Free Republic

Contrary to news reports, comprehensive immigration reform is not splintering the Republican Party, Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, tells Newsmax TV. "It's bizarre. I don't find it to be dividing the party," Priebus tells Newsmax in an exclusive interview. "What you have is a consensus in the party that we need immigration reform, and everyone agrees on it."

Both pro- and anti-legalization forces in the immigration fight will be trying to make their cases to House members–especially Republican members–during the August recess. But here’s the fundamental asymmetry in this debate–the pro-legalization forces don’t really need to show up. **snip**I doubt even these GOP leaders themselves know what they’re going to do in the coming months, or maybe even what they want to end up with. But it’s clear they face pressure to pass a legalization bill–and that the pressure is internal, not external. If they let amnesty come to a vote, it won’t be because La Raza stages...

(Reuters) - If immigration reform sputters in the deeply divided U.S. Congress, supporters are planning to push President Barack Obama to act on his own to help 11 million illegal residents, lawmakers and immigration advocates said. Immigration law experts, some senators and House Democratic aides speculated that if Congress cannot agree on a wide-ranging immigration bill this year, Obama could use his executive authority to stop deporting parents of children living in the United States illegally. Many of those children have won temporary reprieves on deportation and broadening the protection to their parents would be a way of keeping immigrant...

Sen. John McCain appears cautiously optimistic that the House of Representatives will ultimately pass some kind of immigration reform — and says that the GOP is doomed in the 2016 presidential contest if the effort fails. “The crystal ball is a little cloudy because I think August is going to be a very seminal month,” he said, pointing out that members are back interacting with constituents and that a broad coalition of interest groups back comprehensive immigration reform. Mr. McCain was part of a bipartisan group that helped get a comprehensive bill through the Democratic-controlled Senate, while leaders of the...

Senator Marco Rubio’s immigration reform effort is in danger. It might seem like his presidential ambitions are in trouble, too. His numbers are down; Chris Christie, Rand Paul, and Ted Cruz are starting to dominate the media’s discussion of 2016. In response, Rubio seems desperate to reestablish his conservative credentials, even by associating with a losing fight to defund Obamacare. That knee-jerk response calls Rubio’s political instincts into question, but his presidential chances are still alive, even if his immigration effort is on life support. Rubio’s immigration bid probably hurt him on the right, but Rubio was never a natural...

One of the most incisive, astute observers of the growing income inequality and stratification that characterizes large portions of this nation’s economy is writer Mickey Kaus. Unique among his colleagues for being a prominent voice within the mainstream media and yellow dog Democrat who opposes the mass, unskilled immigration which the institutional left and its press organs glorify, he know writes a regular column for the conservative Washington D.C. online news magazine The Daily Caller. Kaus’s voice is essential, because it represents the last concrete manifestation of New Deal liberalism untethered to the Democratic Party’s post-1965 infatuation with empowering “new”...

Rand Paul talks some sense that all his fellow Republicans should face on the bugaboo of "amnesty" for those lawbreaking illegal immigrants already in the United States, reported via Mediaite: Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) may have voted against the Senate’s “Gang of Eight” immigration reform bill last week, but he seemingly does not count himself among the conservative critics of the bill who oppose any and all forms of “amnesty” for illegal immigrants currently living inside the United States.In an interview with WNDtv, Sen. Paul took on the critics of so-called “amnesty” who oppose efforts to “normalize” illegal immigrants and...

During football season, the teams that win call the right plays from their playbook. And when it comes to immigration reform, Congress needs to make sure it makes the right calls. The House Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over our immigration laws, is taking a step-by-step approach to immigration reform and building a strategic playbook that first strengthens border security and interior enforcement, improves our legal-immigration programs, and fairly deals with unlawful immigrants. A robust border-security and interior-enforcement strategy is the first line of defense for any successful immigration system. Strong border security not only reduces illegal immigration, it also...

Forced to march in a human chain and lined up with hands behind their heads, this is how to round up illegal immigrants Russian-style. Moscow police launched a no-nonsense crackdown on suspected illegals working on stalls in a market. Officers prodded suspects with batons and pinned them against police vans as searches were carried out. Others were forced to keep their arms in the air while police looked for documents – or a lack of them. The suspects were then frog-marched on to a police bus with their hands on the shoulders of the person in front, and driven away...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - August might not be much of a recess for U.S. lawmakers weary from bruising budget fights and nomination showdowns: the break promises a frenzy of meetings in their home districts with activists trying to pressure them on immigration and health care reform.

WASHINGTON -- Forty protesters, including union leader Eliseo Medina of the Service Employees International Union, were arrested Thursday afternoon for blocking passage outside the U.S. Capitol during a demonstration urging the House to pass comprehensive immigration reform. As they chanted and held up signs saying, “GOP, do you want our vote?” about 200 protesters from pro-immigrant union and community groups called for the House to take up the Senate bill, which passed June 27. The Senate legislation would grant 11 million undocumented immigrants immediate legal status and a pathway to citizenship while adding $30 billion for border security. About 40%...

The first woman to graduate from the Citadel is planning to challenge South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham in the Republican primary next year. Charleston businesswoman Nancy Mace will head to Goose Creek Saturday to announce her Senate campaign, The Daily Caller News Foundation has learned. “This isn’t about one senator,” Mace told TheDCNF. “The only way to change Washington is to change who we send to Washington.” “Washington is out of touch,” she added. “Voters are frustrated. They’re looking for someone authentic.” In a June fundraising email, the Senate Conservatives Fund listed Graham as one of three Republican senators the...

Among rank and file Republicans anger over the idea of granting amnesty to illegal aliens is a ticking time bomb that will explode in the faces of the Republican Establishment (GOPe). This is the only reasonable conclusion to be drawn from the polling data being ignored by the GOPe. Numerous polls show huge 60% plus majorities against “amnesty before border security.” A visitor from another galaxy would have to conclude that since politicians’ only concern is re-election; the sheer weight of poll numbers against amnesty would stop House Republicans from granting amnesty to illegals. That visitor might be wrong. A...

If the Senate immigration bill came up for a vote in the House, it would probably pass — some of the Republicans and almost all of the Democrats would combine for 218 votes. But conservatives have extracted promises from John Boehner not to let that happen, and the Speaker has dutifully pledged to keep the House from voting on any bill that lacks the support of most Republicans. That would seem to make comprehensive reform pretty dead, right? Except Paul Ryan, who clearly wants to pass a bill, floated a way around this promise: -snip- So the plan he's discussing...

Last year, New York Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, suggested that illegal immigrants be sent to Detroit. See: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/bloomberg-make-immigrants-live-detroit-if-they-survive-7-years-make-them-citizens I think that this is a great idea. Because of America's highest crime rates, 65 percent of the population of Detroit left the city, so there is a lot of room in the city. The illegal immigrants should be forcibly transported to Detroit, and not receive any government welfare of any kind, and the government should block all exits from Detroit to prevent the immigrants from fleeing from Detroit for two years.

A union representing 12,000 federal immigration workers is warning top House Republicans against legalizing young undocumented immigrants. The union is made up of employees of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which handles immigration paperwork. In a letter sent on Tuesday to four Republicans, including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (Virginia) and Rep. Paul Ryan (Wisconsin), the union expressed worries about a Republican bill that would legalize DREAMers. Since President Obama has already given deportation relief to young undocumented immigrants -- and bypassed Congress to do it -- the union worries he might similarly use his executive power to rework...

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) said Wednesday that comprehensive immigration reform has the support of dozens of members of the Republican majority in the House of Representatives. Among GOP backers of comprehensive reform he cited Wisconsin’s Paul Ryan, the 2012 Republican candidate for vice president. Gutierrez said 195 of the 201 Democrats in the House would vote for a reform bill similar to the one passed last month by the Senate, meaning that fewer than two dozen Republican votes would be needed to reach the magic number of 218 required to pass it.

Video posted first by left-wing site ThinkProgress shows House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) during a recent town hall meeting in Racine, Wisconsin discussing trying to find a way around the Hastert Rule in bringing immigration reform bills to the floor of the House. A transcript of the exchange is below: QUESTIONER: One of the biggest frustrations we’re seeing right now is hearing Speaker Boehner, that he’s going to follow the Hastert Rule. That he’s not going to bring any of these bills forward unless they have a majority support of the majority party. What’s your position, should...

A federal judge dismissed immigration agents’ lawsuit trying to overturn the administration’s non-deportation policies, arguing the court didn’t have jurisdiction because it was a personnel matter subject to collective bargaining. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and officers had argued that federal law requires them to arrest any illegal immigrants they encounter, disputing President Obama’s guidance that told them only to arrest those illegal immigrants who appear to have serious criminal records.

SALINAS, Calif. (AP) — On a windy morning in California’s Salinas Valley, a tractor pulled a wheeled, metal contraption over rows of budding iceberg lettuce plants. Engineers from Silicon Valley tinkered with the software on a laptop to ensure the machine was eliminating the right leafy buds. The engineers were testing the Lettuce Bot, a machine that can “thin” a field of lettuce in the time it takes about 20 workers to do the job by hand. The thinner is part of a new generation of machines that target the last frontier of agricultural mechanization – fruits and vegetables destined...