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Jindal: GOP Should Do Immigration Reform Before 2014 Elections

By: National Review

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Jindal: GOP Should Do Immigration Reform Before 2014 Elections - Video

House Republicans are considering a list of principles that could guide immigration reform legislation, should they decide to act on the issue. The list includes a pathway to legal status, but not citizenship, for illegal immigrants. Here's the difference.

Of all the sticking points in immigration reform, the stickiest is what to do about the estimated 11 million people already living illegally in the United States.

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The Senate, in its bipartisan reform bill approved last June, opted to grant a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants. In the House, many Republicans call that "amnesty," and want none of it.Now, however, House Republicans are discussing this alternative: Provide a pathway to legal status, but not citizenship.

So far, that idea is just a talking point on a list of immigration reform principles that House Republicans are considering at a retreat on Marylands Eastern Shore Jan. 29-31. Even so, it could mark the road to an actual law or laws, so the distinction is important. Below we answer questions about legal status versus citizenship, and the arguments on both sides of the debate.

What does legal status entail?

Gaining legal status would likely mean three things for people now living in the US illegally, according to Doris Meissner, director of the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank that studies global migration.

First, they would no longer be subject to deportation solely because theyre in the country illegally, as long as they are law abiding in other ways. Second, they would be authorized to work. Third, they would have the ability to travel in and out of the United States. At least 60 percent of the illegal population has been in the US for more than 10 years, says Ms. Meissner, and are unable to return to their home countries to visit family or for other reasons.

Republicans would want immigrants to meet certain conditions to qualify for legal status, such as admitting they entered the country illegally, passing background checks, paying fines and back taxes, and becoming proficient in English and American civics.

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Immigration reform 101: How is 'legal status' different ...

Eliseo Medina fasted for 22 days on the National Mall in support of immigration reform. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Eliseo Medina is a relentless optimist. The 67-year-old activist has a genial demeanor and a calm, unassuming way about him -- qualities that have served him well during his decades-long career pushing for workers' rights and immigration reform. When you're fighting uphill battles, it helps to remain positive.

By the end of last year, however, even Medina was losing patience. Since retiring from his post as secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union in September, he had devoted himself to the immigration reform cause, full-time. Two weeks before Thanksgiving, he left his wife and children at home, moved into a tent on the National Mall along with a small group of supporters and started fasting in an effort to draw attention to the reform movement, which had stalled in Congress.

The lack of food was making Medina dizzy and weak. And despite his efforts, there appeared to be little hope of convincing Republican lawmakers to move forward with an immigration reform bill. Even starting a dialogue was proving impossible. Medina and his supporters had asked repeatedly to meet with House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to discuss the issue, but their requests had been ignored.

On Nov. 19, seven days into his fast, Medina and his fellow advocates decided to escalate matters. A group of about 50 people trekked up to Capitol Hill, filed through the metal detectors in the Longworth Office Building and assembled in front of Boehner's office.

Brittany Bramell, Boehner's spokeswoman, positioned herself outside of the office door. She dutifully promised to pass along the letters and statements the protesters had brought with them, stories of families separated by deportation and border-crossers dying in the desert. But Medina was persistent in asking for a meeting with the Republican leader.

"What about tomorrow?" he asked. "Next week?"

"All we were asking is for a conversation, and yet Speaker Boehner closed his door, closed his office," Medina recalled recently. "In my mind, I said, 'What are they afraid of?'"

It wasn't supposed to have come to this. The 2012 election results were supposed to have convinced Republicans of the political necessity of passing immigration reform. Numerous GOP officials, senators and more nationally-ambitious House members said it was an electoral imperative. That logic has escaped most House Republicans, however, who are betting that blocking immigration reform will help more than hurt as they vye for reelection this year.

In response, immigration reform advocates have staged increasingly dramatic lobbying efforts. Undocumented immigrants have come out of the shadows, activists have chained themselves together outside deportation centers and others have infiltrated detention facilities to expose conditions there. Pushing immigration reform has become a decidedly risky business.

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The Man Who Kept Immigration Reform Alive

Prosperous nations such as the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom will always attract immigrants that are in search for a better life. The problem is that many immigrants do not follow the proper immigration channels. The United States has an illegal immigration problem as immigrants enter the country illegally by crossing the border between the United States and Mexico, or they enter legally but overstay their visas. The United States Immigration Reform is specifically targeting the problem of 12 to 20 million undocumented workers in the United States.

Contact us at news@usaimmigrationreform.org for the latest amnesty news.

The proposed Immigration Reform included the following topics.

Border Security:

Worksite Enforcements:

Guest Worker Programs:

Improve the current immigration system:

The Naturalization Process:

Are you interested in receiving updates about the Immigration Reform currently being considered by the United States government? The proposed immigration reform will secure our border and legalize the 12-20 million illegal immigrants currently in the United States.

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USAimmigrationreform.org - Immigration Reform

AP Photo/Eric Gay

After House GOP leaders rolled out their immigration principles last week, many Republicans struck back, arguing embracing reform nowisfollybecause, well, #OBUMMER and #OBUMMER. They said acting now could trample on gains Republicans will enjoy from Obamacares certain collapse and that the President cant be trusted to honor any immigrationdeal.

Paul Ryans interview on ABC yesterday offers a clue on how GOP leaders will try to navigate around these objections. And in the process it neatly illustrates the central unknowns about House Republican thinking on the issue, the resolution of which will decide whether reform happens or dies. Heres the key quote:

Heres the issue that all Republicans agree on we dont trust the president to enforce the law. So if you actually look at the standards that the Republican leadership put out, which is security first, first we have to secure the border, have interior enforcement, which is a worker verification system, a visa tracking program. Those things have to be in law, in practice and independently verified before the rest of the law can occur. So its a security force first, non-amnesty approach.

Askedif Republicans could embrace reform Obama could sign, Ryan said: That is clearly in doubt. It depends on whether theyre willing to actually secure the border.

The important thing to understand about Ryans quotes is theirstrategic vagueness. When Ryan says security and enforcement the meeting of border metrics, E-Verify,etc. must be verified before the rest of the law can occur, hes deliberatelyfudging the dilemma Republicans face. Will the 11 million get some sort of temporary or provisional legal/work status before all these conditions are met? Or is even that automatically amnesty and therefore a nonstarter?

Last week on MSNBC, Ryan drew the curtain back a bit on this debate, revealing that Republicans were contemplating a probationary status that would allow the undocumented to work while security measures were implemented. (Republicanswill continueto call whatever form oflegalization they are contemplatingprobation, because legalization is amnesty.) That drew some howls from the right. So superficially, Ryans quote on ABC appears to be about setting down a harder line: Nothing in the rest of the law can proceed until security and enforcement metrics are met.

In reality, though, this quote is vague. Indeed, the very idea of a probationary status is all about creating a provisionalway for the undocumented to work before security metrics are met andthe rest of the law proceeds. Ryan surely knows Republicans will have to cross that bridge if reform is going to pass, because the alternative would leave millions in legal limbo for literally years while billions and billions are spent realizing those security metrics.Its hard to see how Dems who will be needed to pass anything out of the House could ever accept this.

The unknown is whether GOP leaders will ultimately decide that embracing some form of legalization, or probation before onerous security metrics are met is too hard, giventhe politics inside the House GOP caucus. This is the context for understanding the real meaning of the Obama cant be trusted talking point.

Either Ryan knows he must say this to get mainstream conservatives to even listen to him about immigration its a way to reassure them of his best intentionseven asGOP leadersseriously grapple with how to get to someform of legalization. (Byron York floats a version of this theory here.) Or, if Republicans decide they cant get to that point, it will become the excuse for killing reform: Obama cant be trusted to enforce the law executive orders Obamacare Benghazi etc. etc. so we cant embrace any form of legalization,until all of our security metrics are met.

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Morning Plum: GOP may kill immigration reform because #OBUMMER