doing, it's what they do for a living.

If and when the House leadership turns traitor like the RINO Senators have, I'll be as livid as anyone.

[Ray76]

“If and when the House leadership turns traitor like the RINO Senators have, I’ll be as livid as anyone.”

Are you kidding? Turn traitor? They ARE traitor.

[Lakeshark]

What you are reading is from “The Hill”, a democrat talking point rag. Here is what they actually said, kindly read and start thinking rather than emoting, the democrat/MSM complex loves when we get unhinged over unreal things: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3041685/posts

[boxlunch]

Glad you posted that, I was just getting ready to!

GOP immigration plan devised by Communist Party

[Ray76]

You jest!

The RINO leadership are planning on passing "something" "anything" so that they can go to conference. That is where the dirty dealing, the complete and utter sell out and betrayal of the United States will be done.

Today McCain met with Obama, Biden, and Schumer and afterwards said, “We can work with them on different pieces of legislation. We want legislation that we can go to conference on”.

Paul Ryan is working with the House Gang of Eight. Yesterday he had a closed strategy meeting with Boehner.

Boehner is spinning theater that he will not bring anything to the floor that does not have the support of the majority of House Republicans, he shouldn't be bring ANYTHING to the floor. He should be demanding existing law be enforced.

Majority Leader Eric Cantor is pushing for separate bills. Why are Republicans working for Obama's Amnesty Agenda?

The plan is to pass "something" "anything" so that they can go to conference.

The House Gang of Eight is tied to Jeb Bush and Karl Rove. Groups affiliated with Bush and Rove have been running ads. They developed the "undocumented immigrant" and "earned legal status" talking points.

The National Finance Committee co-chair of John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, Fred Malek, founded the American Action Network and the American Action Forum which in turn founded the Hispanic Leadership Network. These groups share office space with the Karl Rove affiliated Crossroads GPS/American Crossroads.

These groups have overlapping leadership and membership.

		American Action Network	American Action Forum	Hispanic Leadership Network
Former Senator Norm Coleman (MN)		Y	Y
	Chairman Of Counsel, Hogan Lovells US LLP	Chairman, American Action Network
Fred Malek		Y	Y
	Chairman, Thayer Lodging Group	Founder, American Action Network	Chairman, Forum Board
Former Governor Jeb Bush (R-FL)			Y	Y
	President, Jeb Bush &  Assoc.
Congressman Raúl Labrador (R-ID)				Y
	House Gang of Eight
Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL)				Y
	House Gang of Eight
Congressman Francisco Canseco (R-TX)				Y

 

American Action Forum President Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist, and American Conservative Union Chairman Al Cardenas are all pushing Boehner for "comprehensive immigration reform" (as if he needed pushing).

House Gang of Eight

John Carter (R-TX)
Diaz-Balart (R-FL)
Sam Johnson (R-TX)
Raul Labrador (R-ID)

Xavier Becerra (D-CA)
Luis Gutierrez (D-IL)
Zoe Lofgren (D-CA)
John Yarmuth (D-KY)

Texas Rep Francisco Canseco has a hidden relation to the House Gang of Eight, membership in the Hispanic Leadership Network.

The Hispanic Leadership Network developed the "Earned legal status", and "undocumented immigrant" talking points.

http://hispanicleadershipnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/HLN-Dos-and-Donts-of-Immigration-Reform-Mes-saging.pdf

http://hispanicleadershipnetwork.org/?page_id=15
http://americanactionnetwork.org/about
http://americanactionforum.org

Open your eyes.

[GraceG]

They do this and they are cutting the party’s own throat...

[Ray76]

From your link:

Today House Republicans affirmed that rather than take up the flawed legislation rushed through the Senate, House committees will continue their work on a step-by-step, common-sense approach to fixing what has long been a broken system.

This is a phony difference. They are still implementing "comprehensive immigration reform"

A broken system my eye - the only things broken are the law and their Oaths.

[Lakeshark]

Here, let me help you:

The American people want our border secured, our laws enforced, and the problems in our immigration system fixed to strengthen our economy. But they don’t trust a Democratic-controlled Washington, and they’re alarmed by the president’s ongoing insistence on enacting a single, massive, Obamacare-like bill rather than pursuing a step-by-step, common-sense approach to actually fix the problem. The president has also demonstrated he is willing to unilaterally delay or ignore significant portions of laws he himself has signed, raising concerns among Americans that this administration cannot be trusted to deliver on its promises to secure the border and enforce laws as part of a single, massive bill like the one passed by the Senate.”

Since you didn't read it and want to believe they actually said something else......

Now let me ask you an honest question. Did you make even one call, write one email or send a fax to your rep or to Cantor and Boehner?

Good night, I'll see if you answered in the morning. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Ray76]

Yes I did read it and yes I have contacted my Rep. Now let me help you, what you omit:

"Today House Republicans affirmed that rather than take up the flawed legislation rushed through the Senate, House committees will continue their work on a step-by-step, common-sense approach to fixing what has long been a broken system."

They are still implementing "comprehensive immigration reform"

And they state outright their intention to go to conference.

What part do you not understand? The Republicans have made very clear they have every intention of implementing "comprehensive immigration reform" when all that should be done is ENFORCE EXISTING LAW.

[Tzimisce]

Every two years we elect them.

And they spend their time in office screwing us. :(

[Ray76]

[ConorMacNessa]

Who are these cheese eating surrender monkeys and who are the hapless fools who keep returning them to office?

This kind of nonsense is one among many reasons I am no longer a Republican.



America demands Justice for the Fallen of Benghazi!

Genuflectimus non ad principem sed ad Principem Pacis!

Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. (Isaiah 49:1 KJV)

[Sarah Barracuda]

Please tell me this is a joke, that the GOP in the House is not selling us out..the Senate Republicans selling us not does not surprise me, but the House ones too..gotta be f’n kidding me

[Sarah Barracuda]

The GOP is stupid..no matter what they give Latinos the Dems will always call the GOP racist..Harry Reid already said today that the GOP “hates brown people” this is who the GOP is bending over backwards for, Dems like Dingy Harry Reid who will NEVER EVER say one kind word about the GOP, yet the GOP is stupid enough to coddle to illegals who will never vote for them anyway