Posted on 07/25/2013 10:45:49 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
House Republicans have steered clear of the Senate’s comprehensive immigration reform bill and its approach, pledging to proceed in steps to overhauling the nation’s immigration system instead. Democrats have been using that strategy as a way to paint the GOP as callous and unconcerned (at the least) about immigrants, especially their children. National Journal reports that Eric Cantor will try to turn the tables on that argument, daring Democrats to support border security in exchange for legalization of minors:
An emerging coalition of House Republicans is arguing that young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children constitute “a special protected class” that should eventually be eligible for citizenship, an approach they say combines sound policy with smart politics. …
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., is the driving force behind the strategy to focus on legalizing undocumented youths. According to Republican aides, passing such a bill would equip Republicans with a reasonable answer to the question of what to do with the 11 million people living in the U.S. illegally. It would also force Democrats into a political lose-lose: Either endorse a GOP proposal that legalizes so-called “Dreamers” or oppose this longtime policy goal and hold out for blanket legalization for the entire undocumented community.
As one House leadership aide framed it, “How can they say no to the kids?”
Cantor’s push, which has the blessing of Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, is also endorsed by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and several influential conservatives such as Reps. Raul Labrador of Idaho and Jim Jordan of Ohio. It’s still early—Cantor and company have yet to release any legislative language—but lawmakers predict that such a measure will garner majority support in the oft-fractured House Republican Conference.
That would turn the calculus back onto the Democrats. Polls show that Americans back a path to citizenship anyway, but have much more sympathy for children whose only crime was that their parents carried them into the country. Polls have definitely shown that Americans want border security addressed as the priority in reform, even if they prefer a comprehensive approach rather than piecemeal. Such an offer would combine the most popular parts of the plans floating around Washington for most of the last decade, and force the Democrats instead of the Republicans to decide between children and their political hobby horses.
That is, it will — if Cantor and Boehner can get enough Republican votes to force Democrats to choose. So far, the strategy seems to be gaining ground, at least since this weekend. Trey Gowdy, who would normally be considered a tough vote, pointed out at a hearing this week that our law treats children as a different class in other ways, too — and that minors brought by parents “have not committed a crime,” a key position for those opposed to any form of amnesty for border violators. Ted Poe (R-TX) emphasized that children did not have the determination to act illegally, and “therefore, they should be treated in a special way.”
This all hinges on the border-security package developed by the House, of course. The Corker-Hoeven amendment turned out to be Swiss cheese in practice, and the White House made the issue all but moot by declaring that it could ignore statutes in ObamaCare that specifically had to do with mandates and triggers. Unless the House comes up with a tougher border security package and a way to ensure that the Obama administration has no choice but to fund it — perhaps by holding up the DREAMer funding until specific metrics are met, especially on a border fence — then this is probably all academic anyway. But at least Republicans may force Democrats to “say no to the kids,” and get rid of that noxious talking point for a while.
I doubt it. They’ll knuckle under and bend over for more.
Jimmy, broken clock, Carter,
” The USA is no longer a functioning democracy.”
Duh ! It`s a One Party State.
They might SAY they will secure the border and they might even pass a law but the border will not be secured by this government.
Any promise to secure the border down the road is a false promise. They will find ways to slow walk it, redefine it, forget to fund it, fund it but reassign the funds, they have a thousand ways of not doing something they don’t want to do.
Securing the border must come first or it will never come at all.
And if they would just secure the border, and slow the flood to a trickle, all the other problems become manageable. Most of them go away over a few years.
Secure the border.
Enforce the law.
Let the chips fall.
This is not complicated.
30 seconds later Obama says ,”border is secured”
We don’t need to legalize anyone.
Just secure the damn border and enforce our laws.
Unbelievable BULLSH!T!
Any bill, ANY BILL, even if it has one topic to build a mile high fence and a mile deep trench along the border from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, will be followed by:
* A conference committee report with a Senate Trojan Horse
* A vote in the House that passes the Trojan Bill using all the democrats and at least 17 Squishy RINOs
And voila, a permanent democrat majority for generations to come.
NO BILL, NO WAY , NOT NOW, ZIP, ZILCH, NADA.....not until both chambers are controlled by real conservatives and a real conservative President is in the White House.
I consider this promise no different than those made by Chuck U Schumer. No legalization - borders can be made more secure and less secure, but legalization is forever.
” NO BILL, NO WAY , NOT NOW, ZIP, ZILCH, NADA.”
Blue slip it, Boehner!
Hammer: nail
The ‘pubs act like they’ve discovered the wheel: “Maybe the extremists on our side are right ... maybe we should put the horse before the cart. Maybe we should fill the mole-holes before bailing-out the flooded basement.”
But action talks and BS walks.
this is all about getting to conference. The house negotiations are meaningless. Only the senate will emerge out of conference.
GOP= suckers!
All other issues, concerning immigration, should be addressed, fully discussed and fully debated, before any immigration bill is seriously considered. That too is obvious. A nation is not a game of musical chairs; its whole future depends upon who sits in those chairs; who is entitled to play a role in determining that future.
Why won't the Congressional Republicans simply demand a full & complete debate on all issues--all issues! (See Immigration & The American Future.)
Do I suggest anything in the least unreasonable?
William Flax
What ever happened to ,"Equal Protection Under the Law"? Oh, sorry, I forgot this is a Marxist regime now and that musty Constitution is as obsolete as the old white slave holders that wrote and signed it.
the GOP just needs a bill to conference. any bill will do.
Why not make Mexico the 58th state since most of their people are over here and they’re sending money back south. A couple years ago, I read those monies are their second highest resource with the gas and oil industry being first.
The bastards are going to sell us out and there's not a damn thing we can do about it to stop them...........Now anyway.
Does chicken schlitz, dhimmi Ed Morrissey actually believe the yellow stained Repub cowards are not going to capitulate on Amnesty as soon as they can? The little pricks can’t wait to show the Senator pricks that they too can screw their voters!
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