Posted on 09/16/2005 10:12:06 PM PDT by Icelander
Two House Republicans met with White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove yesterday to discuss immigration reform one week after the House chairman with jurisdiction over that issue predicted that Hurricane Katrina could delay it until next year.
Reps. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) met with Rove at the White House to discuss immigration reform, Flake said yesterday. Neither member had returned from the afternoon meeting by press time.
The meeting comes as congressional leaders reshuffle their fall agenda after a glut of emergency legislation responding to the damage caused by Katrina. It also comes days after House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: “I think immigration is off until next year.”
Immigration reform is a particularly difficult issue for congressional Republicans because it divides supporters of the business community from those social conservatives whose goal is to shut down the borders and prohibit employers from hiring illegal immigrants.
The business community, on the other hand, argues that the estimated 10 million to 12 million illegal immigrants employed in this country fill jobs U.S. citizens would not otherwise take. This broad coalition, which includes large corporate interests such as the Chamber of Commerce as well as regional businesses such as seasonal crab farmers in Maryland, also argues that the relocation costs would be too high.
While the political climate favors a strong border-security measure, the business lobby could be essential in creating the political momentum to pass a broader bill through the Senate.
Kolbe and Flake have introduced a bill, along with Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), to register illegal immigrants currently employed in the United States as part of a national database for prospective employers. Their legislation does not require those immigrants to return to their countries of origin before gaining temporary residency.
Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), meanwhile, have offered companion legislation in the Senate, while Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) have offered competing legislation that would require immigrants to return to their countries of origin to register as guest workers.
Both bills have provisions that would expand border security and increase fines for employers caught violating the law.
GOP House leaders made immigration reform a priority early in the 109th Congress. Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) tapped Republican Policy Committee Chairman John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) to coordinate the divergent member views on this issue in anticipation of a floor vote this year.
Shadegg was to hold the fourth of his Unity Dinners to discuss the subject last night. The Arizona Republican has used these Unity Dinners, which were established by former Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas), to find consensus on fractious issues within the conference.
In the wake of Katrina, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) has maintained his commitment to passing an immigration and border-security package that could be either one bill or multiple pieces of legislation. DeLay has recently hinted that he would like to pass a border-security bill first and then address the issue of illegal immigrants employed in this country. He is working with Sensenbrenner, whose Judiciary Committee has jurisdiction over the legislation.
Flake said he believes the practical details of enforcement, such as locating illegal workers, will eventually require lawmakers to address instead the question of registering these employees before passing a separate enforcement bill.
“If you want enforcement, you’ve got to have a law you can enforce,” Flake said.
The Judiciary Committee already had a full schedule of legislation on its plate heading into the fall, including the child-safety bill that passed yesterday, an update of the Voting Rights Act that may spark a fight about redistricting and a House-Senate conference negotiation about reauthorizing the USA Patriot Act.
Sensenbrenner made his remarks about postponement in response to a question about the fall legislative agenda.
After the damage wrought by Katrina, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a group strongly opposed to illegal immigration, released a report illustrating how immigration loopholes could lead to another massive terrorist attack.
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security last week relaxed document requirements for employers hiring workers who have been displaced by the hurricane. The department will not fine any businesses that hire any of these workers within 45 days of last Tuesday, which could create a major immigration loophole.
Washington lobbying firm Quinn-Gillespie has organized a large coalition of business lobbies, including the Chamber, to work with the White House to pass a broader immigration bill, which would allow for more flexibility for employers to retain those workers already in this country.
The cheap labor crowd strikes. Can you say backdoor amnesty.
Not a positive sign for border control.
"If you want enforcement, you've got to have a law you can enforce," Flake said.With all due respect, Rep Flake, we've got plenty of immigrations laws. That are enforceable. We don't necessarily need news laws. We need existing laws strongly enforced. NOW!!
Every day you guys procrastinate and pontificate, another ~1000 Criminal Aliens invade our country.
Social conservatives?? How about people who want the LAW enforced!
The business community, on the other hand, argues that the estimated 10 million to 12 million illegal immigrants employed in this country fill jobs U.S. citizens would not otherwise take. This broad coalition, which includes large corporate interests such as the Chamber of Commerce as well as regional businesses such as seasonal crab farmers in Maryland, also argues that the relocation costs would be too high.
The Bayourod crowd.
This problem will not be ignored.
It is our "Elephant in the Living Room".
Millions of illegals must be deported.
Laws must be enforced.
Special interest groups will have to go pound sand.
There's a lot of elephant poop that must be cleaned up.
Any official that ignores this will be removed from office.
Those that willfully resist taking action will go to prison.
And if Islamo-fascists sneak in from Mexico and strike the US again, repeat the month of August 1814.
Hard for U.S. citizens to take them when Jose and Maria will take them for less money...cash under the table.
I bet there are a lot of bayou people who wouldn't mind some of those jobs right now.
And that's exactly the point. Out of one corner of the White House's mouth we are told that billions need to be spent to rebuild NOLA and provide job training to the residents, supposedly to find jobs.
Out of the other corner of the White House's mouth we are told that ILLEGAL aliens should be given amnesty and guest worker visas to do jobs Americans are unwilling to do (for sub-market wages and no benefits).
Which is it? Billions to rebuild NOLA and train Americans to work? Or rewarding ILLEGAL behaviour by non-Americans that cost the US economy billion$ every year in social/health costs, crime costs, lost jobs, eroded wages, etc.?
Carl Rove and traitors like these senators don't serve the American people or American best interests. They serve the cheap labor market.
Most Republicans, Democrats and Independents are sick and tired of the wave of illegal invaders choaking this nation, putting an insufferable burden on our social support networks and forcing this bilingual garbage on us..
If George Bush and Carl Rove continue to persist in their blatant contempt for American public opinion on this subject they will kill the Republican Party.
If the Republican Party doesn't stand up to Bush and jerks like these two senators, it deserves to die.
Reading things like this makes me more open to the idea of one day in the near future voting for either a third party or a democrat.
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