Free Republic

HOW CAN YOU TELL WHEN a governing party is running out of steam? When it controls all branches of government yet abandons even the pretense of addressing an issue most members claim is a "crisis." That's what the GOP-led House did Tuesday in announcing that discussions over reconciling its enforcement-centric immigration bill with the Senate's legalization-focused version will be pushed back to September at the earliest, and only after completing more hearings. Instead of naming negotiators and attempting in good faith to bridge the chasm between the bills, House leaders are busy naming locations for "field meetings" that can deliver...

Within two days last week, House Majority Leader John Boehner changed from sunny optimism about prospects for passing an immigration bill this summer to a bleak, negative outlook. The reason was that Boehner got the word from House Speaker Dennis Hastert. Boehner on Tuesday was upbeat in addressing a breakfast forum at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which supports a guest worker program. He indicated he would resolve differences between the restrictive House bill and the much more liberal Senate bill by the Fourth of July. But at a closed luncheon Wednesday at Charlie Palmer's restaurant, attended by financial contributors...

In the spirit of Liberation Theology, the USCCB released a news press release yesterday, stating they will continue their drive for passage of CIRA. This means they support of unrestricted illegal immigration to the United States despite the costs to taxpayers.The bishops are continuing their drive even though CIRA is vastly unpopular with the American people and a vast majority of Catholics. This news release has not been widely disseminated and everyone here gets a first look.

I am posting this article because very few people know that the Catholic Church is going out of their way to make sure CIRA is the law of the land. The church has supported illegal immigration for many years and they have been active in getting CIRA passed. I also publishing this article in the hopes that the many Catholics who support the House of Representatives would know what their church is doing on the illegal immigration issue in the United States. I really do not think that Roman Catholics know the churches position on this matter.I know that there...

WASHINGTON - The political godfather of California's initiatives against illegal immigrants in the 1990s said Monday that lawmakers who favor citizenship opportunities for such workers do so only because they are afraid of being labeled racists and nativists. "I think a great many Republicans have been intimidated, and I, frankly, am quite disappointed," former California Gov. Pete Wilson said during a speech at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank.

Hopes for a quick compromise on immigration were dealt a blow Tuesday after House Speaker Dennis Hastert said he wanted to take a "long look" at a Senate bill offering possible citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants. Hastert said hearings on the Senate bill should be held before appointing anyone to a House-Senate committee to negotiate a compromise immigration bill. Later, he said he was unsure what the House's next move would be. "We're going to take a long look at it," Hastert said late Tuesday. House Majority Leader John Boehner agreed. "I think we should know clearly what's in...

The Senate's immigration-reform bill grants broad amnesty to illegal aliens and is even worse than previously thought, say House Republicans who have read the 850-page Senate bill and must approve any final legislation that Congress sends President Bush. "The more people see of this Senate bill, the less they like it," House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., Wisconsin Republican, said of the bill that was largely penned by Sens. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, and John McCain, Arizona Republican. Allowing illegals to collect Social Security benefits based on past illegal work, for instance, is "outrageous," said Mr. Sensenbrenner....

George W. Bush entered the White House in 2001 hoping he would be remembered in history books as the education president who raised public school standards with his No Child Left Behind Act. It now looks like his legacy will be "No illegal immigrant left behind." The White House Web site is currently advertising, in both English and Spanish, Bush's congratulations (applaudo) to the U.S. Senate for passing what president called bipartisan (bipartidista) and comprehensive (integral) immigration reform (reforma). In fact, this Kennedy-McCain (aka Hagel-Martinez) bill might be the worst and the most expensive bill ever passed by the Senate,...

WASHINGTON - Remember the Department of Homeland Security's "no-fly'' lists that erratically flagged 3-year-old children and dozens of men named David Nelson as terrorists seeking to board commercial airplanes? Well, now privacy experts are warning America to prepare for the "no-work'' list. As Congress debates immigration reform, experts say a little-discussed aspect of the bill, mandatory employee eligibility verification, is likely to have a colossal impact on the lives of every person in the U.S. labor market -- citizen and foreigner alike. "Everyone who wants to work will feel this provision,'' said Tim Sparapani, legal counsel for the American Civil...

EL PASO, Texas -- The immigration bill passed by the Senate last month could mean security for many residents of Juarez, Mexico, who cross the border with laser visas meant for shoppers and work illegally in El Paso. The bill would allow border crossing workers, such as those from Juarez, to apply for unlimited enrollment in the guest worker program. Most other guest workers would be limited to working in the United States for a total of six years before having to return home. "I think El Paso would be able to take advantage of it very easily with workers...

Dear (Technoman) : Thank you for contacting me to share your views on immigration. This is an issue with strong feelings on both sides. I want you to know that I do not support illegal immigration, that I believe all persons should respect and honor our laws for admission to our country and I am grateful for the US Border Patrol and National Guard who regulate our borders to discourage lawbreakers. However, the fact is that 12 million undocumented immigrants reside in the United States . This issue will not go away. We cannot turn our backs on the matter...

MEXICO CITY - With Mexicans going to the polls July 2 to choose a new president, President Vicente Fox soon will be a lame duck. As his six-year term draws to a close, Fox has necessarily had to cede much of the spotlight to the leading presidential candidates, Felipe Calderon of the president's National Action Party, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the Party of the Democratic Revolution and Roberto Madrazo of the former ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party. Nevertheless, a recent poll shows that Fox the may leave office Dec.1 as one of the most popular Mexican presidents in recent history,...

Many stores held sales over the Memorial Day holidays. In Washington, the Senate immigration bill has been selling our birthright for a message of political pottage. Far from "controlling the borders" as advertised, this bill reduces our existing control of the borders. Under a provision inserted at the eleventh hour by Senator Arlen Specter, the Senate bill forbids the federal government from building a fence without first consulting with the Mexican government. In fact, state and local governments are also forbidden by this bill to take any border control actions without first consulting with their Mexican counterparts. In other words,...

Two roads diverge. Will the nation get another amnesty program or will it get secure borders to halt illegal entry into our country? House Republicans must choose, because they can’t have both. The recently passed Senate bill giving amnesty to 12-15 million illegal aliens presents a challenge to House Republicans, but it also presents an opportunity. The House should respond with a strong reaffirmation of the enforcement-first strategy for border control and immigration-law enforcement, an approach strongly favored by a large majority of the American people. If House Republicans abandon that path, they will invite the desertion of their conservative...

RUSH: All right. This is hilarious: (story) "The long-fought Senate immigration bill that opponents say grants amnesty to 10 million illegal aliens is unconstitutional and appears headed for certain demise, Senate Republicans now say." Here is why, "A key feature of the Senate bill is that it would make illegals pay back taxes before applying for citizenship, a requirement that supporters say will raise billions of dollars in the next decade. There's just one problem: The U.S. Constitution specifically prohibits revenue-raising legislation [taxes, tax cuts, what have you, has to come from the House] from originating in the Senate. 'All...

Comparison of the provisions in the House and Senate bills side-by-side in tabular format.

As President Bush's poll numbers drop dramatically even among his base, the question most frequently asked by angry Republicans is, why, oh why, is Bush so stubbornly rejecting the advice of his supporters even though that advice is consistent with the thunderous message from public opinion surveys? The reliable Rasmussen survey, for example, reports that by a 63 percent to 19 percent margin, voters want legislation that controls the borders before trying to change the status of illegal aliens. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger encapsuled the typical reaction to Bush's televised speech: "I have not heard the president say that our objective...

The Republican House of Representatives should tell the U.S. Senate -- and the Bush White House -- to take a hike on immigration. The GOP-led House has been handed a skunk wrapped in a bow. That stinking varmint, S. 2611, amounts to a liberal, Democrat bill. Instead of obliging the cynical pansies of the Senate and the administration who keep pushing open-borders policies, the House should simply refuse to name conferees. That is, House Republicans should boldly snub their noses -- very publicly -- at their party's turncoats. Otherwise, the GOP House faces a no-win situation in a conference committee...

The debate in Washington over reforming America's immigration laws has produced not only heated rhetoric but a few fantastic claims. Few are wilder than a prediction from a well-known think-tank that the reform bill just passed by the Senate will result in 103 million legal immigrants to the United States during the next 20 years. In a "Web Memo" from the Heritage Foundation, author Robert Rector claims that the Hagel-Martinez immigration bill (S. 2611) would unleash a flood of chain migration that would overwhelm America's capacity to absorb so many people. He calculates that the bill would not only allow...

They say Senate bill needs assurances on living conditions, pay Picking beets, cherries and cotton and shoveling manure on farms across the United States as a Mexican guest worker in the 1940s and 1950s, Cecilio Santillana was glad to earn a few dollars a day. He didn't complain about living in horse stalls without bathrooms or doing stoop work for 12 hours a day without breaks for fear he would be sent back to Chihuahua and lose the steady work that allowed him to support his family in Mexico. But the 78-year-old San Jose man opposes a temporary worker proposal...