Free Republic

HUNTSVILLE, TEXAS — A Mexican national was executed Wednesday night in Texas for killing a Houston police officer, despite pleas and diplomatic pressure from the Mexican government and the U.S. State Department to halt the punishment. Edgar Tamayo, 46, received a lethal injection for the January 1994 fatal shooting of Officer Guy Gaddis, 24. Asked by a warden if he had a final statement, he mumbled "no" and shook his head. As the lethal dose of pentobarbital began taking effect, he took a few breaths and then made one slightly audible snore before all movement stopped. He was pronounced dead...

Speaker Boehner’s recent comment that there would be no conference on the Senate bill appears to have been a lawyerly evasion. He has now hired Rebecca Tallent to “lead immigration efforts for the House,” in the words of the press release. Until tomorrow, she’s director of immigration policy for the pro-amnesty Bipartisan Policy Center. She was McCain’s chief of staff, directing his participation in the 2005-07 amnesty battle. Before that she worked for Representative Jim Kolbe, also pushing amnesty.

Key senators yesterday announced that they will introduce a broad immigration overhaul with a multistep path to citizenship for illegal aliens and a new program for foreign workers that could increase yearly legal immigration by 400,000 people. The bill — sponsored by Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat — also calls for the government to produce a border security strategy, and encourages Mexico to crack down on immigrant smugglers and take steps to control its own borders. Sponsors said it is not an amnesty because it would require illegal aliens to pay all regular...

Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, is taking on a new and formidable immigration policy director, a sign that he could be more serious about passing immigration legislation than his critics suggest. Rebecca Tallent, who currently serves as director of immigration policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, will join Boehner’s staff on Wednesday. Before joining the BPC, Tallent held several senior staff positions with Sen. John McCain, including chief of staff. During her time with McCain, she helped the Arizona Republican draft a handful of immigration overhaul measures, including the last big push McCain made with the late Sen. Edward M....

<p>The Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) is creating a high-level bipartisan task force on immigration - co-chaired by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros, and former Governors Haley Barbour and Ed Rendell - to develop a politically viable package of policy recommendations and work with Congress to help pass immigration reform.</p>

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has hired a new expert on immigration policy, a move that could signal a renewed House effort to act on the issue in 2014. Rebecca Tallent, director of immigration policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, will start her new job as assistant to the Speaker on Wednesday. Her arrival was one of a series of personnel moves Boehner announced on Tuesday. Former Gov. Haley Barbour (R-Miss.), a co-chairman of the think tank’s immigration task force, said Boehner’s decision to bring in Tallent was “affirmation of his strong desire to move legislation in 2014.”

Coming out of the 2012 election, comprehensive immigration reform seemed inevitable. The political power of the growing Latino population combined with a newly elected, popular president making reform his top legislative priority seemed like a recipe for fast action. Unfortunately, comprehensive reform has not made it to the president’s desk for a number of political and policy-related reasons. Now, advocates for reform are wondering if the window for legislative action that opens between election cycles has closed. While the government shutdown and looming deadlines for another fiscal crisis are impeding passage this year, there is still an opportunity to make...

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has hired Rebecca Tallent to work on immigration reform. She is currently the immigration policy director at the Bipartisan Policy Center. "The Speaker remains hopeful that we can enact step-by-step, common-sense immigration reforms -- the kind of reforms the American people understand and support," said Michael Steel, a spokesman for Boehner. "Becky Tallent, a well-known expert in this field of public policy, is a great addition to our team and that effort." According to her BPC bio, Tallent has worked as a policy aide on immigration and energy issues to Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) and...