Immigration

The ‘Gang of Eight’ comprehensive immigration bill is taking shape

by

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

It increasingly appears as if a compromise on additional border security has now been worked out by the Gang of Eight" in the U.S. Senate, and the comprehensive immigration bill is taking shape. Ed Kilgore at the Political Animal blog writes,

Big Moment in the Senate on Immigration?

it looks like the Gang of Eight (and the largely Democratic coalition of senators supporting them) are going to announce
a new border enforcement “compromise” that will be attributed to
Republicans Bob Corker and John Hoeven. It basically involves massive
new spending on border control agents and fence-building that would
occur before newly legalized immigrants can get on the famed “path to
citizenship.” But it doesn’t embrace a “hard trigger” of border
enforcement netrics, as conservative typically want, and also doesn’t
hold up the initial legalization of undocumented immigrants, as most
Senate Republicans voted for just last week in the Grassley Amendment.

In effect, this is pretty much the Gang of Eight’s border enforcement
provisions with congressionally prescribed steps for improving
enforcement (not just leaving it up to DHS) and a very large bag of
money (and you can probably thank CBO’s positive report yesterday on the fiscal impact of immigration reform for making that feasible).

In Which I Prove To Be Smarter Than The Talking Heads on MSNBC

by

By Tom Prezelski

Re-blogged from Rum, Romanism and Rebellion

 

Lets make it clear that, contrary to the impression one gets from
MSNBC, Speaker John Boehner is not a hapless idiot. He is a politically
savvy and sincerely pragmatic guy who suffers from the lack of good
material in his caucus. While he is no Sam Rayburn or Henry Clay, he is
also no Andy Tobin, and under slightly more favorable circumstances, he
might be known as a competent manager of the legislative process. One
does not get to be in his position by being a doofus.

What has had MSNBC personalities particularly animated over the last 24 hours is the possibility that Boehner may invoke the so-called “Hastert Rule” regarding the immigration bill
and increasingly strident rhetoric from The Professional Right on the
issue. The concern is that the House will either pass its own bill, or
amend the Senate bill to the point where it is unrecognizable. This,
they believe, will kill the possibility of reform, a notion based on a
misunderstanding of the process.

Senator ‘complete the danged fence’ just voted against it

by

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Senator John McCain is a chameleon who changes his positions to the ever-changing political landscape. His only principle and conviction is his own political survival.

Senator "comprehensive immigration reform" in 2007 said he would vote against his own bill when he ran for president in 2008. By 2010 when he ran for reelection to the U.S. Senate, he was Senator "just complete the danged fence" (video below the fold).

Today, McCain just voted against himself from 2010. Senate rejects Thune amendment requiring 350 miles of border fencing:

[A]n amendment from Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) would have prevented the
government from granting provisional immigrant status until the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has built 350 miles of Southern
border fencing. Another 350 miles of fencing would have to be
constructed before those with provisional legal status could apply for a
green card.

Thune's amendment needed 60 votes to pass. Republican
Gang of Eight Sens. Lindsey Graham (S.C.), John McCain (Ariz.), Marco
Rubio (Fla.) and Jeff Flake (Ariz.) voted against the border fence
amendment, while Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Mark Pryor
(Ark.) voted for it.

The Senate voted 39-54 on Tuesday to reject the Thune amendment.

Tea-Publicans against democracy threaten comprehensive immigration reform

by

Posted  by AzBlueMeanie:

The TanMan, Weeper of the House John Boehner, the "Worst. Speaker. Ever.," is signaling to the Tea Party terrorists holding him hostage that he will not allow the immigration reform bill to come to a vote in the House unless "a majority of the majority," i.e., the infamous Hastert Rule, is met.

Why do Tea-Publicans hate democracy? The Hastert Rule is a GOP Caucus rule that operates much like the hated cloture rule (filibuster) in the Senate, which allows a tyranny of a minority to thwart the will of the majority in that chamber. It is undemocratic and an abuse of process. Boehner: No immigration bill without most of GOP support:

House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) privately reiterated to
colleagues Tuesday that the House will not vote on an immigration reform
package that doesn’t have the support of a majority of Republicans.

The comments came as some of the most conservative GOP lawmakers and well-financed outside conservative groups are seeking to change internal House GOP rules that would block legislation from the House floor that does not have “majority-of-the-majority” support.

Comprehensive immigration reform bill advances to debate in U.S. Senate

by

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The "Gang of Eight" comprehensivie immigration reform bill is finally being debated in the U.S. Senate today. I love the caption Ed Kilgore at the Political Animal Blog gave his post on the subject, Slouching Towards Bethlehem (a reference to W. B. Yeats' poem Second Coming: "And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"):

Mitch McConnell signaled early on
that there would be no leadership-backed filibuster against initial
consideration of the bill, in part because quite a few GOP senators who
will likely vote against the final product also want to claim they
support immigration reform generally, and/or hold out hope the bill will
be amended (i.e., gutted) to incorporate their views.

In fact, the "Gang of Eight" comprehensive immigration reform bill passed its first cloture vote tests today: the motion to proceed to a vote on whether to proceed to a floor debate passed 82-15, and the subsequent motion to proceed to a floor debate passed 84-15. (This is the Senate people). Now the real debate begins.