Free Republic

George P. Bush, nephew of George W. Bush and grandson of George H. W. Bush, said he has “reservations” and “concerns” about the Republican Party’s rhetoric on immigration. In a sit-down with CNN reporters and producers Tuesday, Bush said that he and other Republicans wish the party would “return to George W. Bush on this issue,” referring to the former president’s bipartisan push to reform the nation’s immigration policy. But with Election Day fast approaching, Bush said it’s probably too late for Republicans to pivot away from the party’s conservative base and seize the political high ground on the immigration...

Business-friendly GOP organizers who launched a new crop of super PACs to counter the tea party have failed to cash in, recent campaign disclosures show, leaving them badly outraised on both the right and the left. Close to a dozen super PACs backed by the GOP’s business wing, including those with ties to Republican leaders on Capitol Hill, pulled in just under $10 million in 2013. That’s less than half the $21 million collected by a handful of tea party and anti-tax groups, including the Senate Conservatives Fund and the Club for Growth. It’s also less than a third of...

An immigrant-rights group on Tuesday escalated pressure on President Barack Obama to use his executive power to halt deportations — just days after he seemed to crack the door open on that option. The National Day Laborer Organizing Network filed a 41-page petition on Tuesday arguing that the administration has “extremely broad and virtually unreviewable discretion” on how to proceed with deportations. It urges Obama to shield undocumented immigrants who would “likely benefit from near-term congressional action on immigration” from deportation and grant them the ability to work in the United States. “Suspending the deportation of these individuals promotes the...

New momentum in Congress for a broad overhaul of border-control laws has prompted White House allies to demand that President Obama halt deportations of millions of illegal immigrants, many of whom would be allowed to remain in the country under a legislative deal. The advocates, including the AFL-CIO and pro-immigration groups, argue that Obama should use his executive authority to expand a 2012 decision that halted deportations of young people brought to the United States illegally by their parents. The administration’s aggressive approach to enforcement — which has resulted in nearly 2 million deportations during Obama’s tenure — makes little...

Limit immigration or watch conservative efforts become irrelevant. People come to America because it is a remarkable oasis of freedom, prosperity, and opportunity. Conservatives recognize that the principal reason for our unique abundance is our constitutional restraint on the power of government. As Thomas Jefferson said, “In questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.” Maintaining this system requires the public to support limited government. In a new report, Eagle Forum details how immigration is fundamentally changing the electorate to one that is much...

House Speaker John Boehner’s ex-chief of staff Barry Jackson (pictured, right) is now working with the Chamber of Commerce to help its lobbying campaign for comprehensive immigration reform. “The former chief of staff to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is working as a consultant for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as the big business trade group pushes Congress to enact immigration reform,” Politico reported Monday afternoon. While his firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck publicly registered to lobby for the chamber on immigration reform in June, Jackson's involvement was not previously known because he is acting as a non-lobbying adviser. BHFS confirmed...

The release of House Republican principles on immigration reform this week will ignite a contentious debate within the GOP, forcing Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to make a series of crucial decisions in the coming months. Boehner and other senior members are planning to present the document at the House GOP’s annual retreat on Thursday in Cambridge, Md., and the reaction of the rank and file will likely determine how aggressively the leadership will press the issue during an election year. But if GOP leaders do move forward, they would do so with a series of discrete bills rather than the...

House Republicans are preparing to unveil their own broad template for overhauling the nation’s immigration system this week, potentially offering a small opening for President Obama and congressional Democrats to pass bipartisan legislation before the end of the year. Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio and other Republican leaders are expected to release a one-page statement of immigration principles this week at their annual retreat in Cambridge, Md., according to aides with knowledge of the plan. The document is expected to call for border security and enforcement measures, as well as providing a path to legal status — but not...

Giant corporations make common cause with leftist special interests to win government favors. he U.S. Chamber of Commerce is a politically entrenched synod of special interests. These fat cats do not represent the best interests of American entrepreneurs, American workers, American parents and students, or Americans of any race, class, or age who believe in low taxes and limited government. The chamber’s business is the big business of the Beltway, not the business of mainstream America. If you are a business owner who believes your country should strictly and consistently enforce its borders and deport illegal immigrants who violate the...

Former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg said Friday that a Republican Party that ignores the nation's Hispanics and balks at immigration overhaul does so at its political peril as Republicans pressured the House GOP to act this year. "If you are against the fastest-growing voting bloc in the country, you and your party don't have a future," Bloomberg said flatly at a forum on immigration with Michigan Republican Gov. Rick Snyder and former Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, who served in President George W. Bush's administration. National Republicans insist that the party must pass reforms and address the issue of the...

As the battle between the grassroots and the establishment sides of the Republican Party rages on, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is taking a very public stance on the side of the establishment. “I’m going to embrace being a Chamber of Commerce Republican,” Graham said in an interview with The Greenville News in Greenville, SC this week. The Chamber of Commerce represents the biggest group fighting on behalf of the GOP establishment in its ongoing battle with the Tea Party movement, becoming deeply involved in Republican primary elections and pushing comprehensive immigration reform on Capitol Hill. “There’s a fight in our...

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is a politically entrenched synod of special interests. These fat cats do not represent the best interests of American entrepreneurs, American workers, American parents and students, or Americans of any race, class or age who believe in low taxes and limited government. The chamber's business is the big business of the Beltway, not the business of mainstream America. If you are a business owner who believes your country should strictly and consistently enforce its borders and deport illegal immigrants who violate the terms of their visas, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce doesn't represent you. If...

HUNTSVILLE, TEXAS — A Mexican national was executed Wednesday night in Texas for killing a Houston police officer, despite pleas and diplomatic pressure from the Mexican government and the U.S. State Department to halt the punishment. Edgar Tamayo, 46, received a lethal injection for the January 1994 fatal shooting of Officer Guy Gaddis, 24. Asked by a warden if he had a final statement, he mumbled "no" and shook his head. As the lethal dose of pentobarbital began taking effect, he took a few breaths and then made one slightly audible snore before all movement stopped. He was pronounced dead...

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce spent more than $50 million on lobbying last year as it pushed for action on immigration reform. Typically the biggest K Street spender in Washington, the business group funneled about $52.7 million toward lobbying efforts in 2013, according to disclosure records. In the last quarter of the year, the group spent almost $16.5 million. Some of that money went toward lobbying on immigration reform, which is a top legislative priority for the business community. The Chamber played an instrumental role in getting a comprehensive immigration reform bill through the Senate last year by helping the...

Recently released tax forms shed light on the big salaries that an elite corps of political organizers earned during the 2012 elections — and those who made the most often boasted the fewest wins. The new disclosures reveal fresh specifics about the six- and seven-figure salaries reaped by the political consultants, lawyers, fundraisers and media buyers who ran the top super PACs and politically active nonprofits in 2012. -snip- Steven Law, the president of the American Crossroads super PAC and its tax-exempt affiliate, Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, made $1.1 million during the election cycle. That includes $602,935 from Crossroads GPS...

The GOP must steer clear of guest-worker programs and legalization without citizenship. Two of the basic rules of democratic politics are: Don’t hurt your allies, and don’t give your electoral opponents a weapon to use against you. As House Republican leaders prepare to announce their immigration principles near the end of this month, they should be aware of both rules. Two policies they are considering endorsing — legalization without citizenship and a massive increase in guest-worker visas — could sabotage the GOP’s standing with its base while also closing off future electoral roads. Legalization without citizenship would split the base...

Congressional Democrats and advocates for immigration reform will have to decide how much to bend as they await proposals from House Republicans that are likely to fall far short of what they have demanded. House GOP leaders plan to release as soon as next week their principles for rewriting the nation’s immigration laws, a document that could be followed by a series of legislative proposals. The principles are expected to be broad-brush in nature and emphasize border and interior security measures, but they are likely to include a first-ever official House GOP endorsement of legal status for many of the...

Rep. John A. Boehner and other House Republican leaders are huddling behind closed doors to draft a set of “principles” for immigration reform that they intend to unveil at their upcoming retreat on Jan. 29. Let me save them some time. There is one — and only one — principle for true immigration reform: Like any other public policy, it should serve the greatest interests of the greatest number of Americans. Clearly, very few if any public policies conform to that principle — hence, Congress‘ 8 percent job-approval rating — but few fail the test as thoroughly as our current...

They John Boehner turning LEFTreportedly did this in order to keep the focus on Obamacare, which many Republicans believe is the key to success in the 2014 mid-term elections. However, Speaker Boehner (R-Ohio) and other key members of the House leadership now appear to be getting ready to switch the focus from Obamacare to immigration reform. According to the Wall Street Journal, Republican leadership in the House is ready to embrace legal status for millions of illegal aliens. This would seem to indicate that Republican leaders are ready and willing to give millions of illegal aliens amnesty from multiple job-related...

In a striking about face, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce will no longer seek the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, working instead to correct what it sees as its flaws. It was three years ago this month, during his annual State of American Business address, that the Chamber’s president and CEO, Tom Donahue, labeled the ACA “unworkable” and called for its repeal. During last week’s address he softened his views, calling instead for business-friendly adjustments to the new law. “The administration is obviously committed to keeping the law in place, so the chamber has been working pragmatically to fix...