Archive for the ‘Immigration Reform’ Category

No Executive Action on Immigration Overhaul for Now

Apr 15, 2014 4:02pm

President Obama has no plans to enact unilateral immigration overhaul by executive action, faith leaders from across the country said Obama told them today.

We did not discuss the need; we did not bring up the issue of the president doing unilateral action, Luis Cortes, president of Esperanza, a nonprofit law office serving immigrants, said at a news briefing after the Washington meeting.

We felt it was more important that Congress take action at this time.

Obama had asked the director of Homeland Security to look at ways to reduce the number of people deported for entering the United States without documentation. But White House press secretary Jay Carney says that is different from implementing immigration overhaul on his own.

The Department of Homeland Security is now performing a review of practices and implantation of enforcement guidelines. In other words, the administration is trying to obey the law and still rid the president of a title recently given him by Hispanic leaders, Deporter in Chief.

As for his changing immigration law, Carney said that is a nonstarter.

I think the president believes that there is an opportunity that still exists for House Republicans to follow the lead of the Senate, including Republicans in the Senate, and take up and pass comprehensive immigration reform, Carney said at todays press briefing. And todays meeting that the president had with faith leaders demonstrates and reinforces the fact that there is a broad, unusually broad, coalition that supports that effort, that supports comprehensive immigration reform and all the benefits that making reform the law would provide to the country, to our security, to our economy, to our businesses.

I think it highlights the isolation that House Republicans find themselves in when so many, not just politicians or advocacy leaders, but folks across the country support doing the right thing here and the irony, of course, is that there is a really strong conservative argument to be made on behalf of comprehensive immigration reform, he said.

In a series of meetings in the past few months, Obama has met with immigration reform activists and leaders on the topic, hoping to gain their support to pressure House republicans into action.

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No Executive Action on Immigration Overhaul for Now

Dems target dozens of Republicans in 'last effort' of the year on immigration reform

House Democrats on Tuesday increased their pressure on GOP supporters of immigration reform to fight harder for a bill this year.

"We're calling out the members of the House who have said they support immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship," Polis said on a press call. "We're saying, 'Do something about your support.' "

With November's elections inching ever-closer, the Democrats see the next few months as their last chance to overhaul the nation's immigration system this Congress. The Senate passed a comprehensive reform bill last summer, and a failure of the House to follow suit before January would be a huge set-back to reform advocates, who would be forced to start from scratch in both chambers in 2015.

The Democrats acknowledge they almost certainly won't attract enough Republicans to their discharge petition to force a vote. (The 191 members who have endorsed the petition all Democrats are well shy of the 218 needed to bring the bill to the floor). But the design is to generate local headlines and build enough public pressure that GOP leaders are left with no choice but to act.

Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) compared the current immigration push to that surrounding last year's reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act another measure opposed by Republican leaders, who reluctantly brought it to the floor after months of attacks from Democrats and women's rights groups.

"It seemed we were at loggerheads and we were going nowhere with that but then the pressure from around the nation became too enormous," Chu said. "The pressure from around the nation [on immigration reform] has to be just as enormous."

Chu said that simple demographics make immigration reform a bipartisan issue, and there are "a significant number of Republicans that know that they have to pay attention to their district."

"We have this variety of viewpoints within the Republican Party," she said. "And [Majority Whip] Kevin McCarthy has to consider all of them, he has to consider the survival of the Republican Party."

The Democrats are targeting 30 Republicans who have voiced some degree of support for immigration reform that includes a pathway to citizenship for the nearly 12 million immigrants estimated to be living in the country illegally.

The Republican targets are Reps. Don Young (Alaska), Chris Stewart (Utah), Sean Duffy (Wis.), Spencer Bachus (Ala.), Jeff Denham (Calif.), David Valadao (Calif.), Greg Walden (Ore.), Paul Ryan (Wis.), Michael Grimm (N.Y.), Darrell Issa (Calif.), Mark Amodei (Nev.), Mike Coffman (Colo.), James Lankford (Okla.), Mike Kelly (Pa.), Mario Diaz-Balart (Fla.), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Fla.), Devin Nunes (Calif.), Jason Chaffetz (Utah), Joe Heck (Nev.), Peter King (N.Y.), Raul Labrador (Idaho), Sam Johnson (Texas), John Carter (Texas), Daniel Webster (Fla.), Aaron Schock (Ill.), Steve Pearce (N.M.), Tim Griffin (Ark.), Justin Amash (Mich.), Vance McAllister (La.) and Renee Ellmers (N.C.).

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Dems target dozens of Republicans in 'last effort' of the year on immigration reform

Immigration Reform: Will Flip-Flopping Jeb ‘Act-of-Love’ Bush Run in 2016 – Video


Immigration Reform: Will Flip-Flopping Jeb #39;Act-of-Love #39; Bush Run in 2016
Eternal Damnation: War on 21st-Century Jim Crow #39;Republican #39; Voting Laws: http://www.afroarticles.com/article-dashboard/Article/Eternal-Damnation--War-on-21s...

By: politicalarticles

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Immigration Reform: Will Flip-Flopping Jeb 'Act-of-Love' Bush Run in 2016 - Video

ATTEMPTS TO ADVANCE COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM (CIR) IN THE HOUSE – Video


ATTEMPTS TO ADVANCE COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM (CIR) IN THE HOUSE
National Day of Action; Immigration Reform; HR 15; Attempts to advance CIR in the house.

By: David Nachman

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ATTEMPTS TO ADVANCE COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM (CIR) IN THE HOUSE - Video

Correction: Immigration Reform story

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - In a story April 3 about a hunger strike by immigration reform advocates, The Associated Press misspelled the name of a Christian social justice organization. It is Sojourners, not Soujourners.

A corrected version of the story is below:

Immigration reform advocates begin fast in Va.

Immigration reform advocates bring national tour, hunger strike to Richmond

By LARRY ODELL

Associated Press

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Advocates for immigration reform began a four-day hunger strike Thursday in Richmond, hoping to rally support for their cause and capture the attention of two powerful Virginia congressmen.

The event is part of the national Fast for Families Across America campaign that has taken two busloads of advocates to 30 states over the last few weeks. The campaign set up a tent in a park near downtown to serve as headquarters for its Richmond stay before heading back to Washington, D.C., next week.

Members of the organization staged a 22-day fast outside the U.S. Capitol in November before embarking on its tour of 75 congressional districts, including House Majority Leader Eric Cantors in Virginia. Yanet Limon, 18, said she and a few other advocates met with Cantor staffers Thursday morning but received no commitment on immigration reform.

House Speaker John Boehner has refused to schedule a vote on a comprehensive bill the Senate passed in June and has said it is unlikely to pass the GOP-led House this year.

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Correction: Immigration Reform story