Immigration

Arizona’s muddled border relations

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By Karl Reiner

Despite the sour view held by some politicians in Phoenix, not everything on the Arizona-Sonora, Mexico border is dangerous. Arizona's ports of entry process about 22 million visitors a year. They travel and spend money in Arizona. Through September 2013, U.S. merchandise exports AZ MApto Mexico totaled $167.4 billion. Arizona's exporters accounted for $5.2 billion. The expansion of Mariposa port of entry at Nogales, scheduled to be completed in late spring 2014, is stimulating development in the region. The work doubling the capacity of the port at Guaymas, Sonora will benefit Arizona's economy when completed in two years. Cooperation is increasing between local officials because they realize Arizona and Sonora have intersecting economic interests.

The shrewd Texans have a broader prospective. They study the effect of border wait time on trade. Along with security, the Texas legislature has an interest in international cargo and passenger traffic trends, problems and solutions. This attitude may partly explain why the volume of Texas exports to Mexico is 14 times larger than Arizona's. While approximately 400,000 undocumented migrants live in Arizona, about 1.7 million reside in Texas. The October 2013 unemployment rate stands at 8.2% in Arizona. Although Texas appears to be swamped by undocumented people, its unemployment rate is 6.2%. The correlation between the presence of illegal migrants and unemployment may be somewhat less than we have been led to believe.

Arizona Democratic Party Shows Its Progressive Side at State Committee Meeting

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Pro-caucus424-sig-sm72by Pamela Powers Hannley

Progressive voices were heard loud and clear at Saturday’s Arizona Democratic Party (ADP) State Committee Meeting in Maricopa, Arizona.

Unlike some past ADP meetingswhere progressives were ignored or where progressive resolutions were tabled and not heard by the full ADP membership, the Maricopa meeting was dominated by progressives.

During the morning caucus meetings, approximately 80 members of the progressive caucus (pictured here) met in the booming high school cafeteria to hear about legalization of marijuana, the plight of Dreamers, and a host of progressive resolutions.

In the progressive caucus, members unanimously endorsed resolutions: 1) in support of a Constitutional Amendment ending Citizens United and abolishing corporate personhood; 2) in support of passage of the Inclusive Prosperity Tax (AKA Robin Hood Tax); 3) against building the Keystone XL Pipeline; and 4) in support of allowing DREAMers to have Arizona drivers’ licenses and in-state college tuition. A resolution requiring clean elections candidates to give back extra funds passed, with some dissent. In addition, with only one dissenting vote, the Progressive Caucus voted to endorse Safer Arizona, the citizens’ initiative to legalize marijuana for personal use. [Votes from the entire State Committee after the jump.]

Remember in November: Weeper of the House John Boehner kills immigration reform

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The GOP has long practiced the political tactic of "decapitation" — a strategy of taking out the other party's top leadership. Former Democratic House Speaker Tom Foley (D-WA) lost his seat in the Gingrich Revolution in the 1994 election. Former Democratic Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle lost his seat in 2004.

Screenshot-6The Septegenarian Ninja Turtle, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, is already in jeopardy of losing his seat in 2014. But no one is more deserving of losing his seat than Weeper of the House John Boehner, the "Worst. Speaker. Ever." of the "Worst. Congress. Ever." While there are rumors that the TanMan does not intend to return to Congress, Democrats should plan to go all-out with a strong candidate to make an example out of this pathetic loser of American politics.

Despite the GOP 2012 post-election "autopsy" declaring the policy goal that the GOP has to enact immigration reform, today the Weeper of the House effectively declared that "immigration reform ain't happenin' on my watch, no way, no how — ever." There's a solution to this problem: elect a Democratic Congress in 2014. John Boehner just put immigration reform on life support:

John Boehner, at a presser just now, just said something that pushed immigration reform closer to death than anything he has said thus far:

House Speaker John Boehner says he will not allow any House-passed immigration legislation to be blended with the Senate’s sweeping reform bill, further quashing the chances of comprehensive immigration reform legislation being signed into law anytime soon.

“We have no intention of ever going to conference on the Senate bill,” Boehner told reporters Wednesday.

House GOP: Congress just doesn’t have time to take up immigration reform this year

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The 112th Congress was the "less than do nothing" Congress, the least productive Congress in history. The 113th Congress is on pace to do even less than the "less than do nothing" Congress according to Pew Research earlier this year. And the 113th Congress announced it will be in session fewer days in 2014 (See, 2014 House Calendar).

Imagine my surprise (not) when House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy used a Friday news dump to announce that, "meh, Congress just doesn't have time to take up immigration reform this year." Here's an idea: less vacation days, more work, you lazy SOBs. ImmigrationVote Unlikely This Year, Lawmaker Says:

A top Republican lawmaker told protesters he met with in his home
district in California this week that the House of Representatives would
not have time this year to vote on any immigration measure.

Representative Kevin McCarthy, the majority whip, told demonstrators in
his office in Bakersfield on Wednesday night that the 16 days remaining
on the House calendar in 2013 were too short a window for the House to
take up the complex issue. But he said he was committed to moving on
immigration votes in the House next year. [When the House is working even fewer days.]

The comments were reported by Angelica Salas, the executive director of
the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, who was one of
the protesters who occupied Mr. McCarthy’s office for 10 hours on
Wednesday. Mr. McCarthy came to the office to speak with the protesters
after 11 o’clock that night. His office confirmed the conversation on
Friday evening.

Mr. McCarthy’s comments cemented what lawmakers were already broadly
assuming on Capitol Hill. But they came after a week when an array of
groups who want to see a broad immigration overhaul intensified protests
across the country hoping to push Republican leaders to hold a vote
before the end of the year.

Mixed signals on immigration reform

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Washington Post reported this morning on a New immigration campaign to target House Republicans:

With a year to go until the midterm elections, immigration reform advocates hoping to jump-start debate on Capitol Hill are planning to target a handful of Republican lawmakers most likely to suffer political consequences next year if Congress fails to act on immigration reform.

A campaign set to be announced Thursday will marry the financial and political power of the AFL-CIO and SEIU labor unions with smaller grass-roots immigrant advocacy groups, including America’s Voice, PICO National Network, Mi Familia Vota and CASA in Action, to target nine House GOP lawmakers who support establishing a way for eligible immigrants to apply for U.S. citizenship.

The campaign will target Reps. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.), David Valadao (R-Calif.), Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-Calif.), Gary Miller (R-Calif.), Scott Tipton (R-Colo.), Mike Coffman (R-Colo.), Daniel Webster (R-Fla.), Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) and Joe Heck (R-Nev.). They represent districts with sizable Latino voting populations where President Obama won or performed well last year. They also have publicly voiced support for revamping the nation’s immigration laws.

Organizers said the goal of the campaign is to pressure the lawmakers to match their public statements by lobbying colleagues and House Republican leaders to permit votes on a series of immigration bills introduced in recent months. If the nine lawmakers fail to convince their colleagues by the end of the year, the groups plan to devote more resources to defeating them in next year's elections and to expand their campaign.