Free Republic

<p>Immigration reform opponents on the right have a tricky problem: So many of their conservative superstars support comprehensive reform that it’s hard to make it out to be a liberal scheme to snooker the public — well, unless you airbrush some people out of the picture.</p>

A few thousand protesters hit the streets in Los Angles Wednesday to demand citizenship for illegal immigrants. The protesters hope to influence Congress, which is working on comprehensive immigration reform. … In Texas, just the debate itself is drawing new immigrants over the border. Juan Mercado lives on border property his family has owned since the 1850s. Immigrants often sneak across there. But since January, the number has tripled. … Border patrol agents in the Rio Grande sector tell CBS News apprehensions have risen from 2,800 in January to 7,500 in March. …

In the current debate over revamping the nation's immigration laws, there may be no elected official with more on the line than Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. Rubio, a Republican and Cuban-American from Miami, was elected to the Senate with strong support from the Tea Party and other conservatives. Rubio's challenge is to convince conservative skeptics that by supporting an immigration overhaul, he hasn't betrayed them. Among other things, the Senate immigration bill tightens security on the borders and creates a pathway for immigrants who came to the country illegally to become citizens. Eight senators — four Democrats and four Republicans...

Sen. Lindsey Graham predicts 70 votes for the 'Gang of Eight' bill with Marco Rubio on board.It is rare in Washington for the trend lines on a controversial issue to come together as favorably as they have for immigration reform. Public support is roughly around 70%, according to various polls, with Gallup having it at 72%. Senate Republicans blocked an overhaul of immigration laws in 2007 but now a substantial bloc of Republicans, alarmed by the GOP's shrunken share of the Hispanic vote in the 2012 election, are eager to enact "comprehensive" reform legislation. For their part, Hispanic groups recognize...

The Mark Zuckerberg-backed organization pressing for immigration reform will launch its first wave of television ads Tuesday, in a move aimed at shoring up support for a large-scale immigration deal on the right, strategists for the group told POLITICO. FWD.us, the organization formed to push Silicon Valley’s priorities in Washington, will advocate for a new immigration law through a subsidiary group created specifically to court conservatives. Americans for a Conservative Direction will spend seven figures to run ads in more than half a dozen states, according to strategists who sketched out the organization’s plans. Continue Reading Text Size - +...

I have been quite skeptical about the ability of the Republican party to win over Latino voters. As others and I have noted, Latinos don't vote Democratic just because of immigration policy. They vote Democratic because they are more ideologically "in sync" with the Democratic party. That's why I've felt that going along with immigration reform was unlikely to net Republicans many Latino voters. That said, I can't agree either with the math in a Politico article titled "Immigration reform could be a bonanza for Democrats". The article starts off promisingly enough with the premise that if immigration reform passed...

Paul Ryan says the Gang of Eight’s immigration-reform plan is “productive” and “getting us closer to a solution.” Ryan will give a speech on Monday in Chicago on immigration. Representative Luis Gutierrez of Illinois, a Democrat, will appear with him.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R.-Fla.), one of eight senators who have crafted legislation that would put illegal aliens on a path to U.S. citizenship, explained in a Senate floor speech yesterday that one of the reasons he wants to do this is that he believes illegal aliens are currently driving on U.S. roads without drivers licenses and auto insurance and his bill would encourage them to get licenses and buy insurance. Rubio explained that under his bill, ilegal aliens who “have committed serious crimes” will be deported. However, the proposal will apparently not deem as a serious crime the habit of...

Sen. Rubio defends emerging immigration deal as ‘not amnesty’ By Cameron Joseph - 04/14/13 09:38 AM ET Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) blitzed all five Sunday shows in his most public pitch yet for the emerging immigration reform bill, arguing that it would control the border, and rejecting conservative criticisms that it provided “amnesty” for illegal immigrants in the country. "This is not amnesty. Amnesty is the forgiveness of something. Amnesty is anything that says 'do it illegally, it'll be cheaper and easier,'" Rubio, a member of the bipartisan ‘Gang of Eight’ senators set to unveil their immigration bill on Tuesday,...

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which detained two undocumented Irishmen earlier this week in Boston on charges of fraudulently obtaining driver’s licenses, stated that is not specifically targeting the Boston Irish community.Irish Central has also learned that the men first came to the attention of ICE investigators based on prior convictions for driving offenses.

President Obama’s second big dinner with Senate Republicans will be at the White House Wednesday night, press secretary Jay Carney said Tuesday. Carney declined to say which senators will join Obama but Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), who is organizing the guest list, said Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) will join him at the dinner. Isakson’s office said he would release the full guest list Wednesday. The dinner follows Obama’s initial outreach to Senate Republicans last month. That dinner grew out of discussions Obama had with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). Carney said topics of discussion will include Obama’s...

One of Hollywood’s leading executives who supports the Republican party said the GOP is being “hijacked” by anti-immigration groups and other special interests. Michael Burns, the vice chairman of Lions Gate Entertainment, the filmmaker and entertainment powerhouse, tells Newsmax TV in an exclusive interview the GOP needs to open up to Hispanics and other immigrant groups or it will wither. “The Republicans are losing a marvelous opportunity to embrace the Hispanic community through immigration reform and it’s now or never,” he said. “The moderates that I know—and I consider myself a moderate—feel very strongly about this.” …

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is forming a new issues advocacy group to promote immigration reform, education and other policies aimed at growing the economy. … High-tech companies have stepped-up their lobbying on immigration to get more visas for high-tech workers, but the people involved say Zuckerberg’s interest is broader and includes citizenship for those here illegally. …

On his March 19th show, Rush Limbaugh declared that amnesty for illegal aliens would be “a death sentence for the Republicans.” That’s because amnesty includes the ability to legally vote, Limbaugh reasoned. Citing poll data, Limbaugh said that 70 percent of Hispanics “say that they believe that government should be the primary source of prosperity.” Therefore, Rush says, “Let’s say you have ten million illegals: seven million of them are automatically gonna vote Democrat. Republican Party’s finished.” “It’s a mathematics conclusion. It’s not any more complicated than that. And there’s nothing that the Republicans can do,” Rush continued. …

Vice President Joe Biden says Irish Americans should rally behind Hispanics in their push to get immigration reform through Congress. The reason: Hispanics and the Irish both have had to bear more than their share of discrimination. “There are 11 million [undocumented] Hispanics, who by the way, are just as proud, just as noble, care just as much about their families, as we do,” Biden told 300 Irish American leaders in New York Thursday. …

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives is preparing to vote today on the Senate-approved continuing resolution to fund the government for the rest of this fiscal year that would give the Obama administration the discretion to slightly decrease the number of Border Patrol agents. That could make 2013 the second year in a row when the administration has decreased the size of the Border Patrol, according to official data released by the Border Patrol itself. In fiscal 2011, according to the Border Patrol, there were 21,444 Border Patrol agents. Of these, 232 were deployed along U.S. coastlines, 2,237 were deployed along...

There are 23 names on the Conservative Political Action Conference's much watched 2016 GOP presidential nomination straw poll. And there's one glaring omission: Jeb Bush. It appears the former two-term Florida governor is the reason his name isn't on the ballot. "He requested not to be put on the poll this year," an official with the American Conservative Union, the group that puts on CPAC, told CNN.

As the GOP struggles to broaden its appeal, the head of the American Conservative Union declared Thursday that the Republican Party is not a home for everyone, as prominent voices in Republican politics gather with thousands of conservatives and tea party activists outside Washington. The Conservative Political Action Conference offers Republican leaders—past and potential presidential contenders among them—a high-profile stage to court their party's most passionate voters. The three-day gathering also shines a spotlight on deep divisions within the Republican Party as it tries to recover from a painful 2012 election season. “I’m a firm believer that if the Republican...

Paul Cellucci, ambassador to Canada under President George W. Bush, has a novel solution to much of the immigration problem—allow citizens of the United States, Canada, and Mexico to work freely in any of the three countries. That would be the final logical step of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the three countries, he says. …

The eight senators meet in private several times a week, alternating between Sen. John McCain’s and Sen. Charles Schumer’s offices. They sit in arm chairs arranged in a circle and sip water or soft drinks as they debate temporary workers and border security. In a capital riven by partisanship and gridlock, they are determined to be the exception and actually get something done. This is immigration reform’s “Gang of Eight.” With them lies the best hope in years for overhauling the nation’s byzantine immigration laws—and they know it. … The legislation the group is working on would secure the border;...