Boehner says House will act on immigration bill

Ianus · 11-08-2012, 07:50 PM

Ah,the uniting of the three,Harry Reid,the President and now Boehner indicating immigration reform is on the table....the race is on.

Quote:

House Speaker John A. Boehner said Thursday that his chamber will tackle a broad immigration bill in the next Congress — a nod to the growing power of Hispanics, but a move that’s likely to produce a bloody battle within his own party.

“This issue has been around far too long,” Mr. Boehner told ABC on Thursday. “A comprehensive approach is long overdue, and I’m confident that the president, myself, others can find the common ground to take care of this issue once and for all.”

His support instantly boosts the issue to the top of the legislative agenda.

Mr. Boehner used the term “comprehensive,” which has generally meant dealing with the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants already in the U.S., as well as rewriting the legal immigration system.

But many Republicans say granting those illegal immigrants any legal status amounts to amnesty.

Mr. Boehner joins Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and President Obama in putting immigration high on the priority list for next year.

Hispanics voted overwhelmingly for Mr. Obama in Tuesday’s election, and many in the GOP blamed a tough stance on illegal immigration as part of the reason.

But Kris W. Kobach, Kansas secretary of state and co-architect of some of the state immigration crackdown laws, said that is a misread of the results.

He said polling earlier in the year showed that independent voters liked Mitt Romney’s stricter stance on the issue better than Mr. Obama’s stance, which called for a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

“In my opinion, had Romney taken a pro-amnesty position he would have lost independent voters by a significant margin,” Mr. Kobach said on Wednesday. “Immigration was one of the few issues that was pulling independent voters to Romney.”

DA User · 11-08-2012, 08:26 PM

Wow. What a great news. Can't get any better than this folks!

CIR/DA is coming soon!

Cloudless · 11-08-2012, 08:36 PM

Gosh I wish I don't have to keep reading that name: Kris Kobach.

MadMan · 09:00 PM

Whoa, I wonder what brought this on?

Could it be because of the new Congress? Lets stay cautiously positive everyone.

jrpallares · 11-08-2012, 08:57 PM

Uh the realization that the Latino population is the fastest growing segment? That their election actually depends on representing that constituency?

2Face · 09:02 PM

There have been hypes like these in the past 12 years that I've been following this issue. I am so CONFIDENT this time that this hype will become reality. I mean it looks like the engine has been fired up and we're about to fly this thing home faster than Felix Baumgartner fell to earth.

Quote:

He said polling earlier in the year showed that independent voters liked Mitt Romney’s stricter stance on the issue better than Mr. Obama’s stance, which called for a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

“In my opinion, had Romney taken a pro-amnesty position he would have lost independent voters by a significant margin,” Mr. Kobach said on Wednesday. “Immigration was one of the few issues that was pulling independent voters to Romney.”

Well now the Republican party realizes the opportunity cost of this stance was loss of possible immigrant votes that Romney could've stolen from Obama by softening up a little bit and by not making idiotic comments like, "I will veto the Dream Act" Think about it, most immigrants were aware the extremely high deportation rate under the Obama administration and the fact that Bush actually came pretty close to passing CIR. I'm so sure that Romney would've won some of these votes had he come out pro-immigration from the beginning of his campaign!

MadMan · 11-08-2012, 08:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jrpallares

Uh the realization that the Latino population is the fastest growing segment? That their election actually depends on representing that constituency?

Were you talking to me? I already knew that. I was being sarcastic.

MadMan · 11-08-2012, 09:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2Face

There have been hypes like these in the past 12 years that I've been following this issue. I am so CONFIDENT this time that this hype will become reality. I mean it looks like the engine has been fired up and we're about to fly this thing home faster than Felix Baumgartner fell to earth.

I agree. Everything is coming together.

moto · 11-08-2012, 09:02 PM

wow cant believe he said this. i hope he really means it and tries genuinely to find common ground

Cloudless · 11-08-2012, 09:04 PM

Quote:

But Kris W. Kobach, Kansas secretary of state and co-architect of some of the state immigration crackdown laws, said that is a misread of the results.

He said polling earlier in the year showed that independent voters liked Mitt Romney’s stricter stance on the issue better than Mr. Obama’s stance, which called for a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

“In my opinion, had Romney taken a pro-amnesty position he would have lost independent voters by a significant margin,” Mr. Kobach said on Wednesday. “Immigration was one of the few issues that was pulling independent voters to Romney.”

Kris Kobach is talking out of his ass

Quote:

Obama Immigration Policy Favored 2-to-1 by Likely Voters
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-0...ly-voters.html

President Barack Obama is winning the opening round in the battle over immigration, according to a Bloomberg poll released today, putting Republicans on the defensive with his decision to end the deportations of some illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children,

Sixty-four percent of likely voters surveyed after Obama’s June 15 announcement said they agreed with the policy, while 30 percent said they disagreed. Independents backed the decision by better than a two-to-one margin.

The results underscore the challenge facing Mitt Romney and Republicans as they try to woo Hispanic voters, who are the nation’s largest ethnic minority and made up 9 percent of the 2008 electorate, according to a Pew Hispanic Center analysis of exit polls. Obama won the Hispanic vote 67 to 31 percent over Republican John McCain in 2008, according to exit polls.

“In that Republican Party, there is a tolerance problem,” said Carmen Nieves, 27, of Albany, New York, who is of Puerto Rican heritage and participated in the Bloomberg June 15-18 survey.

“These are things that have to be done, and I’m expecting them to be done,” said Nieves. “I see a person who is doing his job.”

DHS Directive

Obama, who has long backed legislation offering young immigrants a pathway to citizenship, announced a Department of Homeland Security directive forbidding the federal government from initiating the deportation of illegal immigrants under the age of 30 who came to the U.S. before age 16; have lived in the country for at least five years; have no criminal records; and are in school, high school graduates, or military veterans.

The decision left Republicans struggling to respond, trapped between alienating their political base and sending a negative signal to the Hispanic community and independent voters. A majority -- 56 percent -- of likely Republican voters opposed the decision, while almost nine in 10, or 86 percent, of Democrats supported it. Sixty-five percent of independents backed the policy change, while 26 percent disagreed.

Romney, the presumed Republican presidential nominee, has refused to say whether he would reverse the decision if he’s elected.

Yesterday, Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, dropped plans to introduce legislation that would grant work visas to some young people brought to the U.S. illegally. The president’s decision undercut momentum for Rubio’s plans, said Alex Conant, the senator’s spokesman.

Lawsuit Threats

The White House action angered the anti-immigration wing of the Republican Party. U.S. Congressman Steve King, an Iowa Republican, said he intends to sue Obama to suspend the directive. At a May 21 town-hall meeting, King compared immigrants to dogs, saying the government should select those to award legal status in the same way that owners choose the “pick of the litter.”

That’s the sort of reaction Obama’s team will seize on as it seeks to position the Republicans as being against young immigrants raised in the U.S. -- a position that could alienate swing voters whose life experiences counter that position.

“At first I was really against it, but after sitting down and thinking about it, a lot of kids here are good kids,” Loretta Price, 65, a retiree and undecided independent voter from Ocala, Florida, said in a follow-up interview. “I think it was the right thing to do.”

Not Priority

The poll showed that relatively few respondents surveyed consider immigration their top issue amid continued economic anxiety, with 4 percent of voters naming it as their leading concern.

Karis Verlander, 65, an independent from the suburbs of San Antonio, said while she agreed with Obama’s decision, she thought it was driven more by politics than core beliefs. Verlander doesn’t plan to vote for Obama, saying she’s unhappy with the economy.

“He’s just playing politics with this issue,” she said. “He doesn’t really care.”

The Bloomberg National Poll, conducted by Des Moines, Iowa- based polling firm Selzer & Co., has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points for the 734 likely voters contacted.

Obama campaign officials, who deny political motivation for the action, are counting on it to solidify support among Hispanic voters, giving the president an edge in what could be a close race. Democrats were quick to highlight Romney’s June 17 interview on CBS “Face the Nation,” during which he declined on four occasions to say whether he’d reverse course on the policy.

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Boehner says House will act on immigration bill