Free Republic

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.

The White House and the Senate are working to squeeze House Republicans into accepting a bipartisan compromise from the upper chamber to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling. Any emerging deal, however, will leave ObamaCare largely intact, angering conservatives who have demanded defunding or delaying President Obama’s signature achievement. House Republicans are fuming over the prospect that Senate Democrats and Republicans are working on a plan to jam them with a last-minute deal they would have to accept or risk triggering a federal default. “They are trying to jam us with the Senate and we are not going...

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.

Paul Ryan is a leader, and hats off to him for stepping up and trying to bring coherence to the House GOP strategy and messaging. As one of the commentariat very uneasy with the Speaker's decision to open with a bid of a six week extension of the debt ceiling without any attached demands, I and my colleagues still have to recognize that someone needed to step up and pull the factions together, and that Ryan has agreed to grapple with the beast that is the House GOP Conference that is representative of its very varied party. Whatever the result...

Washington (CNN) - Republican Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin broke his relative silence on the ongoing government shutdown in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece . . chairman of the House Budget Committee - argues in the editorial that in order to "end this stalemate," Democrats and Republicans should focus on "modest reforms to entitlement programs and the tax code." "Right now, we need to find common ground," Ryan wrote. "We need to open the federal government. We need to pay our bills today – and make sure we can pay our bills tomorrow. So let's negotiate an agreement to...

Updated 12:28 p.m. | House Budget Chairman Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., told reporters Thursday morning that he intends to go to conference on the budget, signaling the end to one of the year’s greatest impasses between the two parties and chambers. “We’re gonna start negotiations,” Ryan said. “I intend to go to conference. “I think when Leader Pelosi said that they would remove all the motions to instruct, that was a good-faith effort to get serious negotiations going,” he continued. “We intend to go to conference on that. As you know, a budget resolution is not sufficient to do all...

House conservatives are discussing a two-step plan outlined by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to lift the debt ceiling and reopen the government long enough for Congress to pass long-term entitlement reforms. Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman, presented the idea on Wednesday afternoon at a meeting of the conservative Republican Study Committee. Lawmakers leaving the confab said the influential group had not reached a consensus position on the debt ceiling, or an end to the government shutdown. The plan appeared to be a more detailed version of a proposal that Ryan made Wednesday in an op/ed he penned in The...

I just heard my Conservative radio hosts discussing what is being put on the table by the Republicans in the House. They said Ryan is pushing means testing for SS benefits.

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

The first eight-plus months of 2013 have convinced us of one thing: Rand Paul acts and the rest of the potential 2016 Republican presidential field reacts. On drones, Paul led a 13-hour-long filibuster that drew Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (among others) to the floor in support. On Syria, Paul was out front in his opposition to a military strike — a position that 30 of his Senate Republican colleagues shared as of this writing. Those 30 include both Rubio,who voted against the use-of-force resolution in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. ... Below are our rankings...

Republican Congressman Bob Goodlatte, chair of the House Judiciary Committee overseeing immigration, said he expected Congress to pursue reform legislation despite a tight schedule featuring debates over Syria, health care, and the debt limit. Those and other issues “should not deter us from getting to [immigration] as soon as possible,” Goodlatte said in an appearance on WAMU’s Kojo Nnamdi Show on Tuesday. Goodlatte said he expected votes soon, perhaps in October, on a series of smaller House bills on border security, internal enforcement, guest workers, and high-tech visas. “Those bills are ready to go to the floor of the House...

Marco Rubio Sinking in New Hampshire 2016 Poll BY: KEVIN DERBY | Posted: August 7, 2013 8:59 AM The latest Granite State poll by WMUR and the University of New Hampshire was released late on Tuesday and it shows U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., sinking in New Hampshire, home of the first presidential primary. Rubio is expected to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. In recent months. Rubio has drawn fire from conservatives for his prominent role in supporting immigration reform. The poll finds New Hampshire Republicans divided on who they want to see as their party’s nominee...

RACINE — On Thursday it was a panel discussion and before that it was a post-town hall rally. There were press conferences, forums in English and Spanish and demonstrations. On Saturday, the push for immigration reform manifested in a hot parking lot behind Lopez Bakery, 1667 Douglas Ave., where a handful of young activists gathered to spray-paint a poster. “Rep. Paul Ryan,” they wrote, “we want a vote on comprehensive immigration reform.” The city has become a hot spot for pro-immigration reform demonstrations, panels and more because Racine County is represented by Ryan, R-Wis., one of few congressional Republicans to...

In the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, the Republican Party will explode. When the smoke clears, there’ll be four (4!) new parties. First, there will still be the Republican Party, sort of, but it will change its name to the GOPPPP (Grand Old Party of Perennial Pathetic Putzes). The new name, though, won’t change the fact that the party has failed to win a majority of America’s voters in five of the past six elections or that it keep running candidates even its own members don’t like! It’s top contenders? Sen. Marco Rubio; Rep. Paul Ryan; Gov. Rick Perry;...

He’s angry that his generation (Generation X) hasn’t had an elevating cause to rally around: "The effects on our politics has been profound. Without any concept of actual combat or crisis, a new crop of leaders — Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Paul Ryan, Sarah Palin — treats governing as a fight to the death, with no possibility of a negotiated peace. Without a transcendent social struggle calling us to seek justice as Americans, they substitute factional causes — Repeal Obamacare! Taxed Enough Already! — or manufactured crises over debt limits and government shutdowns. Though the problem is more pronounced on...

It was bad enough in the first place, having to watch the Gee-Oh-Pee establishment get in bed with Obama on immigration 'reform', completely ignoring the Tea Party base that handed them their majority on the Hill... Then we had to endure being called kooks and worse while protesting suicidal collusion with the (drooling-in-anticipation of 10M+ new voters) Democrats... all while these RINOs pretend they're actually standing up for something we might care about. Now we have the hyper-partisan Obama regime's sign-carrying-and-yelling arm -Organizing for Action, an offshoot of Organizing for America- openly supporting amnesty-pumping RINOs like Paul Ryan via...

The mainstream media refuses to give it up. ABC News is trying to fool people into believing that Sarah Palin will be a presidential candidate. Check out this graphic and see it for yourself. Before RNC Chairman Reince Priebus was interviewed on This Week, ABC aired a pre-recorded video package with the announcer saying at the end, “There’s no shortage of prospective Republican candidates, and that makes it even more challenging for the party to resolve its ideological divide.” So let’s take a look at who ABC News thinks is a potential Republican presidential candidate: Ted Cruz? Check. Donald Trump?...

Our most recent rating of Republican presidential contenders features a top tier of three notably different candidates: A Midwestern governor (Scott Walker) who is known best by the activists who will help decide the nomination; a leading national figure (Chris Christie) who has irked conservatives; and a firebrand senator (Rand Paul) with devoted supporters who would shake up the party’s platform and, perhaps, identity.Chart 1: Updated Crystal Ball Republican presidential rankings First Tier Candidate Key Advantages Key Disadvantages Since Last Update Scott WalkerGovernor, WI •Midwest GOP gov. in Obama state •Heroic conservative credentials •Shown political durability •Too bland? Next Pawlenty?...

Republicans are virtually unanimous about one thing: They want to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare). But what would they replace it with? Actually, there is a serious GOP proposal. It's called the Patients' Choice Act, sponsored by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.). This is essentially the health reform plan that John McCain proposed when he ran for president in 2008. The GOP proposal is actually more "progressive" than ObamaCare. And, unlike the Democratic approach, it solves problems rather than creating new ones. Yet Republican politicians almost never mention it. How does it work?...

Can anybody unite a party that’s at war with itself? That’s the question Republicans are asking, and the answer might be former vice-presidential contender Paul Ryan, whose low profile amidst the intra-party squabbling suggests he is deftly positioning himself as Speaker in waiting or the GOP’s last best hope for 2016—either way a Hobson’s choice given the demoralized state of the party. Ryan wrote the budget that balances in 10 years, and that helped bring Congress to its knees, unable to find the votes to pass any of its traditional priorities, a farm bill or a transportation bill, much less...

It seems some liberals are having a collective meltdown over an online conservative protest called "Facebook Blackout." Facebook has established a pattern of silencing Conservative posters and pages so, on August 24 and 25th, we are going to grant them their wish. Silence from out side. Any advertising dollars that they lose will be their lesson.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on Friday that if House Republicans end up sending their collection of immigration bills to a conference with the Senate, Democrats would win. “If we go to conference, we would win,” Reid told a Nevada radio station.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s lobbying outfit has launched a $350,000 ad buy to defend House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) amid his push for comprehensive immigration reform. Politico reports that Zuckerberg’s FWD.us-run group, Americans for a Conservative Direction, has bought up $350,000 worth of television ad airtime targeted at Ryan’s district. "The spot from the FWD.us affiliate begins with a picture of Ryan and says, ‘Amnesty? Not a chance,’ and goes on to say the House budget chairman is looking at a ‘conservative solution’ to the issue of immigration,” Politico wrote on Thursday. “It then focuses on more...

The chairman of the House Budget Committee says there's a better way of repealing President Barack Obama's health care law than shutting down the government this fall — a path some Republican conservatives are backing. “We, all Republicans, want to repeal and replace Obamacare. … We’re having a debate about the best way of achieving that goal, the best strategy,” Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Sunday on CBS News’s “Face the Nation.” Ryan, who was the GOP vice presidential nominee in 2012, pointed out that a government shutdown wouldn't impact entitlements, including Obamacare. “Rather than sort of-swinging for the fences...

Rep. Paul Ryan (R) of Wisconsin inserted himself Sunday into what could be possibly one of the the more remarkable debates ever to hit Capitol Hill. Speaking on CBS's "Face the Nation," Representative Ryan said he was not in favor of shutting down the government as a way of forcing Democrats to repeal President Obama's health-care law – a political tactic some Republicans, such as Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, have advocated. Instead, he said "there are more effective ways of achieving that goal" – though he was not asked to name any. What is remarkable about the debate is...

The Talk Shows August 4th, 2013 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Reps. Eric Cantor, R-Va., and Justin Amash, R-Mich.; Michael Hayden, a former head of the CIA and the National Security Agency.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.; former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Reps. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Michael McCaul, R-Texas; and Sen. Chuck U. Schumer, D-N.Y.THIS WEEK (ABC): Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Reps. Peter King, R-N.Y., and C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md.STATE OF THE UNION...

In a recent poll of Alaska voters, George Zimmerman -- who was recently acquitted in the shooting death of Florida teen Trayvon Martin -- got a surprising 2 percent support as a hypothetical Republican presidential candidate. The newest Alaska survey from Public Policy Polling shows Hillary Clinton's only chance of winning the state in 2016 would be in a matchup against Republican Sarah Palin, where Clinton would lead 49/40 percent. Clinton trails all other Republican candidates in the survey. Out in front, Chris Christie leads her by 8 points at 46/38, Jeb Bush leads at 49/42, Rand Paul is up...

Via Mediaite, he’s making a point about inexperience. I’m … just not sure which point. It’s true, Obama had little experience as a federal legislator (and zippo as an executive) before running for president, and look how little he’s accomplished. But is that a function of “inexperience� or a function of other variables, like greater partisan polarization and Obama’s disdain for doing the sort of congressional outreach needed to pass bills? Rubio and Paul will each have served a few years more than Obama did in the Senate by election day 2016. They each also have some cred in working...

A union representing 12,000 federal immigration workers is warning top House Republicans against legalizing young undocumented immigrants. The union is made up of employees of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which handles immigration paperwork. In a letter sent on Tuesday to four Republicans, including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (Virginia) and Rep. Paul Ryan (Wisconsin), the union expressed worries about a Republican bill that would legalize DREAMers. Since President Obama has already given deportation relief to young undocumented immigrants -- and bypassed Congress to do it -- the union worries he might similarly use his executive power to rework...

If the Senate immigration bill came up for a vote in the House, it would probably pass — some of the Republicans and almost all of the Democrats would combine for 218 votes. But conservatives have extracted promises from John Boehner not to let that happen, and the Speaker has dutifully pledged to keep the House from voting on any bill that lacks the support of most Republicans. That would seem to make comprehensive reform pretty dead, right? Except Paul Ryan, who clearly wants to pass a bill, floated a way around this promise: -snip- So the plan he's discussing...

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) said Wednesday that comprehensive immigration reform has the support of dozens of members of the Republican majority in the House of Representatives. Among GOP backers of comprehensive reform he cited Wisconsin’s Paul Ryan, the 2012 Republican candidate for vice president. Gutierrez said 195 of the 201 Democrats in the House would vote for a reform bill similar to the one passed last month by the Senate, meaning that fewer than two dozen Republican votes would be needed to reach the magic number of 218 required to pass it.

A look at the 2016 Republican field By Ramesh Ponnuru The next Republican presidential nominee is already planning his campaign. If it is not too early for him to think about 2016, why should it be for the rest of us? We don’t know, of course, what issues will be uppermost in the public mind that year, or what the economy will be like. Republicans can take comfort, though, in the fact that only twice in the last century has a two-term president been succeeded by someone else from the same party. They should also be encouraged that the leading...

If yesterday's actions by House Republicans are any indication, it would appear that there aren't enough Republicans in the House to approve the deep cuts necessary to reach a balanced budget in 10 years as the Ryan plan requires. When House Republicans approved the Ryan budget a few months ago, there were many Republicans who warned that the deep cuts being called for (along with entitlement reform) would not be passed. Too many cuts for goodies like roads and bridges not to mention deep cuts in social programs would make too many in the GOP caucus skittish. Yesterday, those warnings...

Video posted first by left-wing site ThinkProgress shows House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) during a recent town hall meeting in Racine, Wisconsin discussing trying to find a way around the Hastert Rule in bringing immigration reform bills to the floor of the House. A transcript of the exchange is below: QUESTIONER: One of the biggest frustrations we’re seeing right now is hearing Speaker Boehner, that he’s going to follow the Hastert Rule. That he’s not going to bring any of these bills forward unless they have a majority support of the majority party. What’s your position, should...

I think he’s going to end up not running, but if his favorables stay this high, maybe he has no choice. He’s technically “next in line� and he’d make a decent compromise candidate (as would fellow Wisconsinite Scott Walker) for righties who are leery of Christie, Paul, and Rubio for various reasons. Second look at Paul Ryan?Are Ryan’s numbers really that surprising? He’s been overlooked on blogs lately because we’ve all been busy shaking our fists at Rubio over immigration and gawking at the Rand Paul/Chris Christie brawl, but thanks to 2012, Ryan’s name recognition is sky high. He’s a...

Keeping immigration on the back-burner helps avoid a recess filled with angry town-hall meetings reminiscent of the heated August 2009 protests where the backlash against health care reform coalesced. Doing nothing also starves Democrats of a target, Republicans argue. But for Boehner, who by all accounts wants to see some kind of immigration reform pass, that raised serious strategic problems. First, passing tougher enforcement measures before August would take all the momentum away from other more divisive measures, such as giving “Dreamers,” the children brought to the United States illegally, a legal option for staying in the country. While House...

At a Hispanic Listening Session Friday, Paul Ryan met a man he said summed up why he’s pushing to reform the country’s immigration system. Gustavo Vargas described coming to the U.S. from Mexico to work, without detailing his immigration status. When his five-year-old son died, Vargas said, he made the hard decision to bury the boy here. He and his family “love the United States, and we want to stay here, to live,” Vargas told the congressman. Later, he said quietly that he wasn’t looking for attention, “I just wanted him to understand.” In front of around 300 people in...

Rep. Paul D. Ryan might have just given away the road map for House consideration of immigration reform. “Tentatively, in October, we’re going to vote on a border security bill, an interior enforcement bill, a bill for legal immigration,” the Wisconsin Republican and Budget Committee chairman told constituents at a district town hall event Friday, according to a report by the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel. Ryan also reportedly said negotiations were underway for the chamber to vote on legislation that would provide undocumented immigrants with “probationary” visas while they waited a minimum of 15 years to attain citizenship. The timetable is...

-snip- The Wisconsin Republican has worked behind the scenes for months to convince others in his party to support a bill that would legalize unauthorized immigrants. And on Friday, he said that, "we're going to vote on a bill for people who are undocumented."

Rep. Paul D. Ryan might have just given away the road map for House consideration of immigration reform. “Tentatively, in October, we’re going to vote on a border security bill, an interior enforcement bill, a bill for legal immigration,” the Wisconsin Republican and Budget Committee chairman told constituents at a district town hall event Friday, according to a report by the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel. Ryan also reportedly said negotiations were underway for the chamber to vote on legislation that would provide undocumented immigrants with “probationary” visas while they waited a minimum of 15 years to attain citizenship.

The next presidential election is more than three years away, but early polling shows Hillary Rodham Clinton leading the Democratic pack by a landslide margin, with a whopping 63 per cent of Democrats telling pollsters that they would vote for the former first lady and Secretary of State. Vice President Joe Biden came in second with 13 per cent support - barely one-fifth of Clinton's showing. The GOP field is anyone's game, however, with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie only garnering 15 per cent support among Republicans to narrowly lead the pack. He's followed by Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, Florida...

Rep. Paul Ryan said Thursday that Republicans are taking care not to “push” illegal immigrants to become American citizens as part of any comprehensive immigration reform package. “We don’t want to push people into citizenship,” Ryan said in an interview with KFYR 550 in Bismarck, N.D. Ryan said immigrants are more interested in finding jobs than in becoming citizens. “Most people just want to have a legal status so they can work to provide for their families,” he said.

Des Moines, Iowa — Paul Ryan, the 2012 Republican vice-presidential nominee, will headline a prominent Republican dinner in Iowa this fall, a visit that is sure to stoke talk of a potential presidential bid. According to Iowa governor Terry Branstad, Ryan will deliver the keynote speech at the governor’s birthday party in November. Last year, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida spoke at the event. Branstad, in an interview at his capitol office, says he’s excited to welcome back Ryan to the Hawkeye State. “He’s a key player in the House and I like him a lot,” he says. “I enjoyed...

On Tuesday’s broadcast of Laura Ingraham’s radio show, economist and Intellectuals and Race author Thomas Sowell blasted Wisconsin Republican Rep. Paul Ryan argument for immigration reform...

Exclusive: Alan Keyes challenges readers to respond to his clarion call What follows is an excerpt from a reader’s comment on my column last week, with my reply. I suspect that there are millions of Americans who feel this reader’s sense of betrayal. I wonder how many of them, among the readers of this column, have the individual intellectual and moral courage to take even one readily accessible step toward doing something about it? Not long ago WND’s editor wrote an article recognizing that it might be long past time to take action. If enough people “let their yes be...

Two weeks after the end of his failed vice-presidential bid, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) was already thinking ahead to another big fight: immigration reform. And he was thinking about it in a bipartisan way. Ryan ran into his old friend, Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.), and urged him to restart his effort to get a comprehensive immigration package through Congress. Ryan’s arguments stemmed from a religious and economic foundation, not from the huge political liability the issue had become for the Republican Party during the 2012 presidential campaign.

Facing deep resistance among House Republicans to citizenship for the estimated 11 million immigrants in the country illegally, GOP leaders are trying to muster support for a stripped-down immigration reform bill that would offer citizenship only to those brought into the country as children. The plan, which would almost certainly be a nonstarter for President Obama and Democrats who control the Senate, makes clear there will be no quick agreement on a Senate-passed bill and illustrates how wide the gap remains over fundamental immigration reform. … The proposal, pushed by Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), has gained ground among Republicans....