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Over the weekend, USA Today gave a peek at a leaked draft of an Obama administration immigration reform plan.
A draft of a White House immigration proposal obtained by USA TODAY would allow illegal immigrants to become legal permanent residents within eight years.
The plan also would provide for more security funding and require business owners to check the immigration status of new hires within four years. In addition, the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants could apply for a newly created “Lawful Prospective Immigrant” visa, under the draft bill being written by the White House.
If approved, they could then apply for the same provisional legal status for their spouse or children living outside the country, according to the draft.
Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who is straddling a tricky divide as he attempts to mollify the GOP base and reach out to the Hispanic community, called the White House plan “dead on arrival.”
Benjy Sarlin at Talking Points Memo tries to get to the bottom of the disagreement:
Rubio has signed on to a bipartisan plan in the Senate that’s premised on the same broad planks as the White House’s 2011 and 2013 plans, often using identical language to describe them: a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, a crackdown on employers who hire future undocumented workers, additional border security measures, and a fix to the legal immigration system to bring in future workers. And since White House officials say they’ll only release their bill if Congress can’t pass one themselves, Rubio’s group — which Obama has showered with praise — is still the lead player in negotiations.
Of course, the devil is in the details, and that’s where Rubio’s been picking fights. In the biggest standoff, Rubio has insisted that his bill’s pathway to citizenship only kick in after a number of border security measures go into effect, an idea the White House is not too fond of. Immigrant rights groups are concerned about the trigger as well, but so long as the metrics are easily quantified and met, it’s not likely to be a dealbreaker since both sides are already planning to include a bunch of security measures in any bill (the leaked WH plan hires a bunch of border patrol agents).
The differences are even less defined on the other items Rubio attacked the White House over on Saturday: failing to include a plan for future immigrant labor in its leaked draft and backing a “special pathway” to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. That’s because Rubio and his Senate buddies haven’t come up with plans for these issues either. On the worker front, everyone’s waiting to see if labor and business groups can work out a compromise on how to deal with future immigration and then move from there. As for a “special pathway” to citizenship, Obama has used the same rhetoric as Rubio, repeatedly saying that undocumented immigrants would have to “go to the back of the line” behind legal immigrants who have already applied for a green card or citizenship. It was in his State of the Union address just this month.
This article appears in Feb 14-20, 2013.
Going to the back of the line could be hurting the people most in need. Therefore that would be most inhumane. People who could afford to wait at the back of the line are not
in desparate need. Crossing an imaginary line may be illegal, but feeding hungry kids
trumps man made laws. This is America and it is sworn to help those in need.
The White House was afraid Rubio’s proposal was gaining traction in Congress, and they floated their own “leaked” bill to detract from the senator’s. Obama doesn’t want immigration reform. He wants it to fail so he can have the issue in 2014.
Caygar,
Tell worlds richest man Mexican Carlos Slim to feed those supposedly hungry children.
WE HAVE AS MUCH POWER AS THE SPECIAL INTEREST LOBBYISTS, MORE SO IF WE COME TOGETHER AND SHOUT THE LOUDEST. NO REWARDS FOR PEOPLE WHO BREAK OUR LAWS, THEY SHOULD BE PROSECUTED.
Your hard earned taxes are being taken from you—the American people to pander to the illiterate, illegal aliens who are still coming here with the compliments of the morons in Washington. Not just across a poorly supported border, but masquerading as tourists as well? You are being forced by an out-of-touch court judicial system to disburse for all the costs of illegal aliens and their children smuggled here through a mostly poor structure called the Fence and not the previous Presidents two fences that should stretch from Brownville, Texas to the coastal edge of California. Some members purposely underfunded the real 2006 Secure Fence Act, because employers who hire illegal aliens didn’t like it. It cut their corporate profits. In other words it was too good a structure that made it more difficult for criminal illegal aliens to negotiate? A structure similar in comparison to the State of Israel towering barrier to keep murdering insurgence out. What our Congress has to do now is to pass “The Legal Workforce Act”, combined with the provision of mandatory E-Verify to oust illegal workers from the 23 million American jobs.
Also pass the Birthright Citizenship Bill” that stops smuggled children becoming instant citizens, thus allowing the parent’s of “Foothold Babies” to live of the proceeds of the new citizen entitlements. This has become a lucrative business in the U.S., to the financial detriment of the aggrieved taxpayer. This last above mentioned law leads to in due course Family Chain Migration sponsorship and yet even more Dream Acts that is leading to huge tax hikes. When you pay Uncle Sam in April, you are not only paying for all the agencies of the government, federal, state and municipal revenues, but food stamps for illegal aliens just passed by the Liberal administrations, Medicaid and health care treatment for free, and the bulk of the money going to the children of illegal aliens education. This policy has influenced every American citizen/legal resident of any skin color, religious affiliation or politic party line for decades.
Guest workers must be given serious consideration as long as the farming industry pays for everything, not the taxpayer. Stem tech and professional jobs must only go to the highest skilled people who will not end up on the entitlement line. I million a year of all categories is enough, but most immigrant visas should go to the talented people and all others must be dealt with severely who break our laws.
With little or no hesitation by both political parties, except for the overall majority of the TEA PARTY we are going to see this year some form of Amnesty. This is the promise of King Obama and the Imperial Court. American citizens have no other course of action but to petition your Congressman and Senate representatives. This country is going to the dogs under administration that is denying the rights of citizens of their U.S. Constitutional rights. To petition your people in Washington for free, go to NumbersUSA
We still have a chance to make ourselves known to that Gang of 8 politicians, as there is access to free faxes at NumbersUSA, to petition Washington. YOU CAN ALSO PHONE YOUR disreputable POLITICIANS THROUGH THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT PHONE SWITCHBOARD AT (202) 224-3121. The Immigration debates are going on now and we should demand no more Paths to Citizenship; that illegal aliens should return to their home country and go through the rigorous process that honest immigrants must take. EVERY CITIZEN HAS A RIGHT TO PETITION HIS STATE OR FEDERAL REPRESENTATIVE AND ESSENTIALLY OFFER HIS GRIEVANCES ABOUT ANYTHING, INCLUDING ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION.
Extra by Stephen Frank of 02/18/2013 of California Report of News and Views. Here you will find some of the most significant information on fraud and waste in California. In addition American Patrol also digs up the dirt, plus Judicial Watch interprets the laws being bypassed by President Obama’s Liberal thought police and what the Liberal-Democrats-Socialists Political Correctness mandatory standards.