“This is consistent with our country’s tradition of being a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants.” – Senator John McCain (Press conference announcing new immigration reform push)
ISN’T IT amazing what a demographic shellacking can do.
Packed room at the press conference announcing the latest effort in immigration reform.
A powerful group of senators from both parties has reached a deal on the outlines of a comprehensive immigration overhaul, a development that will drive an emotional debate on a hot-button issue unseen in Washington for more than half a decade. The group is expected to unveil the basics of its proposal at a Monday news conference on Capitol Hill, essentially laying down a marker on the issue one day before President Barack Obama heads to Las Vegas to unveil more details about his own immigration proposal. – [Politico]
The eight senators behind the immigration guidelines include Democrats Charles Schumer of New York, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Michael Bennet of Colorado; and Republicans John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Marco Rubio of Florida and Jeff Flake of Arizona.
According to documents obtained by CBS News and The Associated Press, the senators will call for accomplishing four goals:
-Creating a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants already here, contingent upon securing the border and better tracking of people here on visas.
-Reforming the legal immigration system, including awarding green cards to immigrants who obtain advanced degrees in science, math, technology or engineering from an American university.
-Creating an effective employment verification system to ensure that employers do not hire illegal immigrants.
-Allowing more low-skill workers into the country and allowing employers to hire immigrants if they can demonstrate they couldn’t recruit a U.S. citizen; and establishing an agricultural worker program.
But the agreed upon deal still has to be turned into legislation.
What will happen when it meets the House is another issue entirely. As for right wing radio, it should be very entertaining today.
Whatever credit is offered by Democrats to Republicans signing on, there are very few people who have earned it.
That Senator John “complete the danged fence” McCain is a central figure here is a fitting last flippity floppity, after McCain made a fool of himself sucking up to wingnuts in his reelection that required Sarah Palin to campaign for him. McCain is an example of what the right wing has cost the Republican Party, as well as McCain himself.
Pretty typical sociopath behavior….only relate to something when it directly adversely affects you….
Ok, Ed Schultz started his show by ranting that Republican concessions on immigration reform are “purely political.”
Only a dishonest or historically illiterate person would say such a thing. OF COURSE this is about politics. Make a list of the BEST LEGISLATION EVER PASSED BY CONGRESS. I mean EVER- since 1789. If you are HONEST, you’ll discover that hey, what do you know, a HUGE reason why it passed was because it benefited one of the parties at the expense of the other. Bipartisan legislation- passed with no or virtually no debate or dissension- is either BAD legislation, or it’s bipartisan because neither party is willing to let the other take full credit.
Complaining that a politician or a party supports legislation for political purposes is the height of pollyanna foolishness. That’s what politics are all about, for Christ’s sake. Unless you’ve believe the Democratic Party is made up entirely of Good Fairy Princesses and the Republican party of Evil Trolls- in which case, I don’t imagine that any of this is going to get through, anyway.
If the Republicans adjust their position on immigration purely for tactical reasons of political survival- GOOD!!!! That’s what parties are SUPPOSED TO DO and it’s proof that DEMOCRACY STILL WORKS!
In the universe most progressive voters seem to inhabit, if you keep supporting the people who are screwing you, then you’ll be rewarded for your loyalty.
In the universe everyone else inhabits, this is the exact opposite of reality.
That’s what this shows. As we can see from the first comment here, it’s going to take a lot more of these lessons for this to sink in.
And in the bizzaro universe some posters here seem to inhabit, contrary to everything is the way to go.
The devil is in the details. I have my doubts that the Republicans really want a true path to citizenship. Those twelve million people will have very long memories of who was demonizing them for over thirty odd years.
I don’t trust any of the electeds to put any kind of hurt where the hurting needs to happen either. Far too many businesses with deep pockets benefit from lax immigration enforcement. Having a permanent underclass with no legal rights suites transnational corporate capitalists just fine.
I also see the R’s and the D’s throwing tons of tax dollars away on a pointless “fence.” A more pointless exercise I can not imagine. I lived in San Diego, California. I’ve seen the terrain, you can not secure it, not even if you spent the entire trillion dollar plus budget of the US Government on that sole purpose.
Regardless of the intent of the original sponsors, I’m sure this will end up being mostly another subsidy for the security-industrial complex. I think Molly Ivin’s observation still applies – build a ten-foot fence and they’ll bring an eleven-foot ladder. As long as there is such a big difference in economic opportunity on the two sides of the border, there are going to be people applying their minds to the problem of getting to the other side.
It was advantageous for both parties NOT to do anything on immigration. Now it is not. Simple as that.