House Republicans are still mum about when they will unveil their conference’s immigration reform plan, but after this week it has become exceedingly clear that whatever policy they do come up with will be vastly different than the amnesty-for-border-enforcement scheme endorsed by President Obama and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.
“The people that came here illegally knowingly — I don’t think they should have a path to citizenship,” Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, said on NPR’s Morning Edition yesterday. “If you knowingly violated our law, you violated our sovereignty, I think we should normalize your status but we should not give you a pathway to citizenship.”
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., signaled he was leaning towards a similar approach at a hearing on immigration Tuesday. “Are there options that we should consider between the extremes of mass deportation and a pathway to citizenship for those not lawfully present in the United States?” Goodlatte asked amnesty advocate San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro.
Castro and the amnesty lobby recoiled at the idea. “They were trying to set up a false choice between the extremes of mass deportation and a path to citizenship,” Clarissa Martinez de Castro of National Council of La Raza told a conference call of reporters before the hearing was even over. “To try to paint that rigorous path as amnesty is frankly incorrect.”
Also on Tuesday, Labrador showed he wasn’t naive about what the Democrats real objectives are. “Anybody who’s clamoring for citizenship is looking for voters, and they’re looking for union members. They’re not looking to help the people who are here illegally. They’re looking for a political solution, they’re not looking a policy that actually strengthens the United States,” Labrador told reporters.
As it becomes more and more clear that Democrats have zero intention of ever committing to strong immigration enforcement policies, it is only a matter of time before Rubio abandons the Obama/amnesty plan and starts working with Labrador and House Republicans.
From The Washington Examiner
Examiner Editorial: White House drone strike policy evades detection
Tim Carney: Kay Bailey Hutchison joins lobbying firm
Byron York: With public focused on jobs, Washington fights other fights
In Other News
The Washington Post, Brennan defends drone strike policies: A Senate hearing on the nomination of John Brennan to serve as CIA director exposed deep skepticism of key aspects of the Obama administration’s approach to fighting terrorism, including its unprecedented reliance on targeted killing and the secrecy it maintains around the exercise of that lethal power.
The New York Times, Senate Hearing Draws Out a Rift in U.S. Policy on Syria: Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta acknowledged that he and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, had supported a plan last year to arm carefully vetted Syrian rebels. But it was ultimately vetoed by the White House.
The Washington Post, Europe consuming more coal: Europe’s use of the fossil fuel spiked last year after a long decline, powered by a surge of cheap U.S. coal on global markets and by the unintended consequences of ambitious climate policies that capped emissions and reduced reliance on nuclear energy.
Lefty Playbook
House Democrats have released a report purporting to show that allowing the sequester to happen would slow economic growth.
Evan McMorris-Santoro reports on Democratic efforts to use gun control to increase female voter turnout in the 2014 elections.
Think Progress lists Eight Reasons Why Marco Rubio Is Not ‘The Republican Savior’
Righty Playbook
Avik Roy on why amnesty won’t solve Republican problems with Latino voters.
Mario Loyola on why Congress should let states mind their own business.
Andrew Stiles on Sen. Jeff Sessions’s, R-Ala., objections to Jack Lew’s nomination for Treasury Secretary.
