Immigration

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

We already have seen demonstrated that the TanMan, Weeper of the House John Boehner, is the "Worst. Speaker. Ever." His "less-than-do-nothing" Tea-Publican Congress will be mocked by historians forever.

In a couple of related posts from Steve Benen, the insanity of putting Boehner in the leadership role is made clear. First, in 'Where's the president's plan?':

Complaining about President Obama's new immigration policy, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said yesterday the move will make it more "difficult" to pass a comprehensive reform package.Since reform efforts are impossible in this Congress anyway, it wasn't much of a complaint.

But Boehner added something else that struck me as interesting.

"Where's the president's immigration plan? Where does the president stand on this issue? Instead of campaigning all the time, maybe he ought to come back to Washington and go back to work," Boehner said.

It was an odd thing to say. If the House Speaker wants to know where President Obama's immigration plan is, he can type "President Obama's immigration plan" into the Google machine and, wouldn't you know it, one of the first results is President Obama's immigration plan. It's 29 pages long, written in easy-to-read language, and it's been online since May 2011.

Maybe Boehner isn't much of a reader? Well, Obama also delivered a detailed speech, outlining his immigration plan, last summer in Texas. The Speaker can watch the video.

When Boehner asks, "Where's the president's immigration plan? Where does the president stand on this issue?" it's disconcerting because it suggests the Speaker doesn't just disagree with Obama's approach; it suggests the Speaker doesn't understand that Obama's approach exists.

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

After avoiding directly answering any questions from the media about his position on immigration policy since last Friday when President Obama announced his "DREAM Act-Lite" policy, Willard "Mittens" Romney today finally stated his position at the annual conference of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO).

Romney spent months attacking his Republican primary rivals for being soft on illegal immigration. Today he called for loosening some immigration restrictions and reiterated a proposal for a path to legal status for some in the United States illegally who have served in the military. Romney calls for loosening immigration restrictions:

Romney said he wants to open the country to more legal foreign workers. But he said he did not plan on keeping in place the new order by President Obama halting deportations of hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants brought to the country when they were children.

* * *

“Some people have asked if I will let stand the president’s executive order,” Romney added. “The answer is that I will put in place my own long-term solution that will replace and supersede the president’s temporary measure.”

Riiight. Mr. "Self Deport" who said he would veto any DREAM Act if it came to him as president is suddenly going to propose a "long-term solution" to immigration that would allow more foreign workers into the country? Romney's anti-immigrant policy advisor Kris Kobach, the author of SB 1070, must have had a stroke when he heard that.

These Latino legislators are not stupid, Mittens, they know you are willing to say anything in a pathetic attempt to pander to them.

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

It is Arizona that is extremist and an outlier on immigration reform. States like Utah have been leading the way with sane and humane immigration reform proposals, like the "Utah Compact." Official text of Utah Compact declaration on immigration reform. It is time for Arizonans to stop listening to politicians who dehumanize, demonize and scapegoat undocumented immigrants with their hateful demagoguery.

Sen. John McCain said in 2008, before he became an embittered sore loser, "So let’s from time to time remember that these are God’s children. They must come to our country legally, but they have enriched our culture and our nation as every generation of immigrants before them." And as President Obama said yesterday, "We're a better nation than one that expels innocent young kids."

Greg Sargent interviewed Mark Shurtleff, Utah’s conservative Republican Attorney General for this post. Utah’s GOP attorney general: Obama immigration move totally within his power:

A number of Republican officials and conservatives have responded to Obama’s immigration announcement by attacking it on process grounds, arguing that the decision to circumvent Congress was an abuse of power, an affront to democracy, and even unconstitutional — and could encourage further lawbreaking.

But in an interview with me just now, Mark Shurtleff, Utah’s conservative Republican attorney general, dismissed those objections, arguing the move was perfectly within Obama’s powers, good law enforcement policy, and even a “conservative” solution.

“This is clearly within the president’s power,” Shurtleff said. “I was pleased when the president announced it.”

By Michael Bryan From the over-heated rhetoric coming from the Right, you might think that Obama had executed a coup using illegal aliens as storm troopers in announcing new prosecutorial priorities in removal procedures (PDF link) in lieu of Congressional action on the DREAM Act. Here's what some GOP pols here in Arizona are saying about … Read more