Archive for the ‘Immigration Reform’ Category

Why Paul Ryan won’t work with Obama on immigration reform

Just like his predecessor, the freshly elected speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, has no qualms about opposing the White House. In a series of interviews Sunday, Rep. Ryan (R) of Wisconsin revealed that he has no intention of working with President Barack Obama on comprehensive immigration reform, an issue for which Obama had issued executive orders last year.

"I think it would be a ridiculous notion to try and work on an issue like this with a president we simply cannot trust on this issue," Mr. Ryan said in an interview aired on the CBS program "Face the Nation."

"He tried to go it alone, circumventing the legislative process with his executive orders, so that is not in the cards. I think if we reach consensus on how best to achieve border and interior enforcement security, I think that's fine," Ryan added.

Mr. Obamas executive orders from November 2014 circumvented the gridlocked partisan Congress, intending to protect millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation. Challenged by courts around the nation, the mandate wouldve allowed 4.7 million immigrants to stay in the US, a significant portion of whom have children who are American citizens.

In a news briefing Friday, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest called Ryans unwavering stance on immigration a deep source of disappointment.

Ryan appeared in five taped interviews Sunday, promoting his agenda as the new Speaker to unify his party and navigate relationships with his colleagues, the 2016 presidential candidates, and of course, Obama.

The Republicans, he said, need to become a proposition party in order to be successful in opposing the Democrats on issues like the Affordable Care Act or tax reform.

We have been too timid for too long around here, Mr. Ryan said on ABCs This Week. We have been bold on tactics but not on policy, not on an agenda. We have to show people what our alternatives are, and that is the kind of leadership I think people are hungry for here.

Comprehensive immigration reform has long been a bipartisan issue. In 2013, a group of Congressmen from both sides of the aisle got together and procured a framework for reform that passed in the Senate but has since been stalled in the House. Among the Gang of Eight Congressmen who worked on the legislation is Marco Rubio, a candidate for the 2016 presidential election.

Ryan said Sunday that he had promised the Freedom Caucus, the group of conservative Republicans responsible for John Boehners resignation, that he will not bring up comprehensive immigration reform.

"This president tried to write the law himself," Ryan told the CNN program "State of the Union," accusing Obama of exceeding his constitutional powers. "Presidents don't write laws. Congress writes laws."

Mr. Boehner has expressed regret in a State of the Union interview that the bipartisan framework did not pass the House.

"Reforming our immigration system, securing our borders would be good for America. But unfortunately the president just kept poisoning the well poisoning the well to the point where it was impossible to put it on the floor of the House," Boehner said.

If Ryan has his way, the matter will likely be deferred until at least January 2017, when a new president is sworn into office. But if the Oval Office is filled by another Democrat, immigration negotiations could remain on a back burner.

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Why Paul Ryan won't work with Obama on immigration reform

Marco Rubio Immigration Reform: Republican Won’t Reverse …

Republican presidential candidate and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said in April he wouldnt immediately revoke President Barack Obamas Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program should he become president. Rival candidateDonald Trump criticized Rubio for the position Tuesday, saying that his statements disqualified the senator from being president.

The DACA program allows young undocumented immigrants who were broughtto the United States as children to apply for temporary legal status in the country.

In the April segment, recorded on Univision in English, Rubio said he didn't think the program could be immediately revoked when the next president takes office. Rubio went on to say DACA will have to end at some point and that he hopes that it will end through permanentimmigration law reforms. The interview was with anchor Jorge Ramos, whom Trump later threw out of a news conference.

It cannot be the permanent policy of the United States, Rubio said. ButIm not calling for it to be revoked tomorrow or this week or right away.

Trump has taken a hard line toward undocumented immigrants since joining the 2016 Republican nominating race in June. He began his candidacy with a speech that calledsomeMexicans criminals and rapists, and has called for the deportation of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country.

I understand we have a serious problem in America, we have 12 million human beings who are in this country illegally, Rubio went on to say during the April interview, which occurred before Trump began his candidacy. Not even the most vociferous opponents of immigration reform are offering up ideas about rounding up and deporting 12 million people. Were going to have to deal with that in a reasonable and realistic way.

The first-term senator, a sonof Cuban immigrants, also commented in April on Obamas order granting temporary legal status to parents of the young adults and children eligible for DACA. It has been stalled bya court review. On that policy, Rubio answered forcefully. I would revoke it, he said. It is hurting our efforts to reform our immigration laws. It is adding credibility to the argument that we cannot do immigration reform because the federal government is not serious about enforcing immigration laws and preventing a future illegal immigration crisis.

Rubio has shifted his immigration policies substantially over the last few years as he prepared to run for president. In 2013, hewas a leader of the gang of eight senators that pushed for comprehensive immigration reform. That bill passed the Senate but did not make it past the House. In the years since, Rubio has adopted a border-enforcement-first position.

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Marco Rubio Immigration Reform: Republican Won't Reverse ...

Paul Ryan vows not to push immigration reform as House …

The new Speaker of the House of Representatives has told members of his party that he will not attempt to advance any immigration reform effort while President Barack Obama is still in the Oval Office.

According to the National Review, Rep. Paul Ryan a Wisconsin Republican whom House Republicans confirmed Thursday to be the chambers next speaker, replacing Rep. John Boehner of Ohio made his immigration-reform vow by signing off on a letter written by Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama seeking his pledge not to bring immigration up while Obama is president.

The letter referred to a conversation that Ryan had with the House Freedom Caucus, a conservative faction that is vehemently opposed to any effort to give undocumented immigrants legal status.

The letter, which the National Review said it had obtained an exclusive copy of, confirmed a promise that Ryan was said to have made to the caucus in a private meeting last week when he was assessing how much support he would have if he ran for the speakership.

Brooks expressed plans to enter the letter and Ryans agreement with its contents in the Congressional Record.

The Alabama representative said that if Ryan confirmed his promise not to bring up immigration until at least 2017 and if, even then, he would do so only if a majority of his party supported it, Brooks would endorse Ryans candidacy for speaker.

I need your assurance that you will not use the speakers position to advance your immigration policies ... because there is a huge gap between your immigration position and the wishes of the American citizens I represent, Brooks wrote. Your words yesterday constitute the needed assurance.

If my portrayal of your words errs in any respect, please deliver to me ... a written communication correcting my errors, the letter went on.

The National Review said that Ryan confirmed his agreement with the letter in an interview with the publication.

I have long and publicly been opposed to the Gang of Eight bill, and there will be no comprehensive immigration reform under this president, the publication quoted Ryan as saying.

The so-called Gang of Eight bill was a bipartisan Senate resolution that passed in 2013 but stalled in the House, that called for comprehensive immigration reform that would have, among other things, tightened border security and provided a path to legal status for undocumented immigrants who met a strict set of criteria.

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Immigration Reform 2015: Paul Ryan Blames Obama, Says …

U.S. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, on his first full day asthe head of the people's chamber Friday, told reporters that he won't consider bringing any comprehensive immigration reform bills to the floor while President Barack Obama is in office. The new Republican speaker said the idea of bringing up such legislation under Obama is "ridiculous," according to the Washington Examiner.

This line isn't completely new for Ryan, whose rise to speakerhinged on his willingness to prevent reforms from makingit to the House floor. In a closed-door meeting with House Freedom Caucus members -- a group of about 40 ultra-conservative Republican lawmakers who played an important part in pushing former Speaker John Boehner to retire -- before his election, the Wisconsin native promised he would not bring up reforms under Obama's presidency.

"I have long and publicly been opposed to the so-called gang of eightbill, and there will be no comprehensive immigration reform under this president," Ryan told the National Review earlier this week.

The gang of eight bill was an immigration reform proposal that was agreed to by a bipartisan group of eight senators in 2013. The legislation failed in the House.

The White House said Thursday after Ryan was elected that the Obama administration shared a deep level of disappointment that there would be no immigration reform before the Democratic president leaves office in January 2017.

Obama has deported record numbers of undocumented immigrants since he took office in what was widely considereda sign of goodwill toward Republicans so that he could later work with them to pass comprehensive immigration reforms.

Instead, the only immigration reforms that he has been able to make while president have been through the power of his executive office. He has granted temporary legal status to millions of younger undocumented immigrants, and attempted to grant that status to their parents;however, that effort has been tied up in federal courts.

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Immigration Reform 2015: Paul Ryan Blames Obama, Says ...

Congressman: ‘No Way’ Comprehensive Immigration Reform …

CREDIT: AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis. speaks in the House Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2015. Republicans rallied behind Ryan to elect him the House's 54th speaker on Thursday as a splintered GOP turned to the youthful but battle-tested lawmaker to mend its self-inflicted wounds and craft a conservative message to woo voters in next year's elections.

Its been widely reported that newly-elected Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) wont bring immigration reform legislation to the House floor while President Obama remains in office. Whats been mentioned less is what will happen when Obama is gone.

According to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Ryan promised the Houses ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus in a closed-door meeting that he wont bring comprehensive immigration reform to the floor even after a new president is elected that is, unless he can ensure that the majority of House Republicans will vote for it. And Jordan pointed out that its very unlikely that the majority of Republicans will ever support anything comprehensive.

We got assurances on the immigration issue and this comprehensive Gang-of-Eight-type of plan that thats not going to happen, Jordan told radio host Laura Ingraham on Friday. And frankly, in the next Congress, theres no way something like that moves unless the majority of our conference supports it. And the majority of our conference, as you rightly point out, doesnt support that.

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Ryans promise to the Freedom Caucus came in the form of a letter, first obtained by the conservative National Review. That letter also stated that he would not allow any immigration bill to reach the floor for a vote unless a majority of GOP members support it.

Ryans office did not return ThinkProgress request for comment.

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