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Posted on 07/11/2013 4:33:40 PM PDT by markomalley
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) are drafting legislation to provide a path to citizenship for immigrant children who were brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents, their offices said Thursday.
The bill, which a Cantor spokeswoman said is in its “early stages,” would be the first House Republican proposal to address the status of illegal immigrants, but it would not go nearly as far as Democrats want. While the legislation resembles the Dream Act that is part of the Senate immigration bill, aides said it would not be as broad.
The Senate Dream Act provides an expedited path to citizenship for children and for young adults in college or who have served in the military. The House GOP proposal, by contrast, may be limited to younger people. “As part of the step-by-step approach the House is taking to address immigration reform, Leader Cantor and I are working on a bill to provide a legal status to those who were brought illegally to the U.S. as children by their parents,” Goodlatte said in a statement Thursday.
“These children came here through no fault of their own and many of them know no other home than the United States,” Goodlatte said. “This is one component of immigration reform — any successful reform plan must improve our legal immigration programs, strengthen border security and the interior enforcement of our immigration laws, and find a way to fairly deal with those who are currently in the country unlawfully.”
Aides said there is no timetable for when the proposal would get a committee hearing or vote.
The Judiciary Committee has already approved four immigration bills dealing with interior enforcement, an e-verify system for employers, high-skilled visas and an agricultural guest-worker program.
Democrats said the move was a welcome sign from Republicans who have been reluctant to provide any legal status to illegal immigrants. But they said it is not enough.
“You’ve got to deal with all aspects of the broken immigration system,” said Rep. Xavier Becerra (Calif.), the House Democratic caucus chairman who is working on a bipartisan, comprehensive bill. “You can help the kids, but if you leave the parents behind, you still have a very broken system.”
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has said the House would move immigration reform on a step-by-step basis rather than with a comprehensive bill. Becerra said the system could not be fixed with “band-aids” or “in pieces.”
“I’m not in the Republican conference. I’m not the Speaker,” Becerra said. “The Speaker has to determine how he can try to move things forward. I will simply say that we know what it takes to fix the broken immigration system. Pieces don’t fix the machine. You’ve got to fix the machine. You know, man up, do it right, get it done.”
Several lawmakers made compelling cases for approving some version of the Dream Act during Wednesday’s closed-door House GOP meeting on immigration reform.
“It seemed like a lot more people [thought] that if you were brought here as a child and you graduate valedictorian — how can we be against it?,” one veteran lawmaker told The Hill after the meeting. “A lot of people said that and I was surprised.”
An embrace of any form of the Dream Act would represent a shift by the GOP, especially since just last month the House voted to kill policies that give officials discretion to not deport illegal immigrants considered low-risk.
Only six Republicans opposed the amendment sponsored by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) and approved by the House in a 224-201 vote.
Republican leaders have consistently voted against the Democrats' Dream Act over the last several years.
According to one member of the Republican leadership team who spoke to The Hill on the condition of anonymity, it was apparent at Wednesday's lengthy meeting that "there was a growing recognition" the GOP needed to deal with the issue.
"I think there's growing support to deal with that in immigration — that immigration is changing before our eyes because our kids have grown up with these kids, they're in the families, they're in the neighborhoods, they are graduating with our kids and it's like, what the heck are you going to do with a 18-year-old valedictorian who was brought in when they were one or two?," the lawmaker said.
Cantor's effort on a Republican Dream Act is consistent with a post-election speech he delivered at the American Enterprise Institute in February. When it comes to immigration reform, Cantor said at the time, "a good place to start is with the kids."
He added, "One of the great founding principles of our country was that children would not be punished for the mistakes of their parents."
Last year, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) planned to offer the a Republican version of the Dream Act, but later opted not to.
The day this Bill is thrown in the hopper, I’m officially no longer a Republican.
They are pansies, not worthy of my time and efforts.
I decided long ago to trust no one in the GOP. They all have their price.... ALL of them.
Freedom Party, here we come!!
So most of them think that if a child was brought here and then graduates valedictorian that they should become citizens. Okay, how many is that? 2? 3??? Couldn’t be many so I am okay with that. Everyone else has to go.
Why don’t they just be honest and pass the Senate bill?
We have no friends in DC.
FREEDOM PARTY!
I agree with you! And I’m on the executive committee:o)
LOL
Somebody needs to tell Palin that she is needed for bigger fish than Alaskan halibut.
We have a Freedom Party to start.
This comes under the generality of “It’s for the children.” It is designed to paint Republicans in a corner. If any Republican objects, their words testify that they are heartless, cruel, mean spirited beasts (you would think they are pro-abortion) and will allow the Democrats to join in the frenzy. Their objective is amnesty. These two Republicans are truly devious snakes.
Why not create a law, that every person who is a citizen of Mexico is automatically a citizen of the United States. And for every new citizen, they should strip one current citizen of citizenship.
I am with you !
You can fix ignorance ,.. but you can't fix STUPID !!
Fool me once , shame on YOU !
Fool Me TWICE , shame on Me !!
This might be what ends up happening:
The establishment and Boner realize a 3rd party will form if they pass full on amnesty. However, they will be assaulted by the media and big business as racists if they pass nothing. In exchange for some border security figleafs that will probably never be enforced, the House will overwhelmingly pass Dream Act amnesty for wannabe anchor babies.
Republicans get their “border security”, Dems get most of what they want with amnesty, everyone wins. Except Americans.
Odd that he picks something Obama has already practically done by executive decree.
And where is that great founding principle stated? Utopian blather. Children are constantly disadvantaged for the mistakes of their parents and government can't change that.
Does Cantor also think that children should be rewarded with something people all over the world want, but will never have, rewarded with US citizenship because their parents are in the US illegally and have been serial lawbreakers all the time they've been here?
I just sent the speaker an e-mail and let him know how I felt. I suggest all of you do it as we speack.
“I asked about the purpose of the government agency he heads, since I had never heard of such a thing. He said its purpose is to increase the flow of Mexican nationals to the United States. I asked, ‘Why?’
"’It serves Mexico's needs,’ he said, and ticked off a list of such things as remittances to Mexico of $10 billion a year, which is 30 percent of the Mexican GDP [gross domestic product]. It provides employment for an exploding population, it alleviates social instability due to rising unemployment and it provides training for Mexicans, ultimately repatriating those skills back to Mexico.
"I responded to his final aim - repatriation of trained and skilled Mexicans back into Mexico - and asked, ‘Then your government would oppose amnesty for the illegal Mexicans in the United States?’
"He cried, ‘Oh no! We support amnesty totally. . . . by populating the United States with millions of Hispanics who are tied economically, politically and linguistically to Mexico, we are able to exert enormous influence and pressure on U.S. policy and its dealings with Mexico.’
"President Vicente Fox believes the U.S. border is a figment of the imagination. In fact, Fox and/or members of his government stated at one point that the borders of Mexico extend much farther north than currently drawn on the map.”
I’m not okay with that. Parents raise their children abroad in foreign countries legally all the time—without them somehow because of that earning citizenship in that country. Businessmen, diplomats, NGO workers, missionaries, etc., all raise their children abroad—but legally—and it is not some undue hardship that the children do not automatically become citizens of that country.
The same should apply even more so with children brought in and raised here illegally!
Ha ha.
She came out on the right side of this issue just in time—and we do need a new party that will follow through on it as well.
I despise these traitorous bastards.
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