NO DAMN AMNESTY!
Free Republic is Your Voice and Your Forum!
We Really Need and Appreciate Your Loyal Support!
PLEASE Make Your Donation Today, Monthly, if You POSSIBLY can!
Posted on 01/30/2014 6:32:30 PM PST by Altura Ct.
The House Republican leadership is trying to sell their colleagues on a series of broad immigration principles, including a path to legal status for those here illegally.
Speaker John Boehner’s leadership team introduced the principles at their annual policy retreat here. Top Republicans circulated a tightly held one-page memo titled “standards for immigration reform” toward the tail-end of a day that include strategy conversations about Obamacare, the economy and the national debt.
n the private meeting where the language was introduced, Boehner (R-Ohio) told Republicans that the standards are “as far as we are willing to go.”
“Nancy Pelosi said yesterday that for her caucus, it is a special path to citizenship or nothing,” Boehner said, according to a source in the room. “If Democrats insist on that, then we are not going to get anywhere this year.”
Boehner said the standards represent “a fair, principled way for us to solve this issue.”
The strategy marks a shift for House Republicans. In 2013, Boehner’s chamber ignored the bipartisan immigration reform bill passed by the Senate. But toward the end of last year and early this year, Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) began hashing out this approach to rally Republicans toward reform.
“It’s important to act on immigration reform because we’re focused on jobs and economic growth, and this is about jobs and growth,” Boehner said in his pitch in the closed meeting. “Reform is also about our national security. The safety and security of our nation depends on our ability to secure our border, enforce our laws, improve channels for legal entry to the country, and identify who is here illegally.”
Embracing legalization is a modest change for Republican leaders — some of them signaled openness to the idea last year. For a Republican Party that advocated “self-deportation” as recently as 2012, it’s a massive shift.
Some Republicans fear of the political fallout from immigration reform, but the proposal suggests GOP leaders are taking the long view: Republicans need to woo the booming Hispanic population to stay relevant.
At the private meeting where the proposal was unveiled, lawmakers talked about their distrust that President Barack Obama will enforce the law, according to sources inside of the room. Ryan and Boehner spoke in favor of the effort, but high-profile conservatives like Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) and Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) were more suspect of the reform push.
“Nobody, even those who want to get this done, trusts the president,” Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) said in a phone interview Thursday evening. “And I understand it, because I don’t either.”
But legislation on some of the key components of the principles, most notably the legalization part, have not been released and it remains to be seen how the full set of principles are received by rank-and-file House Republicans — many who have been skeptical of acting on immigration reform this year.
The principles stress that undocumented immigrants will have to go through the current immigration system and complete several prerequisites. Criminals will not be eligible for legalization.
“These persons could live legally and without fear in the U.S., but only if they were willing to admit their culpability, pass rigorous background checks, pay significant fines and back taxes, develop proficiency in English and American civics, and be able to support themselves and their families (without access to public benefits),” according to a draft of the document.
A broad swath of pro-reform groups — from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to the liberal-leaning America’s Voice — welcomed the principles. But one concern already being raised by Democrats and immigration reform advocates off Capitol Hill is language in the principles that call for “specific enforcement triggers” to be in place before undocumented immigrants can get on the legalization track.
That section is meant to make sure that the Obama administration — and future presidents — enforce any immigration laws that Congress may pass. One of the most prominent immigration actions from Obama has been halting the deportations of young undocumented immigrants who qualify, known as Dreamers — a move that was done without the blessing of Congress.
But Democrats and advocates worry those “triggers” will be overly restrictive — preventing millions of undocumented immigrants from beginning the process to become legalized.
“It leaves them vulnerable to deportation for God knows how long,” Kevin Appleby, the director of migration policy for the pro-reform U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in an e-mail.
Ana Avendaño, the director of immigration and community action for the AFL-CIO, also called the trigger issue a “serious concern” for the labor group. In a statement, the AFL-CIO called the principles “flimsy.”
The leadership’s principles do treat young undocumented immigrants differently, however. House Republican leaders declared that lawmakers should give a pathway to legal residence and citizenship for young immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally as children.
“For those who meet certain eligiblity standards, and serve honorably in our military or attain a college degree, we will do just that,” the document says.
The blueprint is also silent on whether the broader undocumented population will ever be able to apply for permanent residency — and eventually, citizenship — by using pathways that currently exist for all immigrants. The principles rule out a so-called “special” pathway to citizenship — meaning a separate track for undocumented immigrants that isn’t available to other immigrants.
The document — drafted by leadership with input from key GOP lawmakers who have been working on immigration — also makes clear that the House will not negotiate with the Senate on its comprehensive bill. In fact, GOP leadership has already begun laying out the differences between the House’s approach and the Senate’s bill.
“The problems in our immigration system must be solved through a step-by-step, common-sense approach that starts with securing our country’s borders, enforcing our laws, and implementing robust enforcement measures,” the document’s preamble reads.
The pathway outlined in the principles does not open up until the nation’s borders are secure. Securing America’s borders has long been a major issue for House Republicans — but how that can actually be accomplished was a major issue in passing the Senate measure.
The document lays out policies beyond legalization. Republicans want to implement a biometric system to track those in the nation on a visa. The GOP wants to implement a “workable electronic employment verification system.” And the principles also call for an overhaul to the legal immigration system that’s focused on economic needs, rather than family ties.
The one-page list of principles has been one of the most hotly anticipated documents in recent memory. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), one of several key senators who led the immigration reform process in that chamber, said with the House GOP leadership’s overhaul blueprint, “the door is open.
“While these standards are certainly not everything we would agree with, they leave a real possibility that Democrats and Republicans, in both the House and Senate, can in some way come together and pass immigration reform that both sides can accept,” Schumer said.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), another member of the so-called Senate Gang of Eight, praised House Republicans on moving forward on immigration reform by releasing their principles.
“And if [Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio)] hadn’t gotten control of his conference, this wouldn’t have happened,” McCain said. “So maybe there is a silver lining in the shutdown … I’ve been digging for that pony for a long time.”
Well. with the direction the GOP is headed we can safely say there will be MANY a voter voting for Homer Simpson.
What is the purpose of making this a major GOP issue? It’s utterly stupid. They’re better off pushing all kinds of economic improvements that people want. Boehner should be on a major kick against crony-capitalism, work to reign in the IRS and government agencies in general, and beg Obama and the Democrats to work to end the mess that Obamacare is making. Those are winners.
You are absolutely wrong. Retention of any kind destroys American legal residents hopes dreams future. Traitors.
So beyond done with the lot of them. Let's face it, we have no voice in Washington. No one represents most of us anymore.
You see that letter “S” enclosed in brackets underneath my post? That’s called a sarcasm tag.
That is as far as Boehner’s talking points will go. Once they are legal eventually all of them will get citizenship from USCIS and the courts.
His post was sarcasm. Thus the sarcasm tag at the end.
Bieber was brought in by Usher. He has no other home. He deserves Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.
Deport illegal criminals. Post a bounty. These repubs are fools and traitors to their oaths to defend the country.
House leaders to sellout the people of the United States for some silver.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.