U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan defends softened approach to immigration

Ianus · 05-05-2013, 12:38 AM

http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepo...206126051.html

Quote:

Racine - Paul Ryan is working the home crowd in his first post-election listening tour when a rueful supporter brings up the Republican ticket's stinging defeat last fall.

"You broke my heart when you lost the election," she tells him.

"Mine, too," he says.

But he has a more upbeat answer when he's asked at the next stop about his failed bid for national office.

"It has given me a bigger voice," the Janesville Republican tells constituents, and cites an unlikely issue as his example: the legislative struggle over immigration.

As the push for immigration reform has gained steam from the GOP's 2012 defeat, Ryan has plunged into the fray, using his stature with conservatives to promote a sweeping bipartisan compromise in Congress.

In eight "town hall" meetings over four days last week, he took the issue directly to his southern Wisconsin district, carving out large chunks of time to argue for a package of reforms that divides his own party.

The most controversial among them: an eventual path to citizenship for many of the millions of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.

"They go to the back of the line. They acknowledge that they broke the law. They pay the fine. They learn English," is how Ryan described the policy at one listening session, calling it a "non-amnesty way . . . of getting people out of the shadows."

Asked in a Journal Sentinel interview how many of his GOP colleagues in the House are likely to oppose a path to citizenship, Ryan answered: "Stay tuned. We will find out. I don't know the answer. I think it's smaller than before, but I don't know."

Ryan's foray into the immigration debate is striking for several reasons.

One, it's outside the big basket of budget issues (spending, taxes, deficits, health care) he typically spends his time talking about.

Two, it's an issue that bedeviled his running mate Mitt Romney, who took a hard line against legalizing undocumented immigrants and performed abysmally with Latino voters.

And three, it represents at least a partial change in Ryan's approach.

The Janesville Republican has backed proposals for a path to citizenship dating back to 2005, and says his views on immigration reform have been consistent over time.

But some supporters of immigration reform see a shift (which they applaud).

In town hall meetings before the 2010 election, Ryan told constituents he supported a "touchback" rule, requiring illegal immigrants to return to their country of origin before they could pursue legal status in the U.S. That has changed.

"I don't think it's realistic," he said in the interview last week.

Ryan also sounded more skeptical back then about reform. He told voters in his district he opposed a big comprehensive deal that tried to solve all the key immigration issues at once - border security, cracking down on illegal hiring, visa reform, guest worker programs and legalizing the undocumented.

Speaking at a listening session in Union Grove four years ago, Ryan said those plans had "too many showstoppers" for Republicans. He suggested they bordered on "amnesty." And he argued for a step-by-step approach in Congress that secured the border first, then addressed illegal hiring, then dealt with visas and temporary workers.

Then, "after we're done with that, let's figure out what's the best way to deal with those that are here illegally," he said at the time.

But Ryan's view of the process seems to be different now.

In the listening sessions last week, he argued that many of these issues were inextricably linked - that stopping illegal hiring and reforming legal immigration were vital to ending the "magnet" for illegal immigration and securing the border.

Whether the House passes one big bill or a package of smaller bills, he's advocating comprehensive reform, not step-by-step changes.

"I wouldn't say that's a big change, but I think I more appreciate the severity of the situation and what it's going to take to fix it," Ryan said in the interview.
'Unofficial leadership role'

Ryan's dive into the immigration fight also has special political significance because he is a potential future presidential candidate.

Immigration is a highly controversial issue outside his portfolio as House budget chairman. But he has chosen to take a vocal public role, and to serve behind the scenes as a kind of legislative middleman between Democrats who want a path to citizenship and conservative Republicans who want stricter guarantees about border security and enforcement.

"I'm helping bring Republicans and Democrats together in the House to come up with the right bill," Ryan told the crowd in Kenosha last Wednesday.

If reform passes, it could enhance Ryan's credentials as a problem-solver. It could also alienate some conservatives, though there was little pushback from those who attended last week's listening sessions.

Republicans in the audience seemed more concerned about other issues, especially the soon-to-be implemented new health care law, which they joined Ryan in decrying.

Meanwhile, supporters of "comprehensive reform" offered him encouragement, including Kenosha Rabbi Dena Feingold, sister of former Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold (Ryan's father and the Feingolds' father were lawyers in the same office building in Janesville).

The congressman said he doesn't read too much into the lack of fireworks over immigration at his listening sessions, which typically attracted between 100 and 200 people.

"My guess is in four months it will be different. When issues get to fruition, when they get close to being passed, then you can see public opinion really get going, and people get out and get animated," he said. "We're just not there yet."

Ryan's town halls drew both supporters and opponents. But they did not have the angry, warring feel that political meetings in Wisconsin had throughout the bitter election fights of 2011 and 2012.

And because they were Ryan's first since his national campaign, they took on the tone of a homecoming at times. At several, he drew applause when he walked in.

"Welcome back to the Heartland," said a man in Oak Creek.

"I feel relaxed and comfortable and sort of back, I guess, at what I call my day job," he told voters in Kenosha.

He recognized many of his constituents by name, including his critics.

"You know the names and faces and voices . . . so it is very comfortable and familiar to me," Ryan said, adding that it took "a couple of months" after the election for the "process I had to go through to numb the sting" of defeat.

Ryan said that in resuming his congressional career he made a "conscious decision not to make a decision" about running for president in 2016, and "to make sure (presidential politics) doesn't infect my daily decision-making process" in Congress.

He suggested his role in the House is broader now than it was before he served on the GOP ticket.

"I have new and different responsibilities than I did before, and I see it as sort of an unofficial leadership role," said Ryan, who generally used very diplomatic language in his listening sessions to talk about the differences between the parties. He also offered guarded optimism about bipartisan deals on a handful of big issues.

"I'm trying to choose my words wisely to keep political space open for some common ground," he said. "I think we all have to be self-disciplined in nurturing that political space to evolve, which we haven't had for a long time. So I've got to watch (it). I've got to be disciplined."

Cali_Meheecan · 05-05-2013, 01:49 AM

hmm don't know what to make of Ryan. Hope he doesn't turn out like that douche Rubio

Juan92 · 05-07-2013, 11:33 PM

i think he wants that vp position lol

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U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan defends softened approach to immigration