Immigration

Martha McSally and Jeff Flake propose a costly and ineffective ‘border security’ bill

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The Arizona Republic in an editorial opinion today takes Arizona Senator Jeff Flake to task for his sponsoring the “Secure the border First Act of 2015,” after he was a member of the Gang of Eight who crafted the comprehensive immigration reform bill that passed the Senate in 2013 with overwhelming bipartisan support.

McSally-KingThe Republic curiously gives freshman congresswoman Martha McSally (R-AZ)  a pass for attaching her name to the “Secure the border First Act of 2015” as a sponsor in the House. McSally, Homeland Security Chairman Introduce Bill to Improve Border Security: “U.S. Representative Martha McSally today joined chairman of the Homeland Security Committee Michael McCaul to introduce The Secure Our Borders First Act, legislation to gain and maintain control of our nation’s land and maritime borders.”

I suppose the difference in treatment is that Martha McSally is a ‘Deportation Republican’ aligned with the nativist base of the GOP led by Rep. Steve King (R-IA), while the editors express disappointment with Sen. Flake for not being as enlightened as they once imagined him to be.

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House Deportation Tea-Publicans vote to defund DACA Program

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The Tea-Publicans in the TanMan’s House today voted to defund the DACA Program — the Citizenship and Immigration Services is not funded through congressional appropriations, but rather through user fees; this bill attempts to declare these fees cannot be used — including an amendment aimed at deporting innocent DREAMers as well, because Tea-Publicans just cannot contain their visceral hatred for people breathing while brown. The modern day GOP is the new anti-immigrant Know Nothing Party.

The Hill reports, House passes bill to defund Obama’s immigration orders:

ImmigrantsThe House voted Wednesday to block funding for President Obama’s immigration orders, firing the first shot in a high-stakes battle over deferred deportations for the millions of people who are in the country illegally.

The measure passed in a 236-191 vote, with 10 Republicans voting against it and two Democrats voting in favor.

Democrats rallied against the bill, which would fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through September, after Republicans adopted a series of contentious amendments that take aim at facets of Obama’s immigration policy.

One of the amendments would choke off funding for Obama’s executive action announced in November, which would allow some illegal immigrants to stay in the country and obtain work permits.

A second amendment would halt the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program (DACA), which lifts deportation for some illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children.

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Still waiting for substance and details from Dicey Doug Ducey

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rubio-dont-always-drink-waterI caught a “fluff piece” interview of Senator Marco “Big Gulp” Rubio by CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes on Monday evening about his new book, American Dreams — the obligatory presidential exploratory candidate pulp book– in which Sen. Rubio says that “Republicans haven’t been creative or innovative enough in offering solutions. “ Marco Rubio nears decision for 2016 presidential bid (video link).

“From the Republican perspective I think the answer to all these problems has historically been well let’s cuts taxes, let’s reduce the debt, and let’s get rid of some regulations, and that’s it, we’re done. But you just can’t stop there. You also have to address, for example, our higher education system, which is not just expensive, it is irrelevant in many instances to what people need in the 21st Century.”

An interesting perspective after earlier in the afternoon  listening to Arizona Governor Dicey Doug Ducey deliver his State of The State Speech to the Arizona legislature, in which he offered the same tired old conservative bromides of “let’s cuts taxes, let’s reduce the debt, and let’s get rid of some regulations, and that’s it, we’re done, ” of which Sen. Rubio disapproved.

I had expected much more from the man hired by Koch Industries to manage their Southwest subsidiary formerly known as the state of Arizona (h/t Charles Piece), now known as “Kochtopia.” I anticipated that he would go the full “Scott Walker,” as the governor of Wisconsin did four years ago. It would appear that Governor Ducey is not as well prepared or as politically ambitious as his fellow governor.

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The GOP reaffirms it is ‘the party of maximum deportations’

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I warned you about this last May when Tea-Publican leaders were blowing smoke that they would consider immigration reform, but never had any good faith intentions of ever doing so. The GOP is ‘the party of maximum deportations’.

King2-300x177Lost in the Friday news dump and the media’s fixation with events in Paris comes this report, in which the GOP leadership is letting the nativist and racist Tea-Publicans led by Rep. Steve King (R-IA) dictate its immigration policy in the 114th Congress, just as they did last August by adopting the “deport them all” bill of Rep.s Steve King and Michele Bachmann. Expansive House G.O.P. Immigration Bill Undercuts the President:

House Republicans introduced legislation Friday that would roll back President Obama’s executive actions on immigration, undoing a provision that would allow five million undocumented immigrants to remain in the country and one that protects young people brought to the United States illegally by a parent [i.e., the DACA program for the DREAMers.]

The Republican plan, an effort to appease their more conservative members, would still finance most of the Department of Homeland Security.

The core of the bill provides $39.7 billion for Homeland Security, a $400 million increase from the previous fiscal year. House Republicans plan to offer an amendment to the legislation that will prevent any money — both under the appropriations process and through any fees collected from immigration applications — from being used for any of the president’s existing or future executive actions on immigration.

The plan Republicans ultimately supported, after a week of private meetings and behind-the-scenes discussions, is far more expansive than what the House leadership team anticipated.

The repeal of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which under Mr. Obama’s 2012 order protected the young immigrants who call themselves Dreamers, could prove particularly contentious; roughly a dozen Republicans in a closed-door meeting Friday objected to such an approach. The bill is unlikely to pass the Senate. The president has also threatened to veto the legislation that undoes his executive action on immigration.

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Inauguration Day in Arizona

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Today is Inauguration Day in Arizona. The clouds will part, the sun will shine, bells will be ringing and Arizonans will be dancing in the streets and singing “Ding dong the witch is gone! The witch is gone! The witch is gone! Ding Dong the wicked witch is gone!” as la bruja Jan Brewer leaves … Read more