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  1. #1
    Senior Member HAPPY2BME's Avatar
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    Immigration Reform 2013: House Gang Preps Comprehensive Bill For October Push

    Immigration Reform 2013: House Gang Preps Comprehensive Bill For October Push

    IB Times
    By Laura Matthews
    on August 29 2013

    On Monday in Chantilly, Va., which is represented by Republican Congressman Frank Wolf, Gutierrez hinted that a bill could be coming soon. Gutierrez said there are already 40 to 50 House Republicans in support of comprehensive immigration reform, with another 185 to 190 Democrats on board.

    “I think at some point in October there’s going to be a re-evaluation of the strategy among Republicans, and at that point I think if enough of them are serious about getting something done -- and I think there are enough of them, especially in the leadership -- then we will be at a bipartisan moment when they need to have a different approach that would get both Republicans and Democrats on the same bill.”
    After years of waiting and several missed deadlines, the House of Representative’s bipartisan “Gang of Seven” is ready to push its 2013 comprehensive immigration reform bill sometime in October, a Democratic staffer close to the group told International Times.

    At the moment, Democrats in particular are waiting to see what will become of the piecemeal bills being passed by the House Judiciary Committee, which they believe will ultimately fail because of their hard-right stance. By then House Republicans will need a solution to the problem and the comprehensive legislation will be on hand.

    “So I think they are going to have a hard time getting 218 votes on the partisan bills that came out of Judiciary, but they might make a run at it,” the Democratic staffer said. “I think at some point in October there’s going to be a re-evaluation of the strategy among Republicans, and at that point I think if enough of them are serious about getting something done -- and I think there are enough of them, especially in the leadership -- then we will be at a bipartisan moment when they need to have a different approach that would get both Republicans and Democrats on the same bill.”

    Republican members of the “Gang of Seven” didn’t respond to emailed requests for comment. However, the Democratic source explained, without getting into specifics, that pro-immigrant advocates would view the House’s comprehensive proposal as containing things that are better than the Senate-passed reform bill, some things that are worse, and a lot of identical elements.

    “To break it down, it may be 50 percent identical; 30 percent of it might be worse and 20 percent of it might be better, comparing that to the Senate bill and from the perspective of the pro-immigrant advocacy side,” he said. “In general the structure is similar and there are provisions for legal immigration. There [are] provisions for reducing illegal immigration and there [are] provisions for keeping families together and stopping the deportations of so many folks with deep roots in the U.S.”

    On Monday in Chantilly, Va., which is represented by Republican Congressman Frank Wolf, Gutierrez hinted that a bill could be coming soon. Gutierrez said there are already 40 to 50 House Republicans in support of comprehensive immigration reform, with another 185 to 190 Democrats on board.

    “So we know we already have a majority,” Gutierrez, a member of the House bipartisan gang, said. “It exists. We’ve fought for it. But they won’t allow us to vote. Now they say that a majority of the majority must first make an agreement before we can all vote.”

    “I’ve already signed off on the document,” he later added when speaking of the comprehensive plan. “I’m ready to go. I’m ready to make an announcement. I’m ready to have a bipartisan deal. If we don’t work with this group of seven, then we will find another group of eight, but we’re going to find another group of something that’s going to bring us to a solution in the House of Representatives. We refuse to let the people down. We refuse to lose. We’re going to continue to fight.”


    Participants at a rally in Los Angeles earlier this year pushed for an immigration system overhaul.

    A immigration reform rally in California. Reuters

    http://www.ibtimes.com/immigration-r...r-push-1401634
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  2. #2
    Senior Member HAPPY2BME's Avatar
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    2013 Immigration Reform: House Dems Ready To Make Concessions Like Senate, Says Gutierrez


    By Laura Matthews
    August 26 2013

    “That’s not a Democratic proposal. That’s the result of Democrats and Republicans sitting down at a table to have comprehensive immigration reform."

    U.S. Representative Luis V. Gutierrez, D-Ill. REUTERS

    House Democrats are ready to make concessions like the ones their Senate counterparts made in order to get a 2013 immigration bill out of the lower chamber, Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., said Monday at an event in Chantilly, Va.

    The Senate passed its comprehensive immigration reform bill 68-32 in June after two Republicans brokered what they called an “overkill” border surge bill that pumps tens of billions into improving border security and militarizing the Mexican border with more drones.

    Speaking on a panel in Virginia’s 10th District, now represented by Republican Frank Wolf and where Democrats are making a push based on immigration, Gutierrez said immigration reform is neither a Democratic nor Republican issue.

    “Who says that’s a Democratic proposal?” Gutierrez said of the Senate-passed measure, in remarks broadcast by C-Span. “That’s not a Democratic proposal. That’s the result of Democrats and Republicans sitting down at a table to have comprehensive immigration reform."

    “And we’re ready to make the same kinds of concessions in the House of Representatives,” he continued. “We understand that we’re in the minority [in the House] and you, the Republicans, should understand that you lost the referendum on immigration reform on Nov. 6. Let’s sit down at the table -- people like Paul Ryan and Luis Gutierrez and others -- and let’s find an American solution -- not a Republican solution, not Democratic solution, an American solution -- to our tragedy of our broken immigration system here in this country.”

    Gutierrez said that even though the Senate bill puts an additional 20,000 personnel on the ground at the southern border, he would vote for it because immigrants risk their lives daily trying to cross the border to return to their families.

    The Chicago congressman and Hispanic caucus leader also said immigration reform will not benefit only the undocumented. He said communities will be safer, especially for women and children, when the law seeks out and prosecutes people who take advantage of them in their illegal state.

    Gutierrez also took a swipe at the SAFE Act, a proposal by Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., to allow local law enforcement officers to enforce federal immigration laws. Critics have said such laws foster distrust between the immigrant community and law enforcement, which makes crime-fighting harder.

    “You have to separate law enforcement from immigration policy,” Gutierrez said. “The police are there to protect the people and they have to protect the women and the families. It’s fine and dandy to talk about safety, but we have to understand just how safety really has a corrosive effect.

    "The most important instrument that the police have is the people and the cooperation of the people. And when you pass immigration law that criminalizes all immigrants and makes them fear the police, you make all of us less safe and you make us all a nation where we perpetrate injustice upon people here who have been submitted to crimes and criminals.”

    From Chantilly, Gutierrez will head to Harrisonburg, where he will participate in a town hall event on immigration reform organized by Virginia Organizing.

    Maria Pena, an immigrant activist and volunteer at Virginia Organizing, said Gutierrez has been the voice of Hispanics who cannot speak for themselves.

    “It’s been a long, long journey for the Hispanic community in order to get conscience in our government to have immigration reform for the 11 million people living here in the United States,” Pena said, referring to the estimated number of undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. “We don’t want to live in fear. ... This is our last hope that this year the Congress is going to have some common sense and pass a law.”

    http://www.ibtimes.com/2013-immigrat...ierrez-1399681
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  3. #3
    Senior Member HAPPY2BME's Avatar
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    Representative Luis Gutierrez Town Hall Meeting on Immigration

    Aug 26, 2013

    Representative Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) held a town hall meeting on the impact of immigration reform on women and girls. Panel discussion participants included women leaders from several service provider organizations.

    http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Gutie
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  4. #4
    Senior Member HAPPY2BME's Avatar
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    Immigration Reform 2013: Evangelical Coalition Makes Big Ad Buy To Counter Opponents Of Reform

    By Laura Matthews
    on August 22 2013

    An evangelical coalition has made a $400,000 radio ad buy in support of comprehensive immigration reform, but the ads aren’t targeted at members of Congress. Instead, the ads that will be run across 14 states are geared toward evangelicals, asking them to do a few simple things: hear both sides of the issue; approach it from a humanitarian and biblical perspective; and respond as they see fit.


    Demonstrators rallying for immigration reform in front of the White House, July 24, 2013. The demonstrators urged President Barack Obama to use executive authority to expand the policy that allowed hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children to remain

    The Evangelical Immigration Table is hoping the responses will end up getting back to Washington lawmakers, who are still debating a 2013 immigration reform bill that has stalled in the House after passing the Senate.

    The ads will run in 56 congressional districts, mostly on Christian radio. The ad buy is the coalition's largest since it was organized in June 2012.

    Barrett Duke, vice president for public policy and research at Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said the ads are "really speaking to the people within these districts and encouraging them to become more engaged on immigration reform themselves."

    "Ultimately, that will end up filtering back to their congressmen," he added. "The ads are speaking to evangelicals principally within these media areas.”

    Duke’s commission is a part of the larger coalition of about 12 organizations representing more than 100,000 congregations. It isn't the first significant immigration ad purchase the coalition has made. In spring, it spent at least $200,000 on ads supporting the cause. Through the coalition’s eyes, immigration reform would legalize, as much as possible, the undocumented people living in the country so that they can work legally, pay their fair share in taxes, receive protection by the law and get a path to citizenship. Duke said this path must not be special or automatic.

    “We do support the ability of people who meet the same kind of standards and requirements that anybody else would meet,” he added. “We do support the need for anybody in this country to be able to ultimately obtain citizenship, including those who will be addressed by our immigration reform.”

    There are an estimated 11 million people living in America without legal documentation, 40 percent of whom are believed to have overstayed their visa.

    The Evangelical Immigration Table’s website said current U.S. immigration laws have created a moral, economic and political crisis.

    “Initiatives to remedy this crisis have led to polarization and name calling in which opponents have misrepresented each other’s positions as open borders and amnesty versus deportations of millions,” the group said on its website. “This false choice has led to an unacceptable political stalemate at the federal level at a tragic human cost.”

    Duke wants people being targeted in the districts to think about the biblical perspective on caring for strangers, not just focus totally on questions of law and order.

    “We think that, as they integrate their understanding of biblical teaching with the perspective on the importance of the rule of law, that they’ll want to do both things: they’ll want to be sure that the law is upheld but also find a way that responds compassionately toward those who are here in our country, oftentimes with no real place to go if they were to be deported,” he said.

    “We felt like we needed to make sure [immigration opponents] wasn’t the only voice heard in these districts ... tempting to persuade the people in those districts to think negatively toward immigration reform,” he added. “Part of it was an effort to just make sure a positive voice was out in these areas as well making sure folks heard both sides of the stories, so that they could make their minds up with more information.”

    http://www.ibtimes.com/immigration-r...reform-1395975
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  5. #5
    Senior Member HAPPY2BME's Avatar
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    Evangelical Statement of Principles for Immigration Reform
    Our national immigration laws have created a moral, economic and political crisis in America. Initiatives to remedy this crisis have led to polarization and name calling in which opponents have misrepresented each other’s positions as open borders and amnesty versus deportations of millions. This false choice has led to an unacceptable political stalemate at the federal level at a tragic human cost.
    As evangelical Christian leaders, we call for a bipartisan solution on immigration that:

    • Respects the God-given dignity of every person
    • Protects the unity of the immediate family
    • Respects the rule of law
    • Guarantees secure national borders
    • Ensures fairness to taxpayers
    • Establishes a path toward legal status and/or citizenship for those who qualify and who wish to become permanent residents

    We urge our nation’s leaders to work together with the American people to pass immigration reform that embodies these key principles and that will make our nation proud.

    http://evangelicalimmigrationtable.com/
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  6. #6
    Super Moderator imblest's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by HAPPY2BME View Post
    Immigration Reform 2013: House Gang Preps Comprehensive Bill For October Push

    IB Times
    By Laura Matthews
    on August 29 2013

    http://www.ibtimes.com/immigration-r...r-push-1401634
    Added to Homepage--

    http://www.alipac.us/content/immigra...ber-push-2228/
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