Tag Archives: immigration

Corn on Hardball: The Great Republican Immigration Divide

by sssaa Posted on February 21, 2013

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As the White House works hammers out draft legislation for immigration reform, a sharp divide between moderate republicans and the Tea Party is hardening in Congress. The Huffington Post’s Howard Fineman and DC bureau chief David Corn discuss the GOP’s divide over immigration on MSNBC’s Hardball:

David Corn is Mother Jones’ Washington bureau chief. For more of his stories, click here. He’s also on Twitter.

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Corn on Hardball: The Great Republican Immigration Divide

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Even Tom Tancredo’s Successor Endorses Path to Citizenship

by trasze2aja Posted on February 11, 2013

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This is what a political wave looks like. In 2011, Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Col.), who had previously sought to repeal a portion of the Voting Rights Act mandating that ballots be printed in multiple languages, went on a local talk radio station and warned that President Barack Obama planned to steal the 2012 election by granting blanket amnesty to some 12 million undocumented residents. On Sunday, Coffman, who succeeded Rep. Tom Tancredo, a notorious opponent of illegal immigration, in Congress in 2008, endorsed a path to citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants—and legal status for everyone else. That announcement came just two weeks after Coffman introduced a new bill to allow Deferred Action Childhood Arrivals (i.e. formerly undocumented residents who were brought to the United States as kids) to serve in the military legally and be put on the path to citizenship.

So what’s eating Mike Coffman? It’s pretty simple, really: He heard footsteps. The reconfigured sixth congressional district is now 20-percent Latino (it was previously 9-percent Latino before dicennial redistricting). It went to Obama by five points in November. The Democratic House Majority PAC has put Coffman as one of its top-10 targets for 2014. And the Dems have secured a top recruit, former state speaker of the house Andrew Romanoff, to run against him.

Whether the immigration evolution will be enough for Coffman to keep his seat is unclear. Coffman is still a bit cagey as to whether he’d support a path to citizenship for non-DACAs, which, as Washington Post‘s Greg Sargent points out, still puts him at odds with the majority of voters. But for immigration reform advocates wary of another hardliner insurrection, it’s an encouraging sign.

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Even Tom Tancredo’s Successor Endorses Path to Citizenship

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Hardliners Killed Bush’s Immigration Reform. Can They Stop Obama’s?

by Unacoomt Posted on January 31, 2013

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Last time Washington took a swing at comprehensive immigration reform, the far right went nuts. In 2007, when President George W. Bush joined with leading Democrats to push an immigration package, the bill died in the Senate, the casualty of a GOP base revolt stoked by talk radio and hardline anti-immigration groups. (And, by the way, some Democrats were happy to watch a Bush initiative go down.) Now, after the Senate’s bipartisan Gang of Eight released an immigration reform package and President Barack Obama essentially backed the effort, the looming question is whether opponents of immigration reform can muster the same kind of backlash—and how ready Republican supporters of immigration reform are to fight back.

Carlos Gutierrez was Bush’s secretary of commerce when the 2007 immigration bill crashed and burned. “It was on the one hand talk radio, on the other it was these groups: FAIR and NumbersUSA, Center for Immigration Studies,” Gutierrez says, naming several restrictionist groups founded by anti-immigration activist John Tanton. “We were getting it all over the place.”

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Hardliners Killed Bush’s Immigration Reform. Can They Stop Obama’s?

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Corn on MSNBC: Will Immigration Reform Survive Congress?

by 1LymSlagter473 Posted on January 30, 2013

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President Obama rolled out a plan for immigration reform today, but immigration is a tough sell in the US, where it’s both an economic and a cultural issue. Watch DC bureau chief David Corn discuss how immigration reform will fare in Congress with Rep. Tony Cardenas (D. Calif.) on MSNBC‘s Martin Bashir:

David Corn is Mother Jones’ Washington bureau chief. For more of his stories, click here. He’s also on Twitter.

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Corn on MSNBC: Will Immigration Reform Survive Congress?

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Obama Lays Out His Pitch for Immigration Reform

by donnajansen Posted on January 29, 2013

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Speaking to an audience in Las Vegas, President Barack Obama made his case for immigration reform Tuesday, invoking the idea of America as a nation of immigrants and saying he believed Republicans were truly committed to getting reform done.

“It’s easy for the discussion to take on a feeling of ‘us’ versus ‘them,'” Obama said. “A lot of folks forget that most of ‘us’ used to be ‘them.'”

Obama’s proposal resembles, to a large degree, the one put forth by the bipartisan Senate “Gang of Eight” Monday. It proposes adding more resources for immigration enforcement and border security, a mandatory employment verification system, and a path to citizenship—what critics will call “amnesty,” but that the White House has referred to as “earned citizenship.” Like the Senate bill, undocumented immigrants on temporary legal status while they are “going to the back of the line” to apply for citizenship would not be eligible for federal benefits.

On these broad principles, the Senate and the White House are in agreement; but of course, the details matter, and there are key differences:

No Security requirement for the path to citizenship: While the Senate plan describes border security requirements that may have to be met before undocumented immigrants already in the US can complete the legalization process, the White House plan has no such requirement. The dispute over what, if any, border security requirements must be met could endanger the passage of any bill. (To be eligible for legal status or citizenship under both plans, undocumented immigrants still have to pay fines and pass background checks).

Nothing resembling a guest worker program: While the Senate proposal calls for a “humane and effective system” for “immigrant workers to enter the country and find employment without seeking the aid of human traffickers or drug cartels,” the White House fact sheet provided to reporters does not address this issue. That’s a problem, because some kind of system for foreign workers is necessary to deter illegal immigration in the future.

Families headed by same-sex couples are treated as other families: The White House’s proposal “treats same-sex families as families by giving U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents the ability to seek a visa on the basis of a permanent relationship with a same-sex partner.” Republicans on the Gang of Eight have treated this issue as unimportant. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said same-sex couples are “not of paramount importance,” while Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) asked sarcastically, “Why don’t we just put legalized abortion in there and round it all out?”

DREAMers get an expedited citizenship process, agricultural workers do not: The Senate proposal exempted not just “DREAM Act” undocumented immigrants, who were brought here as children and are poised to go to college or join the military, but agricultural workers “because of the role they play in ensuring that Americans have safe and secure agricultural products to sell and consume.” The White House plan only expedites “earned citizenship” for DREAM Act-eligible undocumented immigrants, presumably because they’re slightly less fond of Big Ag than the upper chamber of Congress.

The two variables that are likeliest to cause friction between the White House and Congress are security requirements on the path to citizenship and the length of the path to citizenship itself. This afternoon on the Senate floor, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), one of the Republican members of the “Gang of Eight,” warned Obama: “If this endeavor becomes a bidding war to see who can come up with the easiest, quickest, and cheapest pathway to a green card possible, this thing is not going to go well.” The clear implication is that despite bipartisan agreement on a path to citizenship, Rubio— and by extension, other Republicans currently supporting a reform push—could easily withdraw their support, based on how that path is paved.

Obama made it clear that if the Senate bill fails, he won’t simply be giving up. “If Congress is unable to move forward in a timely fashion,” Obama said. “I will send up a bill based on my proposal and insist that they vote on it right away.”

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Obama Lays Out His Pitch for Immigration Reform

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The Senate Immigration Plan Isn’t Terrible—It’s Just Unworkable

by MalenMajure469 Posted on January 28, 2013

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The bipartisan Senate “Gang of Eight” released their framework for comprehensive immigration reform today. As expected, the plan includes increased enforcement and a path to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants already in the US. It also contains several tripwires that, if triggered, could destroy the entire effort. The “Gang of Eight” includes Senators Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.).

Citizenship

The plan includes a path to citizenship, which excludes those with criminal backgrounds and those who have committed crimes since entering the US. Undocumented immigrants would have to register with the government and go through a background check, and would be allowed to stay under “probationary legal status,” after which they would have to “go to the back of the line” before eventually qualifying for citizenship. They will not be eligible for federal benefits during their “probationary legal status.”

Interestingly, the plan makes the “path to citizenship” easier for two groups of immigrants: Those eligibile for the DREAM Act, which means they were brought to the US as children prepared to go to college or join the military, and agricultural workers. A cynical person might point out that in doing so, the plan goes out of its way to help the most sympathetic immigrants, and those most essential to powerful business interests. Or as the plan puts it, workers who “who commit to the long term stability of our nation’s agricultural industries.” The plan also states that immigrants who have “received a PhD or Master’s degree in science, technology, engineering, or math from an American university” will automatically get a green card, but doesn’t state whether that applies even if the individual is undocumented.

Enforcement

The framework makes reform contingent on things that can’t happen until the immigration system is reformed. While perhaps politically necessary, the plan throws more personnel and flying robots at the border, despite the fact that the US already spends more on immigration forcement than on all other aspects of federal law enforcement combined. The plan implies that undocumented immigrants can only be legalized after a commission “comprised of governors, attorneys general, and community leaders living along the Southwest border” certify that the measures have worked, which puts final legalization of the country’s 11 million undocumented immigrants in the hands of Republican officials like Arizona Governor Jan Brewer who don’t want it to happen.

Beyond that however, the fact is that enforcement can only do so much to deter illegal immigration, because those seeking a better life will brave ever more dangerous obstacles to get here. What’s needed is an immigration system that allows enough people in to work so that people think they have a decent enough chance to get here that risking their life to do so isn’t worth it. The framework is incredibly vague on this point, hinting at a “guest worker program” but never using the phrase, and simply stating that the plan will “provide businesses with the ability to hire lower-skilled workers in a timely manner when Americans are unavailable or unwilling to fill those jobs.” This, not more drones at the border, is arguably the most important aspect of deterring illegal immigration, and the plan gives it short shrift.

Bottom Line

The Gang of Eight’s framework isn’t all terrible, it’s just unworkable. It places conditions it’s unlikely to meet, and then further compounds the problem by putting a veto in the hands of people who are likely to oppose the plan even if those conditions were met. Immigration reform advocates will be wary of the employment verification requirements, (particularly given the error-prone nature of the current system) while the immigration restrictionist right will be completely opposed to any plan that offers undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship rather than “self-deportation.”

Politically, the immediate question is whether the presence of Senators like Rubio and Flake can limit the backlash on the right, since any immigration reform bill still has to get through the Republican controlled-House of Representatives. But even if the entire plan were written, passed and signed by the president tomorrow, much of it—legalization in particular—could be prevented from ever happening.

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The Senate Immigration Plan Isn’t Terrible—It’s Just Unworkable

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New Arizona Bill Wants Hospitals Policing Immigration

by oks23po Posted on January 28, 2013

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The state that brought you SB 1070, perhaps the harshest immigration law in the nation, is at it again with a bill that could bring illegal immigrant-hunting into new territory: hospitals.

Proposed last week by Republican state Rep. Steve Smith, HB 2293 would require hospital workers to verify the immigration status of uninsured people seeking care. They’d have to make note of any undocumented patient, and then call the police.

Speaking outside the Arizona capitol on Thursday, Rep. Smith called it simply “a data-collection bill” to figure out how much Arizona is spending on illegal immigrant care, promising that no one would be denied treatment or deported once their status is disclosed.

Neither of these guarantees is mentioned anywhere in the bill, but co-sponsor Rep. Carl Seel told Arizona’s KPHO that hospitals wouldn’t deny treatment, since “we’re a benevolent nation.”

If enacted, the bill could scare immigrants away from getting medical attention. Nationwide, the undocumented are already far less likely to seek health care. Advocates say the low rate is partially explained by a fear that they’ll be reported to authorities. This law would do little to lighten such distrust: It doesn’t explain what police should or can do with the data flowing in from hospitals. When he was asked whether law enforcement would show up to hospitals when notified, Smith’s response was: “We have no clue.”

Ostensibly, doctors wouldn’t have to juggle providing care and phoning the cops; the bill makes it clear that other hospital employees should handle the bill’s requirements. Still, the state’s hospitals are pushing back. Pete Wertheim, a spokesman for the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association, says that with more than 3 million patients each year, the rules would be impossible to implement with current budgets and staffing. He also points out that if the law deterred immigrants with communicable diseases—think tuberculosis—from seeking treatment, it could endanger everyone in the state.

The bill is still in early stages, and hasn’t yet made it to committee. And if precedent is any indicator, it’s not likely to pass: Rep. Smith has introduced similar bills before, with little success. Laws he proposed last year that would have implemented immigration checks at schools and hospitals both failed in the Senate.

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New Arizona Bill Wants Hospitals Policing Immigration

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Rubio Immigration Plan Conservatives Love Looks a Lot Like Obama’s

by BayalaHillesland628 Posted on January 15, 2013

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Rising conservative star and tea party favorite Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is “riding to the immigration rescue,” according to the Wall Street Journal editorial page. While a bipartisan group of senators is at work a comprehensive immigration reform proposal, Rubio is touting ideas of his own, which Journal editorial writer Matthew Kaminski says will seek to “triangulate, if you will—the liberal fringe that seeks broad amnesty for illegal immigrants and the hard right’s obsession with closing the door.”

Rubio, who is widely considered to be a strong contender for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, hasn’t introduced actual immigration reform legislation, or gone beyond the broad strokes outlined in his interview with the Journal. Nevertheless, in the days following the interview’s publication on Saturday, conservative pundits have showered Rubio with praise. The Washington Post‘s Jennifer Rubin called Rubio’s proposal “bold,” and the Daily Caller‘s Matt Lewis writes that “although there is opportunity here, this is still an act of political courage.” Rubio also drew approval from 2012 GOP vice-presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who wrote on Facebook that “I support the principles he’s outlined.”

Conservatives hailing Rubio may not realize how close to President Barack Obama he has moved on immigration, but opponents of reform, such as the Center for Immigration Studies’ Mark Krikorian, certainly noticed. “There’s nothing substantive in Rubio’s proposal that wouldn’t immediately be agreed to by President Obama,” Krikorian says. “This is the Rubio-Obama immigration plan.” In fairness, Krikorian notes, it’s also broadly similar to the George W. Bush immigration reform plan conservatives derailed in 2007.

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Rubio Immigration Plan Conservatives Love Looks a Lot Like Obama’s

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