Immigration

GOP support for Democratic immigration reform bill in the House

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The "Republican Savior" Marco Rubio now has so little influence that noboby much cares what he has to say anymore (outside of the conservative media entertainment complex information feedback loop). His recent attempt to kill immigration reform bills in the House is not bearing fruit — not yet, anyway.

Two House Republicans are now on record supporting the immigration
reform bill introduced by House Democrats, a version of the Senate bill
that gets rid of one border security amendment disliked by House Dems
and replaces it with another security measure that has House bipartisan support. Immigration reform is sort of undead:

Which is to say that immigration reform is just a bit more undead than it was yesterday.

GOP Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida today signed on to the Democratic bill, after GOP Rep. Jeff Denham did the same
over the weekend. This measure is unlikely to get a vote in the House.
But Dems  have not given up on the possibility that House Republicans
will allow a vote on something immigration related this year.

Immigration reform held hostage by Tea-Publican egotists who want to be president

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Remember this bit of sacriligious pretentiousness from earlier this year?

RubioSavior

Things have been on a downhill slide for Senator Marco "Big Gulp" Rubio ever since he lent his name to the Senate "Gang of Eight" immigration reform bill. He was AWOL during the recent Tea-Publican economic terrorist hostage taking of the federal debt ceiling and GOP government shutdown, which allowed Senator Joe McCarthy Ted "Calgary" Cruz to position himself as the latest darlin' of the foaming at the mouth radical Tea Party extremists whom once worshiped Rubio as their "savior."

"Big Gulp" has previously said that he no longer supports his own immigration reform bill, but now he says that he will also not support any conference committee markup of an immigration reform bill, because he needs to pander to the foaming at the mouth radical Tea Party extremists whom he needs for his narcissistic quest for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016. Rubio Throws In The Towel On Immigration:

The most prominent conservative supporter of sweeping immigration
reform is calling on Congress to dial back the effort and instead focus
on making incremental changes, delivering a significant blow to the
prospects of reform.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) now opposes a
bicameral conference committee to reach a final resolution to the
Senate-passed bill, his spokesman said, arguing that the support is not
there for a comprehensive overhaul and that Congress should act where
there is consensus.

"The point is that at this time, the only
approach that has a realistic chance of success is to focus on those
aspects of reform on which there is consensus through a series of
individual bills," Alex Conant, a top spokesman for Rubio, told TPM in
an email. "Otherwise, this latest effort to make progress on immigration
will meet the same fate as previous efforts: failure."

President Obama on immigration reform: ‘Let’s see if we can get it done this year’

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Today, President Obama joined leaders from business, labor, and faith
communities in support of comprehensive immigration reform.

Remarks by the President on Immigration Reform (excerpts):

Today I’m here with leaders from business, from labor, from faith
communities who are united around one goal — finishing the job of
fixing a broken immigration system.

This is not just an idea whose time has come; this is an idea whose
time has been around for years now.  Leaders like all of you have worked
together with Republicans and Democrats in this town in good faith for
years to try to get this done.  And this is the moment when we should be
able to finally get the job done.

* * *

We should pass immigration reform.  It’s good for our economy.  It’s
good for our national security.  It’s good for our people.  And we
should do it this year.

Everybody knows that our current immigration system is broken. 
Across the political spectrum, people understand that.  We’ve known it
for years.  It’s not smart to invite some of the brightest minds from
around the world to study here and then not let them start businesses
here — we send them back to their home countries to start businesses
and create jobs and invent new products someplace else. 

It’s not fair to businesses and middle-class families who play by the
rules when we allow companies that are trying to undercut the rules
work in the shadow economy, to hire folks at lower wages or no benefits,
no overtime, so that somehow they get a competitive edge from breaking
the rules.  That doesn’t make sense. 

It doesn’t make sense to have 11 million people who are in this
country illegally without any incentive or any way for them to come out
of the shadows, get right with the law, meet their responsibilities and
permit their families then to move ahead.  It’s not smart.  It’s not
fair.  It doesn’t make sense.  We have kicked this particular can down
the road for too long. 

Comprehensive immigration reform the next battle in Congress

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

"President Obama, fresh off a trouncing of congressional Republicans over
the government shutdown, plans to renew his push for immigration
legislation in the House while also pressing ahead with climate change
policies and efforts to fix problems plaguing his signature health-care
program." Obama
plans to renew immigration, climate change efforts.

Earlier this month, House Democrats introduced their own immigration reform bill sans the "border surge" of the Senate's "Gang of Eight" bill, with a positive reception from some Republican House members. House immigration bill — minus the surge – Politico:

The legislation released Wednesday is meant to build
pressure on House Republican leaders who have so far shown little public
urgency on the issue of immigration reform. And already, some GOP
lawmakers — particularly those who hail from competitive districts or
areas with large concentrations of Latino residents — are expressing
some openness to the Democrats’ proposal.

Their plan is to take the comprehensive immigration reform
legislation that passed the Senate with wide bipartisan margins in June,
but without the so-called border surge amendment added in the final
days of the floor debate. In its place, Democrats have inserted a
bipartisan border-security bill whose chief sponsor is House Homeland
Security Committee Chairman Mike McCaul (R-Texas).

[That bill, crafted by Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mike McCaul (R-Texas), passed with unanimous bipartisan support in the House Homeland Security Committee in May. It gives the Department of Homeland Security two years to come up with a
plan to apprehend at last 90 percent of individuals who cross the border
illegally.]

“The biggest issue I had with the Senate bill was the border-security
piece. I support the McCaul bill,” said California Rep. Jeff Denham,
one of a handful of House Republicans who have voiced support for
immigration reform. “It sounds very positive, but I will always wait to
see what those details are.”

UPDATE: Oct 16 PDA Tucson Fall Membership Meeting Postponed until Nov 14

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October 15 Update:
Yesterday, I posted a notice about the Fall Membership Meeting of PDA Tucson. The headline speaker was to be Congressman Raul Grijalva.
The Congressman had to cancel, so the PDA meeting is being postponed until Thursday, Nov. 14. 
Here is a link to the event on Facebook. You can find updates there or on this blog. We had hoped that Grijalva canceled because he was called back to DC to vote on lifting the shutdown and the debt ceiling, but given this afternoon's headlines that vote appears to be a distant dream.
October 14 Blog Post:
With the government shutdown, historic gridlock in Congress, and multiple protests errupting, Washington DC has been a hotbed of political activity.

While some Arizona Democrats are cozying up to the Republicans, Congressman Raul Grijalva continues to be a leader of the progressive movement. Last week, he and other progressive Congressmen were arrested at a recent immigration reform protest in DC (above). He also spoke with Democracy Now about the shutdown and immigration reform.

This Wednesday, October 16, Grijalva will give a Washington update at the Fall Membership Meeting of Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) Tucson Chapter at the Ward 6 midtown office.