Free Republic

The House Republican leadership’s broad framework for overhauling the nation’s immigration laws will call this week for a path to legal status — but not citizenship — for many of the 11 million adult immigrants who are in the country illegally, according to aides who have seen the party’s statement of principles. For immigrants brought to the United States illegally as young children, the Republicans would offer a path to citizenship. -snip- House Republican leaders will circulate it at a three-day retreat for their members that begins Wednesday on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Several pro-immigration organizations that have been...

As House Republicans prepare to wrestle with their differences on immigration at an annual retreat next week, one GOP lawmaker from the Central Valley is signaling there may be movement on an issue that has split the party. At the same time, a high-profile group of bipartisan leaders met in Silicon Valley Thursday to unveil a report showing immigrants are key to a robust U.S. economy. The report by the Bipartisan Policy Center was released by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, both Republicans, and former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development...

Some of Texas’ biggest business trade groups are moving to counter tea party and anti-government forces that have dominated recent Republican primaries. The movement mirrors the schism happening nationally between hard right and establishment Republicans. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce recently pledged $50 million to back pro-business Republicans in U.S. Senate primaries and fight tea party insurgents. Michael Quinn Sullivan, president of the fiscal-hawk group Empower Texans said the Texas Future Business Alliance is nothing but a group of big-money interests wanting taxpayer dollars to flow into their pockets. “This is what we’ve come to expect coming out of the...

Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) executive director Mark Krikorian said on Thursday that House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is by far the most open borders-minded member of the U.S. Congress—even more so than Democrats like Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), who is aggressively and publicly calling for President Barack Obama to halt deportations of illegal aliens. "Paul Ryan is probably the most ideologically committed open-borders person in Congress. I would say even more than the Democrats,” Krikorian said in an interview with American Family Radio’s Sandy Rios, One News Now reports. One News Now’s Chad Groening added that...

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), speaking at a forum on women leadership on Wednesday, said immigration is a woman issue, because the male has either been deported or the father “is not present.” “I think that folks who have dealt with refugees and immigrant families see how much it impacts women, because so often many times, the male is not there. Either he’s been deported or the dad is not present. And immigration is really a woman issue. It’s a family-centered issue,” Ros-Lehtinen said at the forum sponsored by Politico. …

The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is pressuring the House to act on immigration legislation before the end of the year, calling the issue “a matter of great moral urgency” that cannot wait. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, said in a letter to Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, on Thursday that he was troubled by reports that immigration reform is delayed in the House since lawmakers have a responsibility to resolve the issue. … “As a moral matter … our nation cannot continue to receive the benefits of the work and contributions of undocumented immigrants...

Speaking to a group of business leaders at the White House on Tuesday, President Barack Obama said he did not see any reason a “pathway to citizenship” for illegal aliens could not be enacted before the end of this year. To make his point, he argued that there are “some very conservative folks” who “believe that now is the time to get this done.” …

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is planning to release legislation next week that would provide legal status for six years to undocumented immigrants in the United States, he said in an interview Wednesday. Issa, an influential Republican who leads the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, described the legislation as a “come-from-the-shadows” effort that would allow the government to do a full accounting of those who are in the U.S. illegally. Immigrants in this new status would be able to travel to their native country while on this temporary visa, he said.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio has endorsed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell over his Tea Party primary challenger: Washington (CNN) - One-time tea party favorite Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, said Sunday he supports Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s bid for re-election in 2014. McConnell is facing a primary challenge in his home state of Kentucky from businessman Matt Bevin, who was endorsed by the influential Senate Conservatives Fund on Friday. “Matt Bevin is a true conservative who will fight to stop the massive spending, bailouts, and debt that are destroying our country. He is not afraid to stand up to the...

Dozens of residents of south Tel Aviv on Tuesday demonstrated, after the High Court on Monday declared the government’s policy on detaining illegal immigrants—under which illegals could be detained for up to three years—violated several Basic Laws. Some 2,000 illegal Africans are to be freed from an encampment in the Negev in the next 90 days, most likely heading to Tel Aviv, where there is already a large illegal African community. The government has the option to attempt to deport the illegals, but many of them claim that they are genuine refugees from political repression, so deporting them would likely...

The Federal Election Commission is examining whether dozens of political action committees and individuals contributed more than the legally allowed amount to House Speaker John Boehner during last year's election cycle. Letters the Federal Election Committee sent Monday to Friends of John Boehner indicated that donors including coal, energy, and gambling interests, exceeded contribution limits to Boehner's committee by more than $150,000.

A central question Congress is wrestling with over the current proposed immigration legislation is whether the 11 million immigrants already in the United States illegally should get a path to citizenship. And surprisingly, the answer from a small but growing number of House Republicans is “yes,” just as long as it’s not the “special” path advocated by Democrats and passed by the Senate. … Many House Republicans say people who illegally crossed the border or overstayed their visas should not be rewarded with a special, tailor-made solution that awards them a prize of American citizenship, especially when millions are waiting...

When asked how voters could be confident that the Department of Homeland Security will enforce the border security elements of the Senate's “Gang of Eight” immigration bill, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) replied that “we can go to court.” “We have the court system. That’s the way our government runs. If the executive branch does not enforce laws, then we can go to court and make sure tat those laws are enforced,” McCain said Tuesday while participating in an immigration town hall. …

U.S.-born Junnyor Diaz studies at a Phoenix high school. His Mexico-born older brother, Edder, has applied for a program to avoid deportation, while their undocumented mother, Angelica, cleans houses to keep the family fed and, above all, together. For Junnyor and 16 million others like him in mixed-status families, reform could bring stability to a fraught situation in which a U.S.-born child is a citizen with a shot at a university education and a stable working life, while a sibling or parent born abroad can face instability and deportation. "There isn't a day that goes by that I don't worry...

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...

I understand what you are thinking. If you are watching the political process, you are probably thinking, as a sane person, that Republicans would completely ignore amnesty and focus on what’s important. After all, the country is focused on other trivial news, summer vacations, and the scandals. After August, the main fights will be over funding Obamacare, the budget, and the debt ceiling. So why on earth would Republicans push for amnesty, especially after the Senate bill has been ridiculed and repudiated? Why would they bail out Obama at his weakest moment? Why would they agree to the premise that...

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)--a Republican member of the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” who helped write the Senate immigration bill and one of 14 Republicans who voted for the bill’s final passage--was unaware that the legislation he helped usher through the Senate allows a person to forge up to two passports without penalty. “Under the Senate immigration bill, how many passports can someone forge before it becomes a crime?” CNSNews.com asked Rubio Thursday on Capitol Hill. “How many…you can’t forge any passports,” Rubio replied. ”That’s a federal crime now.” CNSNews.com: “It’s actually a part of the bill that it’s up, that...

The immigration debate threatens to tear the Republican Party apart--not because of disagreements over the principle of immigration reform, but because of disagreements over strategy and tactics that may become insurmountable. The party leadership, believing that immigration reform will appeal to Hispanic voters, is attempting to impose its will on rank-and-file conservatives who object to current legislative proposals. The recently-passed Senate immigration bill includes provisions for border security as well as the legalization of illegal aliens. Conservatives believe, however, that legalization must be contingent on border security, since the Obama administration has a record of refusing to enforce laws it...

President Barack Obama on Tuesday conceded that an immigration overhaul cannot be achieved by his August deadline. With House Republicans searching for a way forward on the issue, the president said he was hopeful a bill could be finalized this fall—though even that goal may be overly optimistic. The president, in a series of interviews with Spanish language television stations, also reiterated his insistence that any legislation include a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million people in the U.S. illegally. Many House GOP lawmakers oppose the citizenship proposal, hardening the differences between the parties on the president’s top second-term...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) praised former President George W. Bush for the “beautiful words” on immigration voiced by the former president at a naturalization ceremony in Dallas, Texas on Wednesday. “In the beautiful words of President Bush, that he spoke about yesterday in his speech and has over time, we have to respect what immigration is to our country. I believe that it is the source of constant reinvigoration of America,” Pelosi said Thursday during her weekly press conference on Capitol Hill, which can be viewed on CSPAN. “I’ve said over and over again that President Bush had...