Free Republic

Two leading conservatives are coming to Speaker John Boehner’s defense as he moves to put the Senate deal to open the government and hike the debt ceiling on the floor likely without the support of a majority of Republicans.

Carney announces that now the CR and Debt Ceiling have gone Obama's way, the president is putting "immigration reform" back on the front burner. "It's the right thing for America."

In a 2003 speech, then Speaker Denny Hastert (R-Ill.) discussed his House management guidelines that became known as “The Hastert Rule.” The rule calls for a leader not to send legislation to the House floor for a vote unless it has the support of the majority of the majority. On Wednesday, with just hours left to raise the debt ceiling or risk default, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio)–who has been holding fast to the Hastert Rule–has to decide whether to break it.

It’s been almost a year since Mitt Romney lost seven in ten Hispanic voters to President Obama, sparking Republicans to try and improve the party’s poor reputation with Hispanics. Yet, the GOP has little to show that its “re-brand” is working. On Monday, the Republican National Committee (RNC) announced that it hired “Hispanic engagement staff” in seven states; California, Texas, Florida, New Jersey, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Chairman Reince Priebus called the hires “unprecedented” moves that “will ensure our message of ‘opportunity for all’ reaches voters.” The moves are the latest in a string of listening sessions and candidate...

Immigration reform advocates plan an aggressive campaign to bring the issue back — and the White House has signaled it’s on board. Can Obama emerge from the fiscal crisis with enough momentum to win the immigration fight? As the fiscal fight roiling Washington nears its end, the White House is already signaling that it plans to use the political momentum it has gained during the shutdown fight to charge back into the immigration debate. And this time, Democratic pollsters and advocates say, they could actually win. The final chapter of the current crisis hasn’t been written yet, but Democrats in...

If Republicans don’t join together with Democrats to pass comprehensive immigration reform, “they will never win another national election,” according to Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.). -snip- Gutierrez is an outspoken progressive, but he has still made somewhat unlikely alliances with Republicans in order to push immigration reform. In 2012, the Illinois Democrat praised the immigration reform strategy presented by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), someone he had previously called an “extremist.” Gutierrez also partnered with Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) earlier this year, participating in a pair of immigration reform events in Chicago.

Over the past few years, immigration reform has been at the forefront of debates in Congress. In both the Senate and the House of Representatives, members from across the aisle have come together to develop bipartisan bills that would change the lives of over 11 million undocumented immigrants. Some in Congress have worked tirelessly to create a law that would provide a path to citizenship for millions, while others have focused the debate on border security. In an exclusive interview with Latinos Post, National Council of La Raza (NCLR)’s senior immigration legislation analyst Laura Vazquez discussed the future of immigration...

Once the fiscal crisis has been resolved, President Barack Obama is going to push for immigration reform, he told the Los Angeles affiliate of Spanish-language network Univision on Tuesday. Obama, who largely managed to hold on to office on the backs of Hispanic voters, has long looked to easing the plight of the country’s 11 million illegal immigrants, but other issues have kept coming in the way during his second term.

President Obama vowed Tuesday that he would pursue an immigration reform vote in the House the "day after" Congress reached an agreement to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling. "Once that’s done, you know, the day after -- I’m going to be pushing to say, call a vote on immigration reform," Obama told Univision's Los Angeles affiliate. "And if I have to join with other advocates and continue to speak out on that, and keep pushing, I’m going to do so because I think it’s really important for the country. And now is the time to do it."

Above: Maria Marroquin: Illegal alien...and ObamaCare "Navigator"- by John HillStand With ArizonaAmericans were outraged after the Obama Administration denied access to the WWII memorial for veterans  - but allowed illegal aliens to hold a rally for amnesty on the "closed" National Mall. Americans were also angered last week after the Healthcare.gov ObamaCare website, which cost $634 million to build (half a billion dollars over budget), utterly failed to work. Now it has emerged that an illegal alien in New York is serving as an Obamacare navigator, according to the Center for Immigration Studies. According to the CIS report, Maria Marroquin — identified as an illegal...

Byron York observed last week that Merck plans to lay off one-fifth of its workers. Yet its V.P of human resources sent a letter to House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi demanding Congress allow more foreign labor into the country.

Moscow (AFP) - Moscow police were on Monday holding almost 400 people under arrest after the Russian capital was rocked by some of its worst ethnically-fuelled rioting in years, sparked by the killing of an ethnic Russian allegedly by a Muslim migrant from the Caucasus. An initially peaceful protest in the Biryulyovo district of Moscow to protest the killing of Yegor Shcherbakov, 25, rapidly descended into bloody clashes with the police that left the glass doors of a shopping centre smashed and cars upturned. The crowd chanted "Russia for Russians!" and other nationalist slogans during a protest that swelled to...

The campaign to win amnesty for illegal immigrants is “a very substantial civil rights movement,” according to New York Times reporter Julia Preston, who, along with other progressive journalists, spoke about the issue on an immigration reform panel to a Washington, D.C. audience on Friday. Preston is the New York Times’ primary immigration reporter — and the paper is cheering on the push by progressives and employers to grant amnesty to 11 million illegal immigrants during an extended recession. The Gray Lady also backs the simultaneous campaign to double legal immigration, which would bring in 22 million additional immigrant workers...

In his weekly radio address on Saturday, President Barack Obama said the government shutdown needed to end so Congress could work on comprehensive immigration reform. Obama rejected a House Republican proposal that would have re-opened the government and raised the debt-ceiling for six-weeks in return for an agreement on a "framework" on negotiations on more long-term budgetary issues. He said "this Republican shutdown" had to end "because there is so much else we should be focusing our energies on right now" and cited immigration as one of the things the government had to "fix." "We’ve got to create more jobs,...

According to news reports, they expected 100,000, accommodated for 35,000 but less than half of that showed up. Another march without marchers, a.k.a. the story of the immigration movement these days. When is this movement going to realize that they need new leaders, or people who understand how to speak to a nation in the middle of a huge recession? You can't demand "legalization" for 10 milion people when there are millions of US citizens and legal residents who can't find work. Have any of these immigration leaders walked down the streets of Hispanic districts in the US? Are they...

Illegal immigrant advocates interrupted Sen. Ted Cruz’s speech to the Values Voters Summit on Friday more than a dozen times on, calling on the Texas Republican and potential presidential candidate to support a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants. But the Texas Republican repeatedly deflected the criticism, turning it into an attack against President Obama. “How scared is the president?” Mr. Cruz said. “Oh, they don’t want the truth to be heard. They definitely don’t want the truth to be heard.” The crowd also tried to drown out the protestors with chants of “USA! USA!” The protesters were dragged out...

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) will press conservatives at the Value Voters Summit to support a short-term hike to the debt ceiling — but not in person. Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman and 2012 GOP vice presidential candidate, will speak in a pre-recorded message to be aired at the conservative voters meeting.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi cheerfully led Spanish-language chants of “Si se puede” — or “Yes we can” — at a rally Tuesday for amnesty and immigration, but turnout for the event at the National Mall was far below the organizers’ predictions of 100,000 attendees. The barriers at the event were set to accommodate 35,000 people, but less than half the area was occupied. Loudspeakers and a large display screen at the rear of the area were almost devoid of listeners or viewers. The rally was held on public land during a widely hyped government shutdown that has seen the...

Dennis Michael Lynch weighs in on the immigration reform rally in D.C. Megyn Kelly interviewed filmmaker Dennis Michael Lynch who got Nancy Pelosi on tape at the National Mall at the immigration rally. He confronted her on the closure of the mall to veterans but open to illegals. This administration not only opened the National Mall for illegals but also they staff it with many park police officers. All the while citizens are still looking at military memorials from behind barriers. The most important thing he said however is that the perfect storm is brewing between amnesty/immigration and Obamacare. He...

Eight Democrat members of US Congress courted arrest in a show of civil disobedience at a rally here calling for comprehensive immigration reform to legalise America's 11 million undocumented workers, including 300,000 Indians. "I've been arrested a few times, and I don't mind getting arrested again for something that is right and fair and just," said House member John Lewis the civil rights icon known for his speech during the March on Washington a half-century ago.

Thousands of protestors gathered at the National Mall on Tuesday to demand Congress, currently mired in a shutdown and default crisis, finally get around to passing immigration reform. The rally, organized by a coalition of immigrant rights groups and labor unions, featured speeches from dozens of politicians. Among the speakers was Nancy Pelosi, who recently joined Democratic members in introducing a new comprehensive immigration bill modeled on the Senate’s already-passed proposal. Many attendees carried signs or chanted slogans encouraging the House to hold a vote on the bipartisan Senate bill, which would have provided an earned path to citizenship for...

U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison was arrested Tuesday by U.S. Capitol Police during an immigration rally on the National Mall. As protestors marched toward the U.S. Capitol, Ellison and several other House Democrats sat in the middle of Independence Avenue, blocking rush hour traffic. Police led Ellison away in cuffs shortly after 4 p.m. Ellison’s office said the move was an act of “civil disobedience” designed to urge Congress to pass legislation that would allow the nation’s undocumented immigrants to apply for U.S. citizenship. The march was held on the National Mall even though the open-area park is closed due to...

The Obama administration will allow a massive rally for comprehensive immigration reform on Tuesday in Washington, D.C. on the National Mall, even though it is supposed to be closed due to the federal government shutdown. Open-air spaces like the World War II Memorial have been barricaded since the federal government shut down last week, but an organizer for the rally told the Washington Examiner that the National Park Service will allow the rally and march. Lawmakers in Congress like House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) are expected to be at the event.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez, an Illinois Democrat, said there’s still hope for immigration reform—even in the “dark” times we’re in now. “There are 45-50 Republicans ready to vote for comprehensive immigration reform. That’s a sea change,” Gutierrez said on Morning Joe. “There are 180 out of the 200 Democrats, maybe more. Let’s have a vote. Let’s join with the senators, let’s get this issue behind us. As Paul Ryan said to me one time

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A planned immigration reform rally will take place on the National Mall on Tuesday even though the site is closed due to the government shutdown. ~~~SNIP~~~ Susana Flores, a spokesperson for the rally, confirmed for the Washington Examiner that the Park Service will allow the event to take place under the group's rights granted by the First Amendment. About 30 members of Congress are expected to attend the rally, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.

The National Park Service is allowing an Oct. 8 pro-immigration rally on the national mall, even as it posts pickets and barriers to bar Americans from visiting their open-air memorials. “They’re going to be allowed to go [ahead] because it is a First Amendment activity,” Shannon Maurer, a spokeswoman for the “March for Immigrant Dignity and Respect,” told The Daily Caller. “They allowed us to have it because it is part of the First Amendment of the constitution,” said Susana Flores, a spokeswoman for CASA in Action, which is organizing the rally. ”We’re going to have a stage and microphones,”...

A planned immigration reform rally will take place on the National Mall on Tuesday even though the site is closed due to the government shutdown. Organizers for the "Camino Americano: March for Immigration Reform" were spotted Monday setting up a stage and equipment on the National Mall for the rally which will take place on Tuesday. A few scattered barriers around the park have signs informing visitors that the area is closed as a result of the government shutdown. Susana Flores, a spokesperson for the rally, confirmed for the Washington Examiner that the Park Service will allow the event to

The U.S. Senate’s “Gang of Eight” immigration-reform plan, as well as a strikingly similar plan now being backed by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and a bi-partisan House “Gang,” both offer the “roadmap to citizenship” originally conceived and carefully developed by members of the Communist Party USA working within the Democratic Party and the radical left activist network for the purpose of using amnestied illegals to build a “permanent progressive majority.” That is the inescapable conclusion readers will draw after reading the forthcoming book by acclaimed researcher and blogger Trevor Loudon, titled “The Enemies Within: Communists, Socialists and Progressives in the...

In the midst of the government shutdown debate, House Republicans are "quietly" working to advance immigration reform "beneath the radar."  "Don't start an obituary for immigration reform just yet," Fox News Latino declared on Monday.  "Despite the appearance that would suggest everyone in Washington is focused on one thing, work is going on on other issues beneath the radar," said Tamar Jacoby, head of ImmigrationWorks USA, which is described as "a coalition of small businesses that supports comprehensive immigration legislation."According to Fox News Latino, "while the spotlight on Congress is on the partisan brawl over government spending and President Barack...

A top House Republican says in an upcoming interview that the chamber will take up immigration reform in 2013, insisting that “there’s still time” for a comprehensive rewrite despite the rapidly dwindling time left on this year’s calendar. Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, said during an interview with Univision’s “Al Punto” that top leaders are still discussing when to bring immigration bills to the House floor. Speaker John Boehner “over the last few weeks has continued to talk about the importance of the House moving forward on immigration reform,” McMorris Rodgers said, according...

The sun is rising in India for America’s outsourced jobs. But it’s a bad sign for New York’s dwindling middle-class workforce, say labor analysts. New York’s labor markets are in convulsions as American employers ship more well-paid jobs to lower-cost countries like Mexico, the Philippines, China and India — where IBM, culling 747 jobs from the Empire State, has achieved landmark status. It now employs more workers in India than in the US, according to a leaked IBM document reviewed by The Post. The average IBM pay in India is $17,000, compared with $100,000 for a senior IT specialist in...

Lest you mistakenly thought that Amnesty had faded away, no it hasn’t. Marxists and illegal aliens across the US are still pushing it — hard. With the help of Progressives on both sides of the Aisle, from Nancy Pelosi on the Left to Paul Ryan on the Right: Thousands of supporters of an immigration overhaul held rallies on Saturday at more than 150 sites in 40 states, trying to pressure Congress, despite the partisan turmoil in Washington, to focus on passing a pathway to citizenship for millions of immigrants here illegally. Hoping to display the wide reach of their movement,...

Over 2.6 million illegal immigrants reside in California and Gov. Jerry Brown is signing more illegal laws to give them the same rights as U.S. citizens. On Thursday, he signed a bill that will allow up to 1.3 million illegals up to obtain CA drivers licenses. Another bill signed by Brown prohibits employers to retaliate against workers because of their lack of citizenship. The CA Governor also signed the “Trust Act” which halts the deportation of illegals when arrested for minor crimes and prohibits law enforcement to contact I.C.E. agents. To add to the illegal bills signed by Gov. Brown,...

Sacramento -- Gov. Jerry Brown Saturday signed a measure barring state and local law enforcement agencies from detaining undocumented residents solely because of their immigration status. The bill mirrors a similar measure passed last month by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. The new bill, AB4 by San Francisco Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, was one of a handful of measures Brown signed Saturday that change the way the state deals with immigration issues. Earlier last week, he also approved a bill allowing undocumented residents to get a California drivers license. "While Washington waffles on immigration, California's forging ahead," Brown said in...

Congress is consumed with the troublesome government shutdown, but House Democrats are trying to kick-start the stalled debate over immigration reform. “The American people have spoken,” Democratic Rep. Joe Garcia of Florida said this week. “They want Congress to take on this issue.” Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., said he’s sure there are enough House votes to pass a bill that “fixes our broken immigration system, including provide a path to legal residency and ultimately to citizenship to millions of people who work hard everyday in this country.” …

The City of Irvine, which likes to boast about being a melting pot, is perhaps a fitting location for an immigration reform rally. First, members of SEIU-United Service Workers West activists will make signs and banners from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday as part of their national day of action for immigration reform. Then, they will meet with their fresh news signs at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at 71 Fortune Drive, Irvine, march to the office of Congressman John Campbell at 20 Pacifica and rally for reform. Organizing for Action (OFA-CA) has also been holding rallies throughout Orange County, particularly...

House Democratic leaders unveiled legislation Wednesday to overhaul the nation's broken immigration system and create a pathway to citizenship for millions of illegal residents. The sweeping proposal, which largely mirrors the bipartisan package approved by the Senate in June, is designed to keep the immigration issue in the headlines and intensify the pressure on GOP leaders to bring a reform bill to the floor. Excerpt.

There's no telling when an immigration bill will come to the House floor, what it will say, or who will support it. Only one thing's for sure: Steve King will vote no. And he's not alone. The Iowa Republican has organized a small but growing number of conservatives who are committed to voting against any House immigration bill – no matter what it says – because they fear that the Senate will inevitably find a way to add "amnesty" to the equation. King won't say how many members he's got on board, except that it reached "fairly deeply" into the...

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama have pulled out of a major Hispanic gala Wednesday night because of the government shutdown

Immigration overhaul legislation has been dormant in the House for months, but a few Republicans are working behind the scenes to advance it at a time the Capitol is immersed in a partisan brawl over government spending and President Barack Obama's health care law.

Immigration overhaul legislation has been dormant in the House for months, but a few Republicans are working behind the scenes to advance it at a time the Capitol is immersed in a partisan brawl over government spending and President Barack Obama's health care law. The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, has been discussing possible legal status for the estimated 11 million immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. He's also been working with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a fellow Virginia Republican, on a bill offering citizenship to immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. as children. Reps....

The man charged with shooting a 33-year-old in the head and neck on Roosevelt Avenue last week is a suspected gang member, the Queens district attorney said.Authorities believe 20-year-old Pedro Silva of Jackson Heights is part of the street gang M18, the DA’s office said. Silva was charged with murder, criminal possession of a weapon and tampering with evidence in the Sept. 20 shooting death of Corona resident Ivan Rodriguez, according to the borough’s top prosecutor. Silva, along with several other suspected gang members, chased Rodriguez on the Jackson Heights avenue and allegedly shot the 33-year-old in the head and...

The White House is getting ready to launch a major fall blitz for immigration reform... While Washington may be consumed in the latest continuing resolution crisis and debt ceiling drama, it’s also just days away from massive new push on an issue many had written off months ago. [snip] The political imperatives driving the latest immigration effort are clear: Obama can’t just abandon an issue that he promised to deliver on during his last campaign without suffering a major backlash from activists who helped elect him, and congressional Democrats are anxious to make sure Latino voters are motivated to punish...

-snip- All day Thursday, workers prepping for the State Fair of Texas couldn’t help but snap a few pictures of new-look Big Tex. It was a Texas-sized makeover; fitted with new boots, new clothes, and even a new face. -snip- Some people have written that he looks “darker” and even gone on to call the new Big Tex “Big Tex-Mex.” “He looks Hispanic, and I actually thought that’s a good thing,” said fair goer Barbara York. Activist Domingo Garcia doesn’t mind what a very small minority has labeled the Texas icon; he said it all depends on the intent. If...

Worst of Three Worlds! House Judiciary Rep. Bob Goodlatte has come out of the closet as an amnesty supporter. Of course, Goodlatte wants legalization, not citizenship–or rather, not a “special path” to citizenship. But he would apparently still legalize more or less the entire illegal immigrant population. Traditional amnesty advocates would clearly jump to accept the plan. … Goodlatte seems to be hoping he can bring along conservatives by claiming his proposal isn’t as bad as the Senate’s massive bill (and, implicitly, by suggesting it would be better for Republicans by delaying the day when all those newly legalized immigrants...

Federal Prison Industries (FPI), the government-owned corporation that operates factories in federal prisons, employed 37 inmates as of June 2012 who had been issued final deportation orders and were therefore ineligible for FPI employment. Although those 37 illegal alien inmates represented less than one percent of Federal Prison Industries’ total inmate employees, the audit shows a “weakness in FPI’s internal controls,” says a recent report from the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG). “We found that FPI’s internal controls did not ensure that aliens who were ordered deported were removed from FPI employment as required,” the report said. …

Members of the largest ethnic Somali community in the United States expressed frustration on Tuesday, fearing a backlash after the attack on a Kenya shopping mall by a Somalia-based Islamic group that has recruited fighters in Minnesota. It was unclear whether any of the attackers were connected to Minnesota's Somali community. But Somali-American leaders in Minneapolis were quick to condemn the assault after early unconfirmed reports identified one or more of the attacking al Shabaab rebels as recruits from the United States. At least 20 young ethnic Somali men have left Minnesota since 2007 to join al Shabaab in Somalia,...

Police in California would be prohibited from helping deport some illegal immigrants under a bill being considered by Gov. Jerry Brown, in a proposed change some say would violate federal law. The so-called Trust Act would bar police from cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on a variety of cases. Proponents say the bill is narrowly focused and only applies to those illegal immigrants arrested for minor crimes. Prosecutors and sheriffs disagree. "If you or I were victimized by someone stealing our identity, selling drugs in our community, burglarizing our home or embezzling our money, that's okay? That's a...

House Republicans intensified their outreach to Latino groups last week, offering renewed pledges that the House will deal with immigration reform this year. The effort has revived hope among advocates that a bipartisan deal can be reached to address the fate of the nation’s 11 million undocumented workers and students. The chances of a comprehensive deal passing Congress remain doubtful, advocates cautioned, and they worry that the legislative process will spill into 2014, presenting new complications in a year when lawmakers face reelection battles. But they were encouraged by signals from key GOP leaders that the House is willing to...