Conservatives in no rush to embrace 'Kids Act' on immigration

Ianus · 07-19-2013, 06:00 PM

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/31...on-immigration

Quote:

Conservatives in the House are not rushing to embrace an immigration proposal from party leaders to offer a path to citizenship to children who were brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents.

Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, are crafting a bill that would be the first GOP plan to deal with some of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has endorsed the idea as a matter of “fairness” to grant citizenship to children who crossed the border through no fault of their own.

The proposal generated support inside a two-hour House GOP conference meeting on immigration last week, but some conservatives said in interviews they remain leery of any immigration legislation beyond efforts to secure the border.

“Frankly, I’m a little nervous about it,” said Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a former chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee.

He said there are some conservatives who are open to the idea, and some who are not.

“Obviously, there’s a lot of sympathy for kids who came here at a young age through no fault of their own. They’re here,” Jordan said. “I think there are people who want to look at it, but still, the law’s the law.”

“I don’t know that members are fully embracing the idea,” he added.

Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.) said he could support legislation granting citizenship for children, depending on the details, and he said that group of people is one that would gain the most backing from conservatives. “In many cases, they’re literally paperless,” he said of the children brought across the border illegally.

The bill, likely to be called the Kids Act, has not been introduced, and Cantor aides have discouraged comparisons to the Dream Act, a component of the Senate immigration bill that would grant an expedited path to citizenship to people brought to the U.S. illegally as children who meet certain conditions, like attending college and serving in the military.

The Judiciary Committee plans to hold a hearing on the issue next week.

Democrats have scoffed at the proposal, saying they won’t accept citizenship for only a small number of the 11 million illegal immigrants.

That response is not helping to win support from conservatives who don’t want to take a politically risky vote on a bill that won’t become law.

“I don’t know why we would bring a bill like that up at this time when [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid has said it’s dead on arrival over in the Senate,” Rep. Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.) said. “They’re kind of taking the position, my way or the highway, so it would just be symbolic.”

Salmon said he wants to hear from constituents at town hall meetings in his district before taking a position on immigration reform.

“While I think there’s a lot of folks over here that are sympathetic to that notion,” he said of the Kids Act, “it’s also not going to come without a lot of political angst, and I don’t know why we would go through that if Reid says and the president says it’s dead on arrival, and they’re not interested in us doing it.”

Rep. John Fleming (R-La.) said he would not support legislation that grants legal status to any illegal immigrants before border security bills are not just passed by the House but fully enacted into law.

“My position is, first things first,” he said. “Again, we have not fixed a broken border system that has been broken for decades, and to me, our focus needs be on solving that problem first. And then we’ve got plenty of time to get around to those other issues.”

Conservative Reps. Tom Price (R-Ga.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said they’d have to read the proposal but put themselves in the “border security first” camps.

Freshman Rep. Trey Radel (R-Fla.), on the other hand, made a passionate case in favor of the Cantor proposal, saying there was both a fiscal and moral argument in favor of granting citizenship to immigrant children.

“These are kids who are American as apple pie,” he said. “I speak Spanish fluently. They don’t even speak Spanish with me. They speak English.”

“This is all they know,” Radel continued. “We need to find any way possible to make this work within a set of parameters that will work in a secure way. And I support it. I even supported it in my primary, which is not the easiest thing to do.”

Pianoswithoutfaith · 07-19-2013, 06:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ianus

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/31...on-immigration

They mustve not gotten the memo about kids meaning 1 month and below of age

Malign0n · 07-19-2013, 08:52 PM

Conservatives are in no rush regarding anything immigration related.

cacheton011 · 07-19-2013, 09:11 PM

No rush in winning the white house either....

dreamerperson · 07-19-2013, 10:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cacheton011

No rush in winning the white house either....

Or passing anything that makes sense to pass to the majority of Americans.

Really, I wonder if this Congress is the least productive...

2Face · 07-19-2013, 11:07 PM

Obama's silence is loud as ever. That is all I can say. How can he let these clowns in the House kill this thing. Somebody is playing a dirty trick...lets see who Brutus really is.

Happyman0607 · 07-20-2013, 04:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2Face

Obama's silence is loud as ever. That is all I can say. How can he let these clowns in the House kill this thing. Somebody is playing a dirty trick...lets see who Brutus really is.

Cause the house listens to Obama.. Not..

dtrt09 · 07-20-2013, 01:16 PM

The President has not addressed the importance of CIR to the nation, face to face with the American public. He speaks of us on a side note while the main subject of such speech is something else, ie, addressing CIR while on foreign soil (Germany) when the topic was actually the economy and the environment.

He spoke with "Hispanic" media for Spanish-language audiences in "Latino" markets...wth is that? Whose favor does that make? Not for us. We're bilingual. We don't need the voice-over interpretation in Spanish while the interviewer goes around in circles avoiding asking the right questions. Even Univison is not holding anyone to the fire. It's all about the Republicans, blame them for this, blame them for that. The people in charge of achieving legislative CIR is the Democratic party, they are the ones that asked for our communities' votes, not the Repubs.

Where do you see the urgency on the part of the White House or the House Democrats? Gutierrez spoke in Seattle last weekend and what he said about illegal immigrants being exploited is true, however, his main point was that 'we will not forget and punish the Republicans in 2014 for not passing CIR'.

Excuse me, does this sound to you as if CIR is urgent to him? Urgency demands that the time is now, not after vacation, not after the Labor day bbq, not after we remember Columbus, not after bullshit after bullshit after bullshit.

I'll say it again, the actions of the White House and the Democratic party do not speak of the urgency of now. Where is the House bipartisan bill? First, the holdup was 'healthcare'; then it became 'border security (bs as I call it)', now it is 'citizenship'. Again, where is the bill? If the goal is to finalize the bill in conference, there is not a valid excuse for his group to not introduce it on the House floor. I call it as I see it. I do believe the chances of CIR passing in the fall are huge, should the President and the House do their jobs.

Happyman0607 · 07-20-2013, 01:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dtrt09

The President has not addressed the importance of CIR to the nation, face to face with the American public. He speaks of us on a side note while the main subject of such speech is something else, ie, addressing CIR while on foreign soil (Germany) when the topic was actually the economy and the environment.

He spoke with "Hispanic" media for Spanish-language audiences in "Latino" markets...wth is that? Whose favor does that make? Not for us. We're bilingual. We don't need the voice-over interpretation in Spanish while the interviewer goes around in circles avoiding asking the right questions. Even Univison is not holding anyone to the fire. It's all about the Republicans, blame them for this, blame them for that. The people in charge of achieving legislative CIR is the Democratic party, they are the ones that asked for our communities' votes, not the Repubs.

Where do you see the urgency on the part of the White House or the House Democrats? Gutierrez spoke in Seattle last weekend and what he said about illegal immigrants being exploited is true, however, his main point was that 'we will not forget and punish the Republicans in 2014 for not passing CIR'.

Excuse me, does this sound to you as if CIR is urgent to him? Urgency demands that the time is now, not after vacation, not after the Labor day bbq, not after we remember Columbus, not after bullshit after bullshit after bullshit.

I'll say it again, the actions of the White House and the Democratic party do not speak of the urgency of now. Where is the House bipartisan bill? First, the holdup was 'healthcare'; then it became 'border security (bs as I call it)', now it is 'citizenship'. Again, where is the bill? If the goal is to finalize the bill in conference, there is not a valid excuse for his group to not introduce it on the House floor. I call it as I see it. I do believe the chances of CIR passing in the fall are huge, should the President and the House do their jobs.

If Obama were to get on TV announcing that yellow snow is bad for consumption every republican and Fox News would get on and try convincing the people that yellow snow is the best thing to eat since sliced bread... I can't tell if you're just plain ignorant or you don't keep up with the major opposition the GOP holds agains the White House.. They hate Obama.. Their main goal was to make him a 1 term president and overturn obamacare.. They do the exact opposite of what he wants.. The republicans should be blamed for this are you not aware that the senate passed a bill and can be voted on in the house at anytime? Who's fault is it for not bringing it to a vote? Hmm could it be the republicans? Why are they taking so long to come up with something when they should of been working on it when the gang of 8 were working on theirs? Simply put, they don't want it and they don't care...

End of the day it's their loss.. We're gonna have a net increase of a couple hundred thousand undocumented every year, long term wise they will have USC children and they will end up legalizing 20, 30 or maybe even 40 million undocumented.. Democrats will have majority in the house and senate one day and a democrat president so the republicans will be kicking themselves in the ass thinking should of been good to the 11 million, legalized them and got some votes from them. Instead of opposing 30 million and now we just made 30 million democrats.

dtrt09 · 07-20-2013, 02:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Happyman0607

If Obama were to get on TV announcing that yellow snow is bad for consumption every republican and Fox News would get on and try convincing the people that yellow snow is the best thing to eat since sliced bread... I can't tell if you're just plain ignorant or you don't keep up with the major opposition the GOP holds agains the White House.. They hate Obama.. Their main goal was to make him a 1 term president and overturn obamacare.. They do the exact opposite of what he wants.. The republicans should be blamed for this are you not aware that the senate passed a bill and can be voted on in the house at anytime? Who's fault is it for not bringing it to a vote? Hmm could it be the republicans? Why are they taking so long to come up with something when they should of been working on it when the gang of 8 were working on theirs? Simply put, they don't want it and they don't care...

End of the day it's their loss.. We're gonna have a net increase of a couple hundred thousand undocumented every year, long term wise they will have USC children and they will end up legalizing 20, 30 or maybe even 40 million undocumented.. Democrats will have majority in the house and senate one day and a democrat president so the republicans will be kicking themselves in the ass thinking should of been good to the 11 million, legalized them and got some votes from them. Instead of opposing 30 million and now we just made 30 million democrats.

I am far from ignorant and do keep up with the news; I am, however, not an Obamabot. You worship him because he gave you an EAD, however, there are 10 million others still struggling. We cannot wait until 'one day' when there are 40 million undocumented, I cannot believe you wrote that, it's ridiculous. I call bullshit. The House supposedly was waiting for the House 'bipartisan' secret deal that has been four and a half years in the making (cue collective laughter).

Obama is far from the progressive that he tries to make himself out to be and the Democrats need to really grow a spine so that important legislation can be enacted. I don't buy the theatrics of either party - I've read comments from Democratic Reps that they might fold and settle for just TPS-like status, rather than citizenship. I will give you one such example:

Quote:

Loretta Sanchez: Democrats May Cave on Pathway to Citizenship for Undocumented, and That's Okay
http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazin...ez_vendida.php

Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez emerged from a White House meeting with President Barack Obama and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus earlier this week admonishing her Republican colleagues saying that "silly season is over" on immigration reform.

The lawmaker's words seemed stern enough, but as she appeared on MSNBC's NOW With Alex Wagner yesterday, Sanchez turned milquetoast. With the immigration debate heating up in the House of Representatives, chatter is mounting on a supposed compromise that would pilfer a pathway to legalization, but not necessarily citizenship.

With Known Nothing intransigent Republicans in the House, their contribution to immigration reform is expected to only further dilute the hopes for citizenship among those in the shadows. Time for House Democrats to grow a backbone? Nah...

The Senate immigration bill is already a less than comprehensive approach, that, with the inclusion of the Corker-Hoeven amendment, doubles the size of la migra and adds hundreds of miles of fencing to an already militarized border. The years-long pathway to citizenship laid out in an uneven trade-off with enforcement provisions would be unattainable for millions of undocumented immigrants living in the United States.

When asked about that particular notion on the program, Congresswoman Sanchez didn't slam it and left it up for legitimate discussion.

"Are Democrats willing to accept a path to legalization and not a path to citizenship?" Alex Wagner asked her guest. Instead of affirming a strong commitment, Sanchez criticized her Republican colleagues before saying, "Every community has people that have been working here, that are part of the fabric of America, that need legalization."

Needing more clarification, Wagner returned to the question. "Do you think there is room for debate...on that issue?" she asked the congresswoman once more. "There's always room for debate," Sanchez replied, following up later saying, "There's always room to talk and we'll continue to talk with them."

The MSNBC host wanted to address the DREAM Act, but the pressed-for-time lawmaker took a pass on the issue, citing the need to go cast a vote on the Farm bill.

Without voicing a firm commitment to citizenship, it seems 'silly season' politics has only just begun.

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30

They need you!

Forum links

Resources

Join our list

National calendar of events

September

Conservatives in no rush to embrace 'Kids Act' on immigration