Immigration Reform Vote Sets Stage For Confrontation Between Congress, White House
CBS2 #39;s Craig Boswell has more from Washington on the looming confrontation.
By: CBS New York
View post:
Immigration Reform Vote Sets Stage For Confrontation Between Congress, White House - Video
House GOP goes on the record for mass deportation / Republicans,John Boehner, Immigration Reform
House GOP goes on the record for mass deportation Chris Hayes looks at the House vote Wednesday to end President Obama #39;s executive actions on immigration. ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES - 8:20 ...
By: MSNBC News
Here is the original post:
House GOP goes on the record for mass deportation / Republicans,John Boehner, Immigration Reform - Video
Washington House Republicans vented their anger at President Obama Wednesday by denying him the funds he needs to carry out his executive immigration action.
But will that be the epitaph for immigration reform during the Obama years?
To hardliners like Rep. Steve King (R) of Iowa, yes. But some more moderate Republicans still see a glimmer of hope for moving forward on immigration reform not as a single, comprehensive bill but on smaller pieces that could get bipartisan support.
The template for that would be Decembers vote to fund most of the federal government through September, says Rep. Tom Cole (R) of Oklahoma. The bill passed with the support of roughly two-thirds of Republicans and one-third of Democrats, sidelining dozens of hard-line conservatives.
"That's the only formula thats really going to work in this situation," said Representative Cole, a close ally of the speaker, in an interview with the Monitor. Ditto for any other major reforms that Congress might tackle in the next two years, he adds.
It might not work. An attempt by House Speaker John Boehner (R) of Ohio to move immigration reform forward last year never even got past the discussion stage. But the situation might be different this time. Not only can House Republicans count on the GOP-controlled Senate as an ally, but Republicans' need to woo Hispanic voters ahead of the 2016 presidential elections could shift the political calculus.
"John Boehner has made no secret of the fact that he wants us to attack this problem," Cole says, but first, "you've got to let him play out his hand."
That meant moving forward with the effort Wednesday by House Republicans to block funding for Mr. Obama's executive action, which was attached to a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security. It now moves to the GOP-controlled Senate but it is highly unlikely to survive a Democratic filibuster there. The White House also has threatened a veto.
The Houses move "is primarily a reaction to the president, whom we think is overreaching, and were going to have this fight," Cole says.
But his eye is already on areas of potential agreement among some Republicans, Democrats, and the White House, such as better border security, more high-tech visas, as well as a seasonal program for agricultural workers, which especially affects Republican districts.
Read more:
House GOP blocks Obama immigration plan, but there's an asterisk
Immigration reform is one of the most divisive issues in Congress right now, but for bills favoring high-skilled immigrants, there may be some hope. Senators introduced two bills this week to increase and streamline high-skilled immigration, and the sponsors say theyre optimistic about their prospects.
Measures to expand immigration channels for high-skilled workers, particularly in the tech industry, have long enjoyed bipartisan support but have fallen victim to the thornier politics of comprehensive reform. Passing the bills separately could be a win for business interests that want skilled labor and signal some progress on immigration from Congress. But detaching them from a comprehensive bill might dim the chances for legislation on more polarizing issues, like pathways to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
The Immigration Innovation Act, also known as I-Squared, was introduced Tuesday in the Senate by a bipartisan group of six including Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah; Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn; and Marco Rubio, R-Fla. The bill would drastically expand the number of available visas for temporary high-skilled workers, raising the existing cap of 65,000 to 115,000, with room to expand up to 195,000 under certain circumstances. The proposal also exempts some categories of immigrants from the quota for employment-based green cards, effectively doubling the number of those available visas.
A separate bill called the Startup Act, backed by six senators including Sens. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., and Mark Warner, D-Va., would create a new type of visa for entrepreneurs looking to start companies in the United States.
Neither bill is a new proposal; various versions of them have cropped up in Congress before. But reform of the high-skilled immigration process has usually been attached to broader legislation as a sweetener for lawmakers to pass it.
Now the new Republican-dominated Congress seems more inclined to implement piecemeal reform, rather than a sweeping comprehensive bill. Just because we cant do everything doesnt mean we cant do some things, Moran told the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. In my view, Congress makes a mistake when it tries to do everything in one piece of legislation.
Immigration is a particularly sore subject in Congress right now, as House Republicans voted Wednesday to defund President Barack Obamas executive action granting deportation relief to some 4 million undocumented immigrants. The House also narrowly passed a bill to undo deportation relief for undocumented childhood arrivals under the president's 2012 executive order. Passing measures for high-skilled immigrants would give the Republicans something to point to when accused of blocking any immigration reform.
Not all Republicans are on board, however. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., released an immigration handbook Tuesday that outlined arguments against increasing temporary high-skilled worker visas. It is understandable why these corporations push for legislation that will flood the labor market and keep pay low; what is not understandable is why we would ever consider advancing legislation that provides jobs for the citizens of other countries at the expense of our own, he wrote.
Nevertheless, analysts say the bills have a strong chance of passing both houses. Congress seems much more amenable to high-skilled reform than they were before, said Alex Nowrasteh, an immigration policy analyst at the libertarian Cato Institute. Republicans have been on board with expanding high-skilled immigration for a very long time. Now that they control the Senate, they can control the discussion on that, and theyre going to push for more liberalization of the system than they would have gotten in a mixed Congress.
But Obama and some Democrats in Congress have championed comprehensive immigration legislation, and its unclear whether the president would sign these measures on their own. Obama said that he is amenable to some piecemeal bills that are sent up to him, but hes been decidedly less enthusiastic about that compared to a comprehensive bill, Nowrasteh said.
Here is the original post:
Immigration Reform 2015: High Hopes For High-Skilled Immigration Reform, Even As Congress Battles Obama
Washington House Republicans vented their anger at President Obama Wednesday by denying him the funds he needs to carry out his executive immigration action.
But will that be the epitaph for immigration reform during the Obama years?
To hardliners like Rep. Steve King (R) of Iowa, yes. But some more moderate Republicans still see a glimmer of hope for moving forward on immigration reform not as a single, comprehensive bill but on smaller pieces that could get bipartisan support.
The template for that would be Decembers vote to fund most of the federal government through September, says Rep. Tom Cole (R) of Oklahoma. The bill passed with the support of roughly two-thirds of Republicans and one-third of Democrats, sidelining dozens of hard-line conservatives.
"That's the only formula thats really going to work in this situation," said Representative Cole, a close ally of the speaker, in an interview with the Monitor. Ditto for any other major reforms that Congress might tackle in the next two years, he adds.
It might not work. An attempt by House Speaker John Boehner (R) of Ohio to move immigration reform forward last year never even got past the discussion stage. But the situation might be different this time. Not only can House Republicans count on the GOP-controlled Senate as an ally, but Republicans' need to woo Hispanic voters ahead of the 2016 presidential elections could shift the political calculus.
"John Boehner has made no secret of the fact that he wants us to attack this problem," Cole says, but first, "you've got to let him play out his hand."
That meant moving forward with the effort Wednesday by House Republicans to block funding for Mr. Obama's executive action, which was attached to a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security. It now moves to the GOP-controlled Senate but it is highly unlikely to survive a Democratic filibuster there. The White House also has threatened a veto.
The Houses move "is primarily a reaction to the president, whom we think is overreaching, and were going to have this fight," Cole says.
But his eye is already on areas of potential agreement among some Republicans, Democrats, and the White House, such as better border security, more high-tech visas, as well as a seasonal program for agricultural workers, which especially affects Republican districts.
See the rest here:
House GOP blocks Obama immigration plan, but there's an asterisk (+video)