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.
Fred Malek has been active in GOP circles for many, many years and a woman who worked with Sarah Palin in television and as an aide when she was governor worked with Malek in DC.
During the 2008 campaign there was a photo taken of Sarah during the campaign with Rick Perry and Fred Malek on the same plane with her.
I can vouch for Sarah Palin being good. The other two.....
That may be. The information given can be verified at the websites of those organizations. I’ve given the links, check it for yourself.
and there it is. was there ever any doubt?
and out of all the senate disaster to start with support of unconstitutional chain-migration as their first bill. it boggles the mind. wow they really want to accelerate the drawing of illegals from the womb.
they said chill it will not pass the House and then they do this.
predictable
right. they need a vehicle to get to conference. this piecemeal/unconstitutional crap was just a ruse. they want a conference so they can complete amnesty with the dems.
i seem to recall that boehner and company went along with pelosi and the dream act by showing up in the 2010 lameduck. so in retrospect, even the choice of bill isn’t a complete surprise.
Great.
Let’s reward the scumbag, illegal alien parents and encourage more.
One call. Great job........sort of like I suspected. /s........as for being a cheer squad, no, I’m not at all, I just don’t sit around and bitch when they haven’t done anything wrong yet presuming they will. Yep, I prefer to actually try to put pressure on; like I said, if we fail with our pressure, when they ACTUALLY do a wrong thing, I’ll be as pissed as anyone. Here’s my post of the two possibilities of what’s going on; right now I am thinking it’s the second possiblity, but if it’s the first, I’ll join you. Seeing the manner of your posts, if it’s the second you’ll probably still just bitch: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3041685/posts?page=41#41
Paging Sarah Palin. Ms. Palin, please pick up the white courtesy phone. We have a Freedom Party to start.
Yep... I remember just a few days ago how they insisted any move on immigration would require border security uber alles.
Liars, all.
We don't need amnesty, we need to drastically cut back on all the freebies and special treatment we continue to give deadbeats and illegals. The illegal problem will take care of itself when there is nothing left to be had in this country. And imagine that, with illegals splitting south there "should" be plenty of jobs for deadbeats to do as well.
crafty RINOs crafting the destruction of America.
I’ve never subscribed to a ‘third party’ stategery. But I must say, the GOP has let me down and disappointed. Besides Ted Cruz and Palin, who has really stood up for Conservative Values in this country! I think the time just might be right for the FREEDOM PARTY.
The ‘race myth’ argument isn’t particularly relevant or totally true. It is the native Latin American population and ‘black Hispanics’ who underperform in school and economically and who are the target of this ‘protection’ that a perpetual underclass is beholden to the Democrats and the state.
That a few Cubans and whatnot of Spanish or other European descent are caught in the net is not a major issue for their purposes.
What part of our immigration is broken? The fact that every foreign national has to wait a length of time to become citizens?
Or the fact that we no longer have the national will to get rid of 12 million illegals so we should just open the borders?
Amnesty passes then FUGOP.
Start performing for the AMERICAN Citizens first - that is what we elect you to do.
For the good of the children...
We have some of the most 'forehead palm inducing moments' elected officials in our ranks. Is there any loyalists in our government's ranks?
I sure don't see them.
I am amazed on a daily basis about how reactive republicans are, and about what they choose to focus on!!!!! All these scandals in the WH, these outrageous gas prices for the past 5 years, inflation in food prices, the disgusting high unemployment... and all we hear about every stinking day is Trayvon Martin and immigration???? Are you frikin kidding me? This party is absolutely useless. Useless! I never felt this way until the past year or 2. I won’t vote 3rd party, but we need to reset this one now!
This is another instance of the non-GOPe jumping on, yet another, ‘good idea’...ala Rubio. One ‘shining moment’ and you can hear the stampede.
- Do we REALLY need another party? No other(s) more closely aligned with ones’ ideals/thoughts re: Freedom, Liberty and the Constitution?
- What is this party platform? Do they still support SS/Medicare/etc., the War on XYZ, NSA, TSA...??
- What ‘teeth’ will they put into their platform/candidates?
- Don’t we have enough ‘figure/talking heads’?
I think a lot of people are putting their attention where it will have an immediate impact on their lives and fortunes (the Zimmerman trial). We are all George Zimmerman, we may soon find out what this country is made of when a verdict comes in. If he is found guilty, it is open season on whitey, if he is acquitted, it is open season on whitey - but in a much more immediate and visceral way. I fully expect riots and killings if he is acquitted; emboldenment beyond the likes of what we have already seen if he’s found guilty.
We should know within the next week WRT the Zimmerman trial; however, this bill will take at least a few weeks to start getting into committee - so it has a longer half-life.
That’s my nickel...
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