Free Republic

While House Speaker John Boehner is keeping a tight lid on his personal position on immigration reform, conservative activists and lawmakers fear the Republican leader may rubber-stamp Democrats' controversial legislation in a backroom deal with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Boehner declined to answer whether he supports what many on the left have come to term a “pathway to citizenship” for illegal immigrants during his appearance on CBS News’ Face The Nation on Sunday morning. For conservative lawmakers, that does not assuage fears that he and his deputies House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Whip Kevin McCarthy, and Budget Committee chairman...

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...

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.

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.,...

The Homeland Security Department has lost track of more than 1 million people who it knows arrived in the U.S. but who it cannot prove left the country, according to an audit Tuesday that also found the department probably won’t meet its own goals for deploying an entry-exit system. The findings were revealed as Congress debates an immigration bill, and the Government Accountability Office’s report could throw up another hurdle because lawmakers in the House and Senate have said that any final deal must include a workable system to track entries and exits and cut down on so-called visa overstays....

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.

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...

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...

I am beyond angry. As a father of five girls I can not digest the horror of what I just read. I can not help but be angry at our Senators who had to hastily pass this immigration bill, that they did not have time to read, and neglect the major issue of securing the borders. I heard the fences labeled as too expensive or simply called “stupid.” Yet many of these same despicable men and women dare use another tragedy to continually push a gun control agenda. All I can say is that you are going to take the...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Architects of the Senate's immigration bill on Monday canceled a meeting that had been planned with business groups and other supporters to try to rally momentum for the legislation, in a sign of how difficult it will be to enact the reforms. Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, Republican Senator John McCain and other members of the "Gang of Eight" that shepherded a sweeping immigration bill through the Senate want to enlist business, labor and religious groups to help persuade members of the House of Representatives to back reform. All members of the bipartisan group of senators except Republican...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told donors at an Organizing for Action event Monday night that Democratic leadership in the House was weighing a discharge petition that would bring the Senate immigration bill directly to the floor for a vote. Pelosi was asked about the legislative strategy during a dinner with about 70 supporters of the advocacy group, which grew out of the president's re-election campaign. She said leadership was still deciding to press forward with the legislative maneuver, noting that doing so would take 30 legislative days. With a discharge petition, Pelosi could force a House vote on the...

A Republican-led push to legalize young unauthorized immigrants has been met with stony resistance from groups representing the very "Dreamers" such a bill would help. Immigrant advocacy groups say the proposed "Kids Act" is a way to avoid a comprehensive overhaul of the nation's immigration laws, which would provide a pathway to citizenship to a much larger number of immigrants. The Kids Act, like earlier "Dream Act" proposals, would legalize young people who were brought to the country by their parents and meet certain requirements. "We will not stand for anything that separates our families," said Greisa Martinez, an organizer...

A former senior policy analyst at the National Council of La Raza supervised the drafting of a U.S. Senate bill, passed on June 27, that would give an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants a path to citizenship if the House of Representatives goes along. And La Raza figures to enlarge its budget significantly, thanks to slush funds buried deep in the legislation. A bombshell report published Thursday by Investor's Business Daily shows that the immigration reform bill would set aside hundreds of millions of dollars for La Raza and other liberal immigrants' rights groups, which the federal government would contract...

the Senate's controversial immigration reform bill passed in late June contains a Medicaid mandate similar to a provision found in the Affordable Care Act, known to its critics as Obamacare. A little-noticed part of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) score of S. 744 shows that it would in fact impose a $20 billion Medicaid expansion on states. According to the CBO score of the legislation, this provision would occur over a decade-long period after the President signs the bill. "In assessing the impact of the bill on the federal budget, CBO estimated its effect on federal and state spending for...

There are many strange elements in the current debate over illegal immigration, but none stranger than the mostly ignored role of Mexico. Are millions of Mexican citizens still trying to cross the U.S. border illegally because there is dismal economic growth and a shortage of jobs in Mexico? Not anymore. In terms of the economy, Mexico has rarely done better, and the United State rarely worse. The Mexican unemployment rate is currently below 5 percent. North of the border it remains stuck at over 7 percent for the 53rd consecutive month of the Obama presidency. The American gross domestic product...

Big Business, Senate Republicans and Democrats backing immigration reform have a target in their crosshairs: House Republicans. Senators like John McCain (R-Ariz), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) met with tech giants such as Microsoft, Google and Intel, and pro reform groups like FWD.us to discuss a coordinated campaign to target more than 100 House Republicans on reforming the nation’s immigration laws when they are at home in their districts over the next month, according to sources familiar with the meeting. Graham suggested getting people to target Republicans at town hall meetings. Schumer said he wanted pastors giving sermons...

I wanted to ask this question. Lets assume immigration reform passed.Let assume all known background checks ran.Lets assume finger prints are on file.Almost everyone is in the system.I ask what happens in the months to follow, when others from Mexico fathers,mothers,children by the thousands sneak into America.. What is the position of DHS,ICE, local and state official. Will they start arresting and detaining illegals ? Will we see in year or so the system is broken, you cannot punish the kids for the crimes of the parents and children hold rallies do not deport my mom or dad..Does it all...

To save jobs in the Black community, Black Americans will march against amnesty for illegal aliens on July 15 in Washington, D.C. Buses are traveling from all over the U.S., as far away as from Florida in the South and from California in the West. Amnesty opponents of all races and colors will be participating. Yet are Democrats now starting to lose the Black vote? In open rebellion against the Democrat Party's agenda, the Black American Leadership Alliance will lead a rally and march on the U.S. Capitol at 9:30 AM on Monday, July 15, marching to demonstrate at the...