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President Obama sought Wednesday to reassure Democrats nervous about the impact of his health care law and the prospects for immigration legislation, telling them "You're on the right side of history." In the first of two closed-door meetings on Capitol Hill, Obama focused on financial gains as the economy emerges from the worst downturn since the Depression. He was warned about nominating former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers as chairman of the Federal Reserve and faced questions about his health care law. Some lawmakers complained that three years after its passage, the law still baffles many Americans. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo.,...

Saying that Republicans “ought to be welcoming immigrants” as representatives of the party’s entrepreneurial and family values, a group of major California GOP donors Tuesday issued a public letter urging the state GOP delegation move on immigration reform — now. The letter from the donors, who include former San Francisco Giants managing general partner Peter Macgowan, conservative writer and analyst David Horowitz, and former Ambassador to the United Kingdom Robert Tuttle, says immigration reform represents both “good politics and good policy.” They’re urging members of the California delegation to act now to ensure its passage — now. Here’s a full...

MOSCOW, July 29 (RIA Novosti) – Police have rounded up 300 people to be “checked for complicity in crimes and offenses,” at markets around Moscow after an officer’s skull was bashed in while he attempted to detain a suspected sex offender, the city’s police department said Monday. “The raids are continuing,” the department said, “to de-criminalize Moscow marketplaces on instructions from police chief Anatoly Yakunin.” On Saturday, a team of officers was attacked by a crowd of 20 to 25 people at the Matveyevsky food market in western Moscow as they were detaining a man suspected of sexually assaulting a...

MOSCOW, July 30 (RIA Novosti) –Moscow police had rounded up over five hundred people in the city’s marketplaces by Tuesday morning following an attack over the weekend on a police officer trying to detain a suspected sex offender at a food market. Some 560 people have been detained in sweep checks in Moscow's southwestern district, city police said on their website Tuesday. On Saturday, a team of police officers was attacked by a crowd of 20 to 25 people at the Matveyevsky food market in western Moscow as they were detaining a man suspected of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl.

Keeping immigration on the back-burner helps avoid a recess filled with angry town-hall meetings reminiscent of the heated August 2009 protests where the backlash against health care reform coalesced. Doing nothing also starves Democrats of a target, Republicans argue. But for Boehner, who by all accounts wants to see some kind of immigration reform pass, that raised serious strategic problems. First, passing tougher enforcement measures before August would take all the momentum away from other more divisive measures, such as giving “Dreamers,” the children brought to the United States illegally, a legal option for staying in the country. While House...

WASHINGTON — Despite the Republican strategy of passing piecemeal immigration reform, Sen. John McCain predicted today that comprehensive legislation can pass the GOP-controlled House. “I think this fall is very important,” McCain said at a forum hosted by AFL-CIO and the Economic Policy Institute. “Let’s say we enact it, comprehensive immigration reform — I don’t think it gains a single Hispanic voter, but what it does, it puts us on a playing field where we can compete for the Hispanic voter,” McCain told PBS’ Gwen Ifill. “If we don’t do that, frankly, I don’t see — I see further polarization...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) signaled Tuesday that the dramatic boost in border-security in the Senate’s comprehensive immigration bill could be one of the provisions that may be changed in a potential House-Senate compromise.

Nearly a hundred top Republican officials sent a letter to the House GOP on Tuesday urging lawmakers to pass a bill that legalizes illegal immigrants, arguing that the current system is already allowing them to stay and so it makes sense to register them and bring them into the system. The donors, led by former Bush administration Cabinet officials Carlos Gutierrez and Spencer Abraham, also said that immigrants are potential Republican voters who can be won over — if the party can be seen as welcoming to immigrants. “Doing nothing is de facto amnesty. We need to take control of...

The Gang of Eight pro-amnesty Senators are trying to con the House of Representatives into passing parts of an anti-American amnesty bill so they can get a Chuck Schumer-dominated conference committee and bamboozle Representatives into going along with their sellout plans. The few pro-amnesty Republican Senators had Marco Rubio as the salesman for the unpopular amnesty bill, and the few pro-amnesty Republicans in the House have Paul Ryan to play the same un-Republican role. The Gang of Eight patted itself on the back for successfully passing their bill in the Senate, but, funny thing, the bill was never forwarded to...

Pointing to the “broad spectrum of support” from faith, labor and business groups that have lined up to support comprehensive immigration reform that includes a road map to citizenship, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) told the AFL-CIO Citizenship 2013 forum today, “I am confident we can prevail.” McCain and Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) kicked off the forum (we will bring more coverage later today) with a question-and-answer session at the AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, D.C., about the bill’s prospects in the House after bipartisan (68–32) passage in the U.S. Senate. Without mentioning House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who has said he...

Little is known about Sergio Martinez-Perez, who is accused of killing a 93-year-old Omaha woman and is in the United States illegally. Martinez-Perez, 19, was formally charged Friday with first-degree murder in the rape and slaying of Louise Sollowin. He is a native of Sonora, Mexico. Shawn Neudauer, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Friday that federal authorities have placed a detainer on Martinez-Perez. That means that if Douglas County authorities were to release him, he would be placed in ICE custody. Neudauer said he couldn't comment on the specifics of Martinez-Perez's immigration status, citing agency policy....

Karl Rove, 100+ GOP Donors Send Letter to Republicans Urging Immigration Reform by Tony Lee 30 Jul 2013, 6:18 AM PDT post a comment Karl Rove and more than one hundred Republican donors sent a letter to Republican members of Congress on Tuesday, urging them to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill that would include, among other provisions, granting "legal status" to illegal aliens who meet certain criteria. Anticipating that lawmakers will face resistance to the bill when they go home for the August recess, the letter marks the escalation of a campaign in which Republican leaders and donors are...

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) joined several of his colleagues in denouncing controversial comments from Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) on immigration, calling them “inappropriate” in an interview with Telemundo set to air Sunday. King last week suggested that children of undocumented immigrants were being used as drug mules. House Speaker John Boehner also condemned King’s comments Thursday. “It is not helpful,” Goodlatte said in the interview with José Díaz-Balart, according to a transcript. “It is inappropriate, it does not help the discussion, it’s not accurate, and there are ways to have a discussion about the legitimate policy issues...

Over the past few months, I’ve been advocating for a proactive strategy on immigration. It would be great for conservatives to go on offense and highlight Obama’s callous disregard for the rule of law. They should pass enforcement bills and block funding for Obama’s amnesty programs in budget bills. Unfortunately, because we are not blessed with control over the levers of power, any attempt to address this issue – even in a conservative pro-active way – will backfire. Earlier today, Politico quoted a leadership aide who summed up exactly what we believe to be leadership’s strategy on immigration: “Our members,...

At a Hispanic Listening Session Friday, Paul Ryan met a man he said summed up why he’s pushing to reform the country’s immigration system. Gustavo Vargas described coming to the U.S. from Mexico to work, without detailing his immigration status. When his five-year-old son died, Vargas said, he made the hard decision to bury the boy here. He and his family “love the United States, and we want to stay here, to live,” Vargas told the congressman. Later, he said quietly that he wasn’t looking for attention, “I just wanted him to understand.” In front of around 300 people in...

Rep. Karen Bass meets with constituents to discuss measures being debated in Congress; the crowd is sharply divided. Keith Hardiner, 57, said he is the descendant of slaves. "They were separated from their families, but we had to fight and struggle," said the Silver Lake resident. "And now I feel like we are being set back and the country is being kind of stolen from us."

Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio warned in an op-ed on Thursday that there is “mounting evidence” Obamacare creates more problems than it solves and he called on lawmakers to stop the “disastrous” law from taking effect. “It is time to admit that Obamacare isn't going to work, decide not to waste a single cent more on it, and replace it with market-based reforms that will give people more health insurance choices and options,” Rubio penned on the Fox News website. “It's still not too late. This September may be our last best chance to do anything about this disastrous law.”...

After four days in detention, the Dream 9 are still waiting to find out their future. But immigrant advocacy groups are stepping up the pressure. The National Immigrant Youth Alliance has collected signatures from 22 members of Congress in a letter urging President Obama to grant the Dreamers humanitarian parole and bring them home. The letter campaign will continue throughout the weekend with an announcement on Monday of the legislators who support bringing the Dream 9 home. Congressman Luis Gutierrez has already expressed his support of the Bring Them Home campaign on his Facebook page. “My staff met with Maria...

* But even if the Senate legislation favored by Obama became law tomorrow, more than one in four illegal immigrants would remain undocumented and outside the system, according to federal estimates. That gap worries many reform proponents, who fear that the system would leave millions living in the shadows without legal protection. They would also be subject to harsher workplace requirements and enforcement measures included in the plan. “We are very disappointed with that number because we really want to reform the system once and for all and make sure we legalize all people who are not committing crimes,” said...

Rubio’s Staff Tells Us He’s No Movement ConservativeBy Richard A. Viguerie | 7/22/13 Since he became the face of the hated S. 744 – the Senate’s Gang of Eight amnesty for illegal immigrants bill – Florida’s Republican Senator Marco Rubio has experienced one of the most precipitous falls from grace we can recall in our over 50-years of involvement in conservative politics at the national level. A year ago Rubio was at the top, or running second, in pretty much every important measure of Republican preference for the Party’s 2016 presidential nomination. Today, he isn’t even in the top...