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The announcement Thursday of the resignation of Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. touched off questions about his replacement and the timing of any Senate confirmation, given the possibility of a Republican takeover of the Senate in January. Under changes in Senate rules, administration nominees need only a majority of votes to clear procedural hurdles, preventing Republicans from blocking an attorney general pick by denying the 60 votes usually needed to overcome a filibuster.

America’s immigration system is a “mess” and reforming it would help the economy, House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday. Speaking at the American Enterprise Institute about “resetting America’s economic foundation” Boehner addressed immigration reform when asked by a member of the audience. “Yeah, I think immigration reform would help our economy, but you’ve got to secure the borders first — we’ve got a mess and I think everybody knows we’ve got a mess. Our legal system is broken, our borders aren’t secure. And then we’ve got the problem of those that are here without documents,” Boehner said. “It needs to...

In an abrupt switch from his months of work to bring immigration reform back from life support, Speaker John Boehner told reporters today that the issue cannot move forward until President Obama proves he can be a trustworthy partner to implement the law as written. “There's widespread doubt about whether this administration can be trusted to enforce our laws. And it's going to be difficult to move any immigration legislation until that changes,” Boehner said. The change in tack comes after rank-and-file members pushed hard against immigration “principles” unveiled at a retreat last week and top immigration hawks had begun...

Sen. Mitch McConnell Tuesday referred to immigration as an “irresolvable conflict.” “I don’t see how you get to an outcome this year with the two bodies in such different places,” he said during his weekly press conference. He was referring to the fact that the Senate passed comprehensive reform, while the House is pursuing piecemeal legislation. -snip- Keep in mind, this comes on the heels of McConnell’s number two in the Senate, Texas Sen. John Cornyn, saying he was “very skeptical that anything’s going to happen between now and November” — and that: “I honestly don’t think [it] is advantageous...

Republicans in the House who refuse to take on immigration reform don’t have much to fear from voters, according to a number of political experts. Despite public support for reform and the increase in Latino voters, this demographic has little clout in GOP-controlled districts. “Immigration reform policy still ranks comparatively much lower in importance compared to the economy, job creation, the federal deficit, job and healthcare,” said Daniel Cox, research director at the Public Religion Research Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization in Washington. That’s because immigration reform still has relatively little support compared with more immediate concerns over the...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was furious with Speaker John Boehner a week ago over immigration reform — but now she says she’d be open to a piecemeal approach if that’s what the Ohio Republican wants to do. “We have always said on that score that the speaker is the speaker, and any way he wants to bring the bill to the floor, in pieces or in big chunks or whatever it is, we just want to see legislation come to the floor so that Congress can act upon that legislation, the House can, and send it to the conference...

John Boehner thinks President Obama is finally coming around to his position on immigration. What is Boehner position on immigration, you ask? Good question! On Thursday, Boehner offered rare praise for Obama, who had said earlier in the week he was open to passing immigration via a series of small individual bills rather than the Senate’s large comprehensive bill. House leaders have said for months the Senate bill would not receive a vote and that they’d only move forward with a piecemeal approach.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) reaffirmed his commitment to enacting immigration reform, a week after the chances of an overhaul appeared dead following his comments that he would not support negotiating with the Senate on its comprehensive bill. “Is immigration reform dead?” Boehner told reporters. “Absolutely not.”

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) is urging Republicans to keep a strict focus on the pocketbook concerns of voters in coming elections — and avoid social issues that have been the party’s Achilles’s heel in some recent campaigns. Walker, a potential presidential candidate in 2016, also told The Hill the GOP can shed its reputation as the “party of no” only if it offers creative alternatives to Democratic policies they oppose, like ObamaCare. “For us politically, it doesn’t make sense for us not to be focused on the fiscal and economic issues,” he said in a Monday interview. “The left...

The Senate’s immigration bill would transfer another eight House seats to Democratic-dominated states before many of the extra immigrants become citizens, according to a new study by the Center on Immigration Studies. Three seats will shift in 2020 because the census counts everyone — including non-citizen immigrants, guest-workers and illegal immigrants — when it reapportions the House’s 435 seats among the 50 states. Another five seats would be moved by the 2030 census if the bill becomes law, said Steven Camarota, the author of the study and the research director at the center. “Everybody agrees that the immigrants and their...

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Former President George W. Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush are expected to visit the University of Southern California this week, according to reports. The nation’s 43rd President will visit the campus Tuesday as part of the President’s Distinguished Lecture Series, the Daily Trojan reported. Reports of the visit were first leaked earlier this month after an email reportedly sent by Lisa Ebiner Gavit, the secretary of the USC College Republicans, was forwarded to L.A. Weekly. Only currently-enrolled students will be allowed to attend the event, which is scheduled for Nov. 19 at 6:45 p.m....

Last week, in one of the most bizarre columns he’s ever written, George Will inadvertently blew Mitch McConnell’s cover as the prince of amnesty. As Democrats languish from the negative consequences of the Obamacare rollout, and amnesty legislation is left for dead, George Will is looking for a way to revive “comprehensive immigration reform.” Comparing Mitch McConnell to Henry Clay, the ultimate compromiser, Will suggests that McConnell’s great achievement as Majority Leader- in-waiting would be to pass amnesty and save America from a civil war: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell does know. The most important Kentuckian since Henry Clay, McConnell...

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) says he supports a pathway to citizenship for immigrants living in the country illegally as part of an overhaul of the nation's immigration system. "If people want to come here and work hard and benefit, I don't care whether they come from Mexico or Ireland or Germany or Canada or South Africa or anywhere else," Walker said Tuesday during an interview with the Daily Herald Media Editorial Board of Wisconsin. "I want them here." Walker was then asked about the estimated 11 million immigrants living in the country illegally. The editorial board asked if he...

Assuming a farm bill is passed by the end of the year, the next legislative priority for the dairy industry will be immigration reform. A top official at the National Milk Producers Federation is optimistic that reform will occur. “I believe that by 2014 we are going to have comprehensive immigration reform,” says Jamie Castaneda, senior vice president of strategic initiatives and trade policy at NMPF. “When they’re going to do it, I can’t tell you whether it will be the first six months (of 2014) or a lame-duck session” after the November congressional elections, Castaneda said.