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Conservative efforts at health-care reform are, for the moment, a shambles. Conservative efforts at tax reform are foundering as well, though their prospects may be sunnier, given the habitual Republican appetite for tax cuts of almost any description, including irresponsible ones.

Both the tax-reform project and the health-care project have run into trouble because of a lack of intellectual and political leadership: Washingtons sock drawers are stuffed full of conservative proposals to rationalize taxes and to nudge health care in a more market-oriented direction, but herding those congressional cats and conservative activists, think-tankers, PACs and super PACs, aspiring presidents, etc. in the same direction requires real political leadership. That is made difficult by the fact that the loudest conservative voices the talking mouths of cable news and the talk-radio ranters have a very heavy financial incentive to be dissatisfied, or at least to pronounce themselves dissatisfied, with whatever it is that Republican congressional leaders decide to support, while the president himself, who has decided that railing against Congress will be his substitute for leading them in his direction, has similar incentives.

If these two issues are any indicator, then the Trump administrations keystone issue immigration reform is on a course to end up wrecked upon the same rocky shoals.

Can that be prevented?

The Republican party is at odds with itself over what it actually wants out of an immigration policy. One the one hand, libertarian-leading Republicans and the Chamber of Commerce crowd think that the case for free trade is also the case, more or less, for free immigration, that the free flow of goods and capital across borders ought to be complemented by the free flow of labor. The open borders Republican is mainly a straw man deployed by the talk-radio gang: Advocates of a genuine open-borders policy of the sort that Great Britain maintained in the 19th century, when immigrants could show up in London without so much as proof of identity (much less a visa), are scarce. But there are a fair number of Republicans who prefer relatively high levels of immigration, including relatively high numbers of low-skilled immigrant workers from Latin America.

Opposing them are more restrictionist populist-nationalist Republicans, some of them in the Trump mold and some of them intelligent and responsible. These include those who see the world the way my colleague Mark Krikorian does, believing that current levels of immigration are bad for domestic workers, especially low-wage workers, and that recent immigrants have placed undue burdens on domestic institutions, especially the social-welfare and criminal-justice systems. They want lower immigration across the board, not only a crackdown on illegal immigration but also a significant reduction in legal immigration.

Can these differences be resolved in such a way as to allow the emergence of a unified Republicans approach to immigration?

Yes. And not only that: Democrats can be brought on board, too.

Democrats, in reaction to Trump, are at the moment moving rhetorically in a more liberal direction on immigration. But that is not where the Democratic base is right now, especially in the Rust Belt and the Midwest. At Bernie Sanders rallies I attended in Iowa during the primaries, union-hall Democrats offered up many an earful about the need for immigration control, and Senator Sanders himself denounced the Republican view of immigration as an open borders scheme hatched by right-wing billionaires looking to undermine the economic position of the American working class. Many of those voters no doubt cross the aisle for Donald Trump in places such as Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The Democrats cannot afford to lose those voters permanently, and they know as much.

So, where to begin?

Begin by cordoning off the issue of illegal immigration.

With the exception of a few oddballs and ideologues, we can all agree that whatever our national immigration policy ends up being, it must be conducted in an orderly and lawful fashion. That means that getting control of illegal immigration needs to be the first order of business. Happily, that is something we can do without waiting years or decades to build new walls that will, in the end, address the problem only partially. (Most illegals do not wade across the Rio Grande; they enter legally on visas and then violate them.) Through workplace enforcement (mandatory use of the E-Verify system) and modest financial controls (making it hard to cash a check or pay remittances without proof of legal status) we can greatly reduce the economic attraction of illegal immigration to the United States. (Border walls, properly understood, are not about illegal roofers and avocado-pickers: They are about terrorists and their instruments.) Jeff Sessions could do a great deal to advance this if he happened to haul in a few poultry-plant bosses or general contractors for employing illegals. There is no shortage of cases from which to choose.

Republicans should pursue this first and in legislative quarantine from other immigration reforms: It emphatically should not be part of a comprehensive immigration-reform package. Illegal immigration is focus, now illegal. We can take positive steps to control this problem right now, in a relatively straightforward fashion at relatively low cost. If our more libertarian-leaning friends are correct (Id bet against them here) and the nations agricultural industry is hamstrung by a lack of workers if the United States should decide that it has a shortage of poor people with few professional skills then that problem can be addressed in the future fairly easily. If what happens instead is that the price of tomatoes and landscaping labor goes up a little bit, then the republic shall endure.

There are many good and useful proposals for immigration, such as replacing family-oriented chain migration with a policy oriented more toward the economic needs and economic interests of the United States. President Trumps radical proposal would reduce immigration to levels not seen since...the 1980s, which is to say, to a few hundred thousand immigrants per year rather than the million or million-plus of recent years. A period of relatively low immigration might help in the projection of assimilation, which currently is producing mixed results. My own preference is for an economically oriented policy that, callous as it may sound, is approximately Cato for rich people and Krikorian for poor ones: Bring on the highly educated and affluent, the doctors and investors and entrepreneurs, and maybe take a pass on the 13 millionth day-laborer.

Thats a debate worth having. Indeed, the failures of Republican health-care and tax-reform efforts suggest very strongly that we need to have more of those debates in order to forge some kind of politically viable consensus behind conservative policy projects. But we do not have to do everything at once. Addressing illegal immigration is something we can do right now, something that Republicans and (most) Democrats can get behind and should get behind.

READ MORE: The Anomaly of American Immigration Time to End DACA On Immigration, Poetry Isnt Policy, but Poetry Matters

Kevin D. Williamson is National Reviews roving correspondent.

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Immigration: Stop Illegal Entry before Doing Anything Else | National ... - National Review

There was celebration in the air. Anxiety, too.

About 60 people who came to San Diego from Somalia refugees, immigrants, naturalized citizens gathered in a conference room in City Heights for their weekly meeting. Its an opportunity to work out problems, strengthen community bonds, share food. This time, Friday morning, they applauded those among them who had just completed a six-month program to learn how to read and write English.

And they worried.

Two days earlier, President Trump had endorsed a radical shift in the nations immigration policy. The bill would eventually cut in half the number of legal immigrants allowed into the country every year, currently more than 1 million, and it would take a decades-old system that favors family ties and turn it into one that is merit-based, giving preference to those with college degrees, job skills and the ability to speak English.

This legislation will not only restore our competitive edge in the 21st century, but it will restore the sacred bonds of trust between America and its citizens, Trump said at the White House. This legislation demonstrates our compassion for struggling American families who deserve an immigration system that puts their needs first and that puts America first.

Almost immediately, critics on both sides of the political aisle found fault with the plan and gave it little chance of passage. They disputed the claims that low-skilled immigrants are taking jobs from Americans and driving down wages, and they said the new restrictions would hurt the economy by shrinking the number of foreign-born workers at a time when the native population is decreasing.

To the Somalis gathered in City Heights, the new proposal felt mostly like more of the same. Trump made immigration reform a centerpiece of his presidential campaign, and since taking office in January hes moved to build a wall on the Mexican border, increase deportations, stem the influx of refugees and curtail visitors from certain Muslim-majority countries.

What hes telling us is were not welcome here, said Said Osman Abiyow, 34, president of the Somali Bantu Assn. of America, an aid organization he founded after arriving in 2003. This is not what America stands for around the world, where it has a great reputation as a place of freedom and peace.

Like many others in the room, Abiyow has relatives in Somalia he would like one day to bring to the United States. Now a U.S. citizen, hes hoping his sister can join him. But he said shes been caught up in the ban the administration put in place for newcomers from six predominantly Muslim countries (Somalia, Sudan, Libya, Iran, Syria and Yemen). He doesnt know when she might be allowed to come.

If the proposed changes go through, maybe never.

There were 44.7 million immigrants living in the United States in 2015 (the most recent year for which numbers are available), which was 13.4% of the U.S. population, according to the Pew Research Center. An estimated 11 million of those are believed to be here illegally. In San Diego County, Health and Human Services Agency figures show about 21.5% of the population is immigrants.

Under current policy, American citizens and permanent residents can sponsor spouses, minor children and parents for an unlimited number of green cards, and siblings and adult children for a limited number of visas. Thats how most lawful immigrants arrive here. In fiscal year 2015, for example, about 65% of the green cards went to relatives.

The new bill, sponsored by Republican Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia, would still allow the spouses and minor children of U.S. citizens and permanent residents to come in, but it would end the preferences for siblings and adult children.

That left San Diego newcomer Rukiya Bare concerned during Fridays weekly meeting of the Somalis.

She came here with her husband and four children 10 months ago. But their 25-year-old daughter, Natesho, had to stay behind. Now shes trying to join the family and is currently in Saudi Arabia, Bare said. When her three-month visa there expires, shell have to leave the country or risk jail.

I worry about her all the time, Bare said through an interpreter. At night, during the day it hurts my heart, the stress of not having her with us.

Several of the Somalis said they came to the U.S. because of the immigration-policy emphasis on family unity. The Somalis are a tightknit group (there were 3,534 in the county in 2015) and family connections can be crucial to helping them survive in new surroundings, Abiyow said.

Sado Moh, 29, misses her mother. Moh arrived in San Diego four months ago after spending 10 years in a refugee camp and is hoping her mother, father and four siblings will be able to come, too. That was already uncertain because of the other immigration initiatives pursued by the Trump administration, she said, and the latest proposal seems to her the most threatening yet. It would cap the number of refugees admitted annually at 50,000, about half of what it has been.

I ran away from civil war and came here to build a new life, Moh said through an interpreter. But without my family, what I feel mostly is lonely. I want them to come here and have the same chance for a new life. Then I will be happy.

Lawful immigrants are more likely to be of working age (18 to 64) than native-born U.S. citizens, according to Pew 76% compared with 60%.

The occupation with the largest percentage of immigrant workers, about 20%, is farming, fishing and forestry. Many of those workers are drawn to San Diego County, which has more than 5,700 small family farms (most of them less than 10 acres). Nationwide, the county is first in avocado and nursery-crop production; third in honey production; fifth in lemons; and ninth in strawberries.

About 11,000 people are employed as farmworkers in the county, and most are immigrants a mixture of people who are here both legally and illegally.

Under the new immigration legislation, preference for green cards would be determined by a point system for attributes like education, English-language ability, high-paying job offers, entrepreneurial initiative and achievements (such as a Nobel Prize). Although that would seem to suggest limited opportunities for farmworkers, supporters of the bill said it will help bring up wages, perhaps making the jobs more attractive to native-born workers.

Wilkens writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

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Proposal to limit legal immigration ripples through Somali families in San Diego - Los Angeles Times

Kate Steinle, a 32-year-old San Francisco woman who was shot and killed by an undocumented immigrant, has become the face of immigration reform in the United States.

Rep. Bob Goodlatte introduced a bill named after the California woman as part of U.S. House Republicans sweeping push for immigration reform a charge welcomed by the former immigration attorney from Roanoke County.

In the two years since Steinles death, some conservatives have pointed to the tragedy in opposition to sanctuary city policies.

Juan Lopez-Sanchez, the man charged with Steinles death, is an immigrant from Mexico who was deported five times since first arriving in the country in 1991.

After being taken to San Francisco on an old warrant for marijuana possession, local officials dropped those charges and Lopez-Sanchez was released from jail months before the shooting. Per San Franciscos sanctuary city policy, local law enforcement did not inform U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that they were releasing Lopez-Sanchez.

Goodlattes Kates Law would increase the maximum sentences for immigrants who illegally re-enter the country after being deported.

What happened to Kate Steinle is not at all unusual, Goodlatte said in an interview last week.

The congressman also cited the March death of a Lynchburg teen whose body was found in Bedford County and is believed to have been killed by members of the MS-13 gang. One of the Salvadoran men charged with the murder is also a suspect in a Maryland homicide case.

While some Democrats criticized Goodlattes bill by saying it would apply harsh penalties for garden variety offenses, and other critics argued the legislation wouldnt have stopped what happened to Steinle, the bill passed the House in June with bipartisan support.

Working in tandem with President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans, Goodlatte chairman of the powerful House Judiciary Committee, which hears immigration bills is pushing an agenda that increases enforcement of illegal immigration and limits legal migration into the country.

The Judiciary Committee has heard and passed a slate of immigration measures that would cut funding for sanctuary cities and secure Americas borders. The committee has also passed measures to usurp presidential powers to grant the authority of states and localities to enforce immigration laws inconsistent with federal statutes and set the refugee resettlement ceiling, which would be capped at 50,000 people annually.

Goodlattes bills Kates Law and No Sanctuary for Criminals Act are two of the most significant in the reform package because they already have passed the House and will set the tone for how far Congress is willing to bend on immigration reform. While they face a difficult road in the Senate, Trump has thrown his weight behind the measures, calling them vital to public safety and national security.

Trump backing Goodlattes bills is no surprise considering the president campaigned heavily on immigration reform and has repeatedly vowed to withhold funds from sanctuary cities. He also name-dropped Steinle in his speech at the Republican National Convention last year, saying, but where was the sanctuary for Kate Steinle?

This collaboration represents a drastic change of pace from when former President Barack Obama was in office.

Shortly after Goodlatte was named chairman of the Judiciary Committee, he sat down with Obama to discuss immigration reform. During the 40-minute meeting, the two talked in detail about their views on immigration, but couldnt manage to see eye-to-eye.

We had an in-depth discussion about the issue and I think we could understand where each was coming from, but we couldnt find common ground, Goodlatte said.

At the time, Obama favored a comprehensive Senate approach that would give millions of undocumented immigrants a chance at citizenship while also beefing up security along the border between the U.S. and Mexico. Goodlatte, on the other hand, has long supported a stronger enforcement model that adheres to the nations current immigration laws.

But Goodlatte said he is pleased with the focus of the current administration because it largely aligns with his own vision for immigration reform.

Other House Republicans also have lauded Trumps push for increased border security and decreased migration into the country during floor debates on immigration reform.

Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., praised Kates Law, saying the U.S. should have no crimes committed by illegal immigrants because there should be no illegal immigrants in the country.

Citing a Fox News analysis, he also argued that illegal immigrants commit crimes at higher rates than American citizens, an argument PoltiFact California has debunked.

For the past 16 years, we had two presidents who did not prioritize dealing with illegal immigrants, he said. Thank God we finally have a president who takes that role seriously.

Pro-immigrant groups see the legislation differently.

Monica Sarmiento, executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights, called the Trump administrations push for immigration reform a systemic effort to vilify the nations undocumented immigrant community and reduce the number of legal immigrants into the country.

Its easier for the administration to use immigrants as a scapegoat for Americas problems than it is for Trump and Congress to fix real problems like crippling student debt, reforming the criminal justice system and growing the economy, she said.

What were seeing is that the administration and Congressman Goodlatte are constantly trying to focus and really spend taxpayer money on initiatives that lead to attacking individuals that should not be under the limelight, she said.

Goodlattes sanctuary cities bill would bar sanctuary cities that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities from receiving some federal funds and opens those localities up to being sued by the victims of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants. The legislation also calls for undocumented immigrants who have committed dangerous crimes to be detained during their removal proceedings.

In June, hundreds of local, state and national organizations that advocate for or depend on immigrants signed a letter to the House of Representatives, urging members to vote down Kates Law and the No Sanctuary for Criminals Act.

Sanctuary policies are critical to promote public safety for local communities, the letter said. Fearing referral to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, victims and witnesses of crime are significantly less likely to communicate with local law enforcement. Local law enforcement authorities have repeatedly echoed this sentiment, acknowledging that community policing policies are paramount to enhancing public safety.

The national Fraternal Order of Police echoed similar sentiments in a letter sent to House leadership in June.

Having garnered support from just three House Democrats, Goodlattes sanctuary cities bill faces a tough road in the Senate.

For comparison, two dozen House Democrats voted in favor of Kates Law, but Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, introduced similar legislation under the same name last year. His bill failed in the Senate.

Regardless of the outcome of his two bills, Goodlatte will continue to work toward immigration reform with the help of the executive branch and his Republican colleagues. Last week, he praised two Republican senators for introducing the Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy (RAISE) Act, which would cut the number of legal immigrants entering the U.S. by half in the next decade and create a merit-based green card system, as opposed to the lottery system currently in place. Trump also has backed the legislation.

This Congress must pass strong measures to ensure that immigration enforcement in the interior of the United States remains a priority , Goodlatte said in June.

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Goodlatte and House Judiciary Committee leading Trump's call for immigration reform - Roanoke Times

GREENSBORO Hundreds of people marched through downtown Saturday in support of immigration reform.

Betsy OConnor, who was meeting a friend for lunch downtown when the wave of protesters marched by, said immigration reform is needed in the United States.

This is supposed to be the land of the free but here lately, things have been pretty bad, said OConnor, 61, of High Point. I hope our politicians can get it together and stop separating people in the country.

FaithAction International House held the fifth annual Downtown Unity Walk for Immigration Reform to draw attention to issues surrounding immigration.

Melanie Rodenbough, a board member with FaithAction International, said the group wants to bring the community together and include those who are immigrants. She said Saturdays march had a great turnout that included several immigrants.

Rodenbough said FaithAction focuses on supporting immigrants, educating businesses and companies on immigration issues and connecting immigrants to community resources.

She said the immigrant community needs lawmakers to pass a comprehensive immigration bill that would protect young people without a criminal history to a pathway to citizenship.

Lisa Hitch with Indivisible High Point, a progressive political group, said families are being torn apart because of immigration laws in the United States.

Not that immigration laws in the country were better before, she said, but its gotten worse because of the current administration.

President Donald Trump has made good on campaign promises to crack down on immigration, both legal and illegal. He plans to cut legal immigration in half and has introduced legislation that eliminates preferences given to extended family members and adult children of U.S. citizens seeking green cards, according to the New York Times. Hes requested more immigration officers and signed an executive order authorizing Immigration and Customs Enforcement to widen the net of illegal immigrants to deport to include anyone, not just those with serious criminal records.

According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, arrests are up nearly 40 percent since January, with an average of 400 arrests across the country every day.

Late last month, a group gathered in Greensboro to denounce the rising numbers of ICE arrests of people without criminal records.

And two Greensboro churches are offering sanctuary to immigrants who illegally entered the country years ago. Both women were annually checking in with ICE and getting stays on deportation orders until this year.

Juana Luz Tobar Ortega, an Asheboro grandmother who has lived in the United States for more than 20 years, has been living at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church since May 31.

She is thought to be the first North Carolina resident to seek sanctuary from immigration officials at a church.

Minerva Cisneros Garcia, who has lived in Winston-Salem for 17 years, and two of her three sons moved into Congregational United Church of Christ on June 28.

Greensboro resident Michael Wildman, who attended Saturdays march with his wife and two young children, said immigration is a moral issue and voters need to elect better officials who understand that.

Im a person of faith, Wildman said. We have to welcome others.

OConnor was impressed by the number of people participating in the march. She said she hopes politicians pay attention to the unrest over certain laws and bills and make some changes.

Its sad that we have to protest to draw attention to issues that should be commonsense, OConnor said. The great part about this country is we can voice our opinions to force change.

Contact Andre Taylor at 336-373-3465 and follow @andretaylorNR on Twitter.

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Hundreds march through downtown Greensboro for immigration ... - Winston-Salem Journal

The Utah Immigration Reform Coalition responded to theRAISE Act, new legislation sponsored by Senators Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and David Perdue (R-Ga.), and called for a revised solution that harnesses the economic power of foreign-born workers in the U.S. economy.

The proposed bill was endorsed this week by President Trump, and called for a substantial limit to legal immigration with the intended outcome of raising wages for American workers. Instead, the bill will have negative economic impact on both American and foreign-born workers.

While the coalition agrees on the need to modernize our broken immigration system with merit-based solutions, the bill contains a broad misconception that immigrants are hindering the wages of American workers. In fact, research has shown time and time again that foreign-born workers often act as key drivers ofinnovationandjob creation, and do their part infilling the workforce gapsthat the American economy faces with its ongoing aging crisis. Instead, the coalition is urging Congress to take an approach that harnesses the power of immigrants to create a streamlined process that attracts the best talent, builds the workforce needed to support Americas industries, and ultimately lays the groundwork for greater economic growth.

While most agree that our countrys immigration system and policy is broken and outdated, the RAISE Act is not the solution our country needs. It falsely assumes that legal immigration harms our economy, when study after study from leading nonpartisan groups and think tanks confirm that legal immigration actually helps grow our economy, saidTim Wheelwright, Salt Lake City Immigration Attorney and Immigration Reform Task Force Chair at the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce. The need to reform our immigration system has never been greater, but the RAISE Act would actually be a big step backwards. I urge Utahs Congressional delegation to oppose the RAISE Act.

Former Utah Republican Party Chairman Stan Lockhartadded: We all agree our immigration system needs reform. The election rhetoric of 2016 was to make it harder to come here illegally, but easier to come here legally. That is not what this bill does. Limiting even more of those who can come legally actually has the opposite effect by providing greater incentive to come illegally. Its the wrong policy for America.

The state coalition is sponsored by New American Economy (NAE), a bipartisan organization that supports immigration reforms that help both American workers and immigrants build a better economy. The coalition utilizes local leadership roles and NAEs detailed research on immigrants to create a constructive platform to discuss immigration reform with Congress.

Closing our doors to immigrants wont reverse any of the challenges we face in todays global economy, saidformerUtah State Representative Holly Richardson. Instead, such policy would be severely limiting one of our countrys longstanding strengths, which is the willingness to embrace the best and brightest from across the world. Immigrants are part of the economic engine that makes this country run and should be embraced as the contributors they are.

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Utah Immigration Reform Coalition responds to the RAISE Act and calls for modernized system that harnesses the ... - Utah Policy