Posted on 03/25/2009 9:38:23 AM PDT by GOPGuide
House Democrats are laying the groundwork for another major immigration debate later this year, despite the risk that it could prove politically destructive for their party.
Moving broad legislation that would put millions of illegal immigrants on a path to citizenship seemed politically impossible until fairly recently and may still end up too hot for Congress to touch.
Yet Obama sent a signal this month to Hispanic Democrats that he is still committed to the cause and that he plans to host a White House immigration summit before the end of May. That has bolstered the hopes of the legislation’s biggest advocates on Capitol Hill.
“In a sense we’ve been given the green light to have more robust discussions about this,” House Democratic Caucus Vice Chairman Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) said.
“The signal was clear to Congress that we can be instrumental in getting things going,” Becerra said of the March 18 meeting with Obama. “Now, from the practical side, the question is, How do we set the table to move this forward?”
Drafting the legislation may end up being the easiest part. Finding enough support when the economy has near-double-digit unemployment and violence across the U.S.-Mexico border dominates the airwaves is likely to make legalizing millions of illegal immigrants a hard sell.
“If you’d picked any issue that’s not on the front-burner right now, you’ve picked it,” said Sen. Jon Kyl (Ariz.), who was among those Republicans who backed the failed proposal in the 110th Congress. “Nobody’s thinking about it because we’ve got all these emergencies on our hands. Let’s get these emergencies resolved and then we can turn to other things.”
Nonetheless, Becerra is optimistic. He said the most immediate task is to formulate a strategy for legislation ahead of Obama’s summit, and to begin discussions with Republicans who joined with Democrats in 2007 to support the legislation that crumbled under the weight of conservative backlash.
One of those key Republicans, Rep. Jeff Flake (Ariz.), said he would be on board, perhaps again teaming up with Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’s (CHC) immigration task force, to sponsor the House version of the comprehensive bill.
“I expect to be pushing for it,” Flake said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who did not bring the issue up last Congress, appears to be throwing more support behind the initiative this time. Pelosi recently became one of the first non-Hispanic members to attend a CHC forum on the human cost of workplace immigration raids, a practice she called “un-American” in its current implementation.
“What I said was separating parents from their children — ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] raids that separate parents from their children in the middle of the night — are un-American, and I stand by that,” the Speaker reiterated last week.
But Pelosi later added that she was hopeful that a comprehensive immigration bill could be considered by the House this year.
To supporters of comprehensive reform, moving a bill in 2009 is not just preferable, but a political necessity.
“That’s not what you do in an election year,” Flake said. “You’ve got to do it in an off-year.”
But many believe reviving the issue is a losing strategy for Democrats, and for Obama.
“You know, as a Republican, I would love to see them try and jam it through this year,” said Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), who has worked on immigration bills with more enforcement-minded, conservative Democrats in the past. “Politically, I don’t think there’s a worse issue for them to jump on right now.”
Brady and many other Republicans said that, throughout large swaths of the country, the dynamics have not changed since the failed effort of 2007 — when conservative talk radio hosts helped kill the legislation by persuading their listeners to jam phone lines on Capitol Hill with calls objecting to the legislation.
Far more than the House, the Senate will determine whether the political wherewithal exists for passing — or even debating — a major immigration overhaul this year.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is supportive of the so-called comprehensive immigration reform bill, according to a Reid spokesman, and Reid has said he hopes to pass a bill before the end of the year.
“He believes it is important that we move quickly to pass reform to fix our broken immigration system that is tough on people who break the law and practical to implement,” said spokesman Jim Manley. “The bottom line is, he is ready to move a bill when a bill is ready for him to move.”
Between the health problems of Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), the retirement of Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) and the tough reelection campaign facing Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) — just to name a few obstacles — questions remain about who could carry the immigration torch in the upper chamber, even if there were momentum for it.
At the same time, the growing number of House Democrats from conservative districts could complicate even that chamber’s efforts.
Rep. John Barrow (D-Ga.), a Blue Dog Democrat who has been the subject of fierce attacks from the Republican reelection arm over his party’s immigration platform, is skeptical. He’d prefer to see legislation with more enforcement measures.
“It all depends on what their proposal includes,” Barrow said. “As I’ve said in the past, what we should be doing is focusing on [employment verification] and securing the borders. And I think the rest will take care of itself.”
Why is it I feel thats how it will happen.
Obama will “vote present”
;)
Look at all these traitor Arizona Republicans, and they didn’t even need to interview the King Traitor, McCain.
12 million Acorn members!
12 million new Democratic voters! You betcha they are drooling for that. With 12 million new voters, the Democrats can screw up all they like and still win in landslides.
The demotards are just drunk with their power and arrogance. It will ultimately be there downfall.
We just have to remember NEVER try to work with them again. Once we have destroy their power we need to make sure they never get in power again.
If multi trillion dollar deficits, multiple crooked cabinet members, unprecedented power grabs, bailouts of every incompetent Wall Street organization, a new AWB, cap and trade which will cost EVERY US household an average of $1800 a year, rising unemployment, and socialized medicine don't do it, nothing will.
Yet you say you'll get behind such legislation.
Would you consider this an example of discharging your duties as the peoples' representative in a straightforward and honest manner, Flake?
Easier to stop the legislation with Obama in the WH than McCain, with JSM, the GOP would get the blame even though The Democrats control Congress.
Governor Palin and/or Governor Jindal should call a press conference and specifically ask “Which of the representatives voting ‘yes’ actually read the entire bill?” and the obvious “Why would we want to do this when unemployment is rising among American citizens?”
If this passes I’ll leave the country.
Feel free to hold me to that promise.
I believe you’re correct. Between the democrats, who know how they’ll benefit from any normalization of illegals, and the ‘my party right or wrong’ republicans, such legislation would be a shoe-in.
I’ll be following ya! This is insane!
“What I said was separating parents from their children — ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] raids that separate parents from their children in the middle of the night — are un-American, and I stand by that,” the Speaker reiterated last week.
Hey Queen Pelosi, if they’re separated it’s by choice. The whole family can go back to Mexico.
I wish someone in the GOP would show some leadership.
Am I the only one who is fighting mad?
Really, when does this nightmare end?
“That’s not what you do in an election year,” Flake said. “You’ve got to do it in an off-year.”
Bring it on Flake...no one is going to FORGET your RHINO role, on-year or off-year.
join www.numbersusa.com then make a fight.
I agree with your sentiment but the reason it hasn’t is the pain involved in these decisions have not got to us yet. IT will!!!
I can’t believe Jeff flake is helping them.
I’d be pleased to hear Palin ask why we would want to do this ANY TIME AT ALL. Then again, except perhaps due to the current unemployment situation, I’m not certain Palin opposes amnesty/path to citizenship. She never spoke out AGAINST McShamnesty.
You're welcome to come with me. I'm planning on moving to Mexico in about 5 years, by then we should be the only ones over there. First thing I'll do is secure my borders.
The Senate last night rubber stamped a nightmare domestic draft bill that legislates mandatory national service and creates an “army” of at least 7 million civilian enforcers working at the the behest of the government, while also containing language that threatens to ban free speech and the right to protest.
Last week, we reported on the House passage of the Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act, known as the GIVE Act, which was carried with a 321-105 margin vote.
A passage contained in section 6104 of the original House version entitled “Duties,” in subsection B6, states that a commission will be set up to investigate, “Whether a workable, fair, and reasonable mandatory service requirement for all able young people could be developed.” This language has been dropped from the version passed by the Senate.
However, Section 120 of the bill discusses the “Youth Engagement Zone Program” and states that “service learning” will be “a mandatory part of the curriculum in all of the secondary schools served by the local educational agency.” This part remains in the version passed by the Senate.
Roles which will be staffed by members of the programs, labeled “Required National Service Corps,” include “criminal justice,” “environmental stewardship,” and “public safety”.
Aside from the programs aimed at college students and young people, others will be specifically targeted towards, “Retired and other former law enforcement, fire, rescue, and emergency personnel, and other individuals with backgrounds in disaster preparedness, relief, and recovery.”
The bill was rubber stamped by the Senate last night in a 74 to 14 motion, in what is described as a “procedural vote,” a move that creates “An army dispersed to help with education, health services and the environment, (which) would vastly enlarge the notion of “community organizing,” and allow, as Senator Barbara Mikulski, Democrat of Maryland, said tonight, for about 7 million people to be engaged in such work,” reports the New York Times.
The Senate will meet tomorrow morning to formally ratify the bill and finalize amendments. Call your Senator and demand that at least the mandatory language contained in this bill be removed.
References to the program as the creation of a civilian “army” have dominated mainstream news coverage of the legislation.
7 million members of this civilian “army” equates to about one member for every 50 Americans, a similar figure to the number of East Germans who collaborated with the Stasi and informed on their own citizens during the cold war.
The GIVE Act is just one of many pieces of legislation that vastly expand service organizations in line with Obama’s agenda to create a “national civilian security force”.
In January we also reported on the introduction by the Department of Defense of a “civilian expeditionary workforce” that will see American civilians trained and equipped to deploy overseas in support of worldwide military missions.
The DoD report states, “Management retains the authority to direct and assign civilian employees, either voluntarily, involuntarily, or on an unexpected basis to accomplish the DoD mission.”
Though the civilian expeditionary workforce program is restricted to DoD employees, similar programs have already been established for public sector workers.
One such program has seen hundreds of police, firefighters, paramedics and utility workers recently trained and dispatched as “Terrorism Liaison Officers” in Colorado, Arizona and California to watch for “suspicious activity” which is later fed into a secret government database.
Similar initiatives have been introduced in other western countries, including recently in the UK with the announcement that MI5 is currently training up to 60,000 UK citizens as part a civilian network of terrorist spotters, according to Prime Minister Gordon Brown and home secretary, Jacqui Smith.
In addition, Obama’s Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, publicly stated his intention to help create “universal civil defense training” in 2006.
In an interview with Ben Smith of the New York Daily News, Emanuel outlined the agenda for military-style training, essentially a domestic draft, aimed at preparing Americans for a chemical or biological terrorist attack.
Asked by Smith about the universal service plan and whether people would have to live in military barracks, Emanuel laughed before responding, “We’re going to have universal civil defense training, somewhere between the ages of 18 to 25 you will do three months of training….but there can be nothing wrong with all Americans having a joint similar experience of what we call civil defense training or civil service in service of the country, in preparation, which will give people a sense of what it means to be an American.”
“It will be a common experience and we will be prepared, God forbid, God forbid that there is a chemical hit, another terrorist act or natural disaster becoming more frequent - there’ll be a body of citizens who are ready and capable and trained - that’s all you have to think about,” said Emanuel before smugly declaring, “We’re all here for you OK? It’s a circle of love.”
Asked if the training would be military style, with people wearing uniforms, Emanuel stated, “If you’re worried about are you going to have to do 50 jumping jacks the answer is yes,” adding that the service could be done through state national guard.
Shockingly, the GIVE legislation also contains language that could completely demolish the 1st amendment.
The 12th amendment to the act states, “Amendment to prohibit organizations from attempting to influence legislation; organize or engage in protests, petitions, boycotts, or strikes; and assist, promote, or deter union organizing.”
As Gary Wood writes, “Those in support of this legislation will argue this amendment is limited in scope and is not meant to interfere with the rights of citizens to protest, petition, boycott, or strike in resistance to government proposed laws. However, the people associated through service under the GIVE Act are considered volunteers, still free citizens, yet it will be unlawful for them to take part in any protests against any legislation. This is as close to a sedition act, a violation of 1st Amendment rights, as has been proposed in recent history. A basic right as a part of our natural, inalienable rights, is to resist government. Our founders not only knew it was a right but it was a responsibility. This legislation begins to break that down significantly.”
Fears about Obama’s plans to create involuntary servitude and domestic spy squads were first stoked in July 2008, when Obama told a rally in Colorado Springs, “We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that is just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded.”
Despite denials that Obama plans to institute a mandatory program of national service, his original change.gov website stated that Americans would be “required” to complete “50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year”. The text was only later changed to state that Americans would be “encouraged” to undertake such programs.
Numerous other national service bills have been introduced which target everyone from schoolchildren to the elderly. They include the Service For All Ages Initiative, the Summer of Service Act, the Semester of Service Act, the Encore Service Act and the ACTION Act.
Regarding the GIVE Act, “The bill’s opponents — and there are only a few in Congress — say it could cram ideology down the throats of young “volunteers,” many of whom could be forced into service since the bill creates a “Congressional Commission on Civic Service,” reports Fox.
“We contribute our time and money under no government coercion on a scale the rest of the world doesn’t emulate and probably can’t imagine,” said Luke Sheahan, contributing editor for the Family Security Foundation. “The idea that government should order its people to perform acts of charity is contrary to the idea of charity and it removes the responsibility for charity from the people to the government, destroying private initiative.”
Lee Cary of the conservative American Thinker warns that Obama’s agenda is to, “tap into the already active volunteerism of millions of Americans and recruit them to become cogs in a gigantic government machine grinding out his social re-engineering agenda.”
The passage of such shocking legislation with barely a whimper from political activist groups goes to show how well the corporate media has performed in camouflaging the legislation with flowery characterizations of helpful volunteerism, when in reality the bill creates the pretext for mandatory national service and the creation of a multi-million man domestic civil defense unit who will be tasked with spying on their fellow Americans under the justification of protecting the country from terrorism.
let them try just before next years election
They will need fresh voters who don’t know where all the bodies are buried...
Written at midnight and passed by 6 am in the morning, unread, unwritten....Obama can fill in the details later, it was too important for actual scrutiny.
ABSOLUTELY..this will be one of those deals where everyone is watching the right hand while the left hand slides this through either on its own or as a buried amendment to some future bill..
Didn’t Sarah sort of come out for amnesty?
What the heck is wrong with Flake?
We don’t NEED or WANT any more immigration!!! Jerks.
You hit a nerve!
Is Southwestern Ohio the only area of the country where young Hispanic men shack up with fat young white girls and have anchor babies?
It’s at epidemic proportions here! I’m ready to outlaw fat young white girls just to reduce the number of anchor babies!
Try it G-5 Pelosi!!!!The rage against this has not gone away you blithering idiot!
This will destory the conservative movement for 50 years if it passes, as well as America.
It may well be the final act that lights the fuse.
and once legalized they’ll be able to bring in their extended family.
the welfare roles, schools and hospitals will be overloaded. taxpayers gouged.
Kinda. Sorta. Yes. Maybe. Not quite sure because she was McCain's puppet during the election cycle.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2112715/posts
Not total amnesty. You know, people have got to follow the rules. They've got to follow the bar, and we have got to make sure that there is equal opportunity and those who are here legally should be first in line for services being provided and those opportunities that this great country provides."
— Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, 10/22/2008 interview with Univision
So, Gov. Palin, "not total amnesty"? Then what, a partial amnesty? And the illegals should not even be in line for government services and opportunities, period. Not first in line, not second, not third, not even dead last...until they return to their countries of origin and line up to legally immigrate to the United States.
BOHICA ALERT!
Exactly.
I did wonder if Obama beefing up the border was prelude to this. Plenty of conservatives have said that IF we really secured the border, we could then talk about amnesty. I doubt we’ve really secured the border, but Obama will likely talk that talk
You hit a nerve!
Is Southwestern Ohio the only area of the country where young Hispanic men shack up with fat young white girls and have anchor babies?
It’s at epidemic proportions here! I’m ready to outlaw fat young white girls just to reduce the number of anchor babies
I remember seeing such mating rituals in college. Instead of Hispanics it was Arabs.
“Is Southwestern Ohio the only area of the country where young Hispanic men shack up with fat young white girls and have anchor babies?”
Nope.
One state to your west the problem is rampant. Kind of sad to watch it cause you just know the kid hasn’t got a chance.
Meghan McCain won't like that...
This also seriously needs to be just as equally true about ALL RINOS and ALL “ELITIST, PRO-AMNESTY FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS” REPUBLICANS at each and every political level! They seriously can be even more damaging than the Democrats on many issues, because they join the Democrats on many issues and make the conservative coalition on many issues even weaker!
Maybe we should get Megn’s position. Her dad's maid and nanny are probably illegal, like pets to her.
McCain is screwed, either way. If he votes yes, then conservatives attack; if he votes no, then conservatives attack, saying that he voted for it before he voted against it.
The only way for him to save himself is to vote present.
THAT would please everyone......
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.