Graham: Immigration reform must be dealt with 'once and for all'

Ianus · 11-08-2012, 04:50 PM

It seems deny birthright citizenship and assimilation are key components to Graham.

Quote:

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) laid out a marker on immigration reform Thursday afternoon, taking to twitter to call for a comprehensive solution.

"It's important for our country to solve illegal immigration once and for all. We must deal with the issue firmly and fairly," he tweeted.

The issue has come front and center for Republicans after they got walloped by Democrats with Latino voters in Tuesday's election: Mitt Romney won just 27 percent of the Hispanic vote, down from the more than 40 percent that President George W. Bush won in 2000 and 2004. A number of top Republicans are pointing to Obama's huge margin of victory with Hispanics as a key reason that Romney lost.

Graham is one of them — he told The Hill in early September that "If it's a demographic election, we're in trouble," and he and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) called Romney during the primary and warned him to tone down his rhetoric on immigration.

On Thursday, Graham gave some hints at what a GOP version of comprehensive immigration reform might look like.

"Assimilation must be a major component in any immigration reform proposal," he said in one tweet.

"We must also address the issue of birthright citizenship our we will continue to have illegal immigration for as far as the eye can see. Without changes in birthright citizenship we will have future waves of illegal immigration," Graham continued.

It's unlikely that ending birthright citizenship will be acceptable to Democrats — but it's notable that

Other Republicans have ramped up the pressure on their party to move on the issue.

"As a 14-year elected Republican official I'm very concerned about the direction of the Republican party," Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said on a Thursday conference call organized by National Immigration Reform, a pro-reform GOP group. "It is an open opportunity right now to do something about this. My call to all elected officials is … to work on comprehensive immigration reform."

Shurtleff said he'd talked to GOP officials and expected there would be many conversations on the issue next week when Congress comes back in session.

"They need to step up and say 'we want to partner on this right now,' step up and propose your own [policies], work together on this and realize that that's what is going to be demanded," he said.

The group will host a two-day conference in early December to discuss how they can pressure Republican leaders to work with Democrats for reform.

One source close to Senate Republican leadership told The Hill on Wednesday that talks will start soon on the issue — but that actual policy proposals are likely wait until after the lame duck session.

"My experience on elections is nothing really smart is decided on the day after the election," said the source. "I think moving too fast is going to hurt chances of getting something done. Something's going to happen sooner rather than later but if people start hashing out ideas this week or next that could lead to problems."

Demise · 11-08-2012, 04:55 PM

Same as in 111th congress. Still waiting on that CIR bill you and Schumer mentioned a few times.

This guy is a bigger cunt than Rubio.

freshh. · 11-08-2012, 05:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Demise

Same as in 111th congress. Still waiting on that CIR bill you and Schumer mentioned a few times.

This guy is a bigger cunt than Rubio.

Agreed.

kabs · 11-08-2012, 05:38 PM

This time they have no choice. Otherwise the Latino vote will be 80% Democratic and Texas will become a swing state in about 20 years.

They aren't going to get rid of birthright citizenship.

freshh. · 11-08-2012, 05:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kabs

This time they have no choice. Otherwise the Latino vote will be 80% Democratic and Texas will become a swing state in about 20 years.

They aren't going to get rid of birthright citizenship.

I don't think they'll get rid of it completely, either. But I am sure they will try to make it compulsory that one parent is a citizen/legal permanent resident.

DA User · 11-08-2012, 06:39 PM

Graham and Schumer was once a CIR bill. So Graham is a big support in GOP Senate. This is great that GOP will come up with a bill rather Dems. That way it will be easy to pass in House.

Birthright Citizenship should not be a major issues anyway.

DamLeon123 · 11-08-2012, 06:41 PM

First, deny birthright to those born to undocumented alien.
Second, deny birthright to those born to US citizen parents.
Third, there will be no new US citizens in the US.

Dear God, this people like to pick and chose parts of
the constitution they do not like.

Like someone on the other side, trying to pick and take out the right
to bear arms. Grahams panty's will get in such a bunch, the
likes of which, they will never be able to untwine!

elihu · 11-08-2012, 06:42 PM

There's no way taking away birthright citizenship is happening unless the Supreme Court decides to partially overturn Wong Kim Ark. 114 years of precedent down the drain? I don't think so...

Smooth · 11-08-2012, 10:05 PM

Oh God, some of these guys say that they are willing to talk on immigration, but they still show signs of stupidity. Let's hope that talks produce the grand compromise.

Demise · 10:09 PM

No way in hell that birthright citizenship will get taken away.
No way in hell to get 67 senators to support the measure (even the most awful years for us there have been at least 35 senators that were immigrant friendly).
No way in hell to get 290 representatives.
No way in hell to get 38 states.
No way in hell to get SCoTUS to overturn Wong Kim Ark v. US (on what basis can they "All persons born (...) in United States or jurisdiction thereof are citizens of United States" it's plain fucking english)

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Graham: Immigration reform must be dealt with 'once and for all'