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John McCain `This Week`: Pleased With Bipartisan Immigration Progress, Expects Citizenship Pat
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By: meva sibrun

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John McCain `This Week`: Pleased With Bipartisan Immigration Progress, Expects Citizenship Pat - Video

Published December 27, 2014

Feb 7. 2011: President Obama is greeted by Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue as he arrives to address the crowd in Washington. (Reuters)

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce flexed its muscle in the midterm election, winning 14 of 15 Republican primaries in which it was involved and helping the GOP recapture the Senate. Now it wants the Republican majority in Congress to get to work.

Chamber Chief Executive Tom Donohue said in an interview that the GOP has two years to enact a vigorous program aimed at meeting the needs of the American people or risk losing their majority. The Chamber wants Congress to act on business priorities such as an immigration overhaul, transportation funding, tax breaks and trade agreements.

Mr. Donohue warned lawmakers to move beyond intraparty skirmishes and partisan bickering that paralyzed the last Congress, hinting that his group might look to oust lawmakers who try to derail the legislative process.

The Chamber played a central role in the midterm campaigns, spending more than $70 million, according to an official. After backing a number of losing candidates in 2012, the goal for the groupand the Republican partyin 2014 was to nominate candidates with the best prospects of winning a general election, and an aptitude to govern once they arrived in Washington.

We had candidates who were fundamentally more interested in turning over the apple cart than they were in governing, Mr. Donohue said of the congressional elections in 2010 and 2012.

Of 268 candidates the Chamber endorsed in the 2014 election, 249 won, including 22 in the 30 most contested races in which the group was involved. In the eyes of Mr. Donohue and other Chamber officials, the results sent a clear message: People want Congress and the Senate to govern, Mr. Donohue said. They want them to be competent.

Polls support that view. Public-opinion surveys taken before and after the election showed a much higher share of the electorate wanted to see lawmakers compromise than in 2010, when the tea-party wave swept Republicans to power in the House.

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US Chamber of Commerce to push immigration reform, tax ...

updated 1:19 PM EST, Sun December 28, 2014

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Washington (CNN) -- If Republicans don't wield their congressional majority next year to pass immigration reform legislation, a GOP takeover of the White House in 2016 will be "difficult, if not impossible," Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said during a CNN interview released on Sunday.

Graham, a Republican who has long-favored comprehensive immigration reform, said he believes the GOP has hurt itself with Hispanic voters due to its resistance to reforming the current system. And without a major change, Democrats will get another four years in the Oval Office, Graham told CNN's Dana Bash on "State of the Union."

READ: CNN/ORC Poll: Bush surges to 2016 GOP frontrunner

"If we don't at least make a down payment on solving the problem and rationally dealing with the 11 million [illegal immigrants believed to be in the U.S.], if we become the party of self-deportation in 2015 and 2016, then the chance of winning the White House I think is almost non-existent," he said.

But Graham, who is mulling a 2016 presidential run, slammed President Barack Obama's executive action last month to safeguard as many as 5 million undocumented immigrants. He accused the President of "acting in a rogue fashion" for "political reasons."

Republicans, though, need to "do more than just fight the executive order," he added.

Graham supports giving a pathway to citizenship to the so-called DREAMers -- undocumented immigrants who crossed into the U.S. illegally as children and have lived in the U.S. since. And in 2014, Graham showed the political viability of his position by successfully beating back a tough primary challenge in his conservative state by reaffirming -- rather than running away from -- his stance on immigration.

"If the Republican Party cannot muster the political courage to deal with the DREAM Act children in a fair and balanced way after we secure our border, that says a a lot about the Republican Party's future regarding the Hispanic community," Graham said. "I don't believe most Americans would fault the Republican Party if we allowed children who have been here since they're babies to assimilate into society with a pathway to citizenship after we secure our borders."

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Graham: 2016 hinges on immigration

FRESNO, Calif. - Farmers already scrambling to find workers in California the leading U.S. grower of fruits, vegetables and nuts fear an even greater labour shortage under President Barack Obama's executive action to block some 5 million people from deportation.

Thousands of the state's farmworkers, who make up a significant portion of those who will benefit, may choose to leave the uncertainty of their seasonal jobs for steady, year-around work building homes, cooking in restaurants and cleaning hotel rooms.

"This action isn't going to bring new workers to agriculture," said Jason Resnick, vice-president and general counsel of the powerful trade association Western Growers. "It's possible that because of this action, agriculture will lose workers without any mechanism to bring in new workers."

Although details of the president's immigration policy have yet to be worked out, Resnick said the agricultural workforce has been declining for a decade. Today, the association estimates there is a 15 to 20 per cent shortage of farmworkers, which is driving the industry to call for substantial immigration reform from Congress, such as a sound guest worker program.

"Hopefully there will be the opportunity for comprehensive immigration reform," said Karen Ross, secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture. "That's the right thing to do for this country."

California's 330,000 farmworkers account for the largest share of the 2.1 million nationwide, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Texas comes in a distant second with less than half of California's farmworkers.

Once Obama's executive action starts going into effect next year, it will protect the parents of legal U.S. residents from deportation and expand a 2012 program that shields from deportation people brought into the U.S. illegally as children.

Manuel Cunha, president of the Fresno-based Nisei Farmers League, estimates that 85 per cent of California's agricultural workers are using false documents to obtain work.

Cunha, who has advised the Obama administration on immigration policy, figures that 50,000 of the state's farmworkers who may benefit from the president's executive action could leave the fields and packing houses in California's $46.4 billion agricultural industry.

"How do I replace that?" he said. "I think we're going to have a problem."

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US farmers brace for workforce shortage under Obama's executive action on immigration

Obama #39;s immigration reform - Rajini Vaidyanathan reports from White House

By: rajinivee

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Obama's immigration reform - Rajini Vaidyanathan reports from White House - Video