Thread: Immigration reform battle centers on conservative Tea Party bloc

By Alexander Bolton and Russell Berman - 01/26/14 12:00 PM EST
The Hill


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The immigration reform debate in the House could boil down to a handful of influential Tea Party conservatives.

Proponents and opponents of creating a pathway to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants and other reforms have zeroed in on “peer leaders” in the House GOP. These conservatives include Reps. Jason Chaffetz (Utah), Trey Gowdy (S.C.), Justin Amash (Mich.), Renee Ellmers (N.C.) and Steve Scalise (La.).

While there are vocal factions on either side of the debate, the battle for immigration reform will be fought over a bloc of lawmakers who have stayed relatively quiet on the issue. Many of them will take their lead from conservative colleagues they respect more than House GOP leaders or big business groups.

Both sides are battling for 117 Republican votes because Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has said he will only move legislation that has the support of a majority of the 233-member GOP conference.

“American Principles is going after Tea Party conservatives who are influencers. Their votes will influence other Tea Party members and at the end of the day that will make the difference with House Republicans,” said Alfonso Aguilar, executive director of Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles.

The Latino Partnership is a program of the American Principles Project, which is dedicated to promoting conservative policies based on the nation’s founding principles.

Aguilar said other potential swing conservatives who hold sway in the GOP conference include Reps. Mick Mulvaney (S.C.), who is close to Gowdy, and Steve Pearce (N.M.).

Scalise could emerge as especially important because he chairs the Republican Study Committee (RSC), a large caucus of conservatives. He has been worked with House GOP leaders more than some of his recent predecessors.

“The RSC leadership has gotten more pro-amnesty,” groused on GOP aide.

Polls show Tea Party voters strongly oppose creating a new pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, but Tea Party-affiliated lawmakers fall into various camps.

Amash, for example, has a libertarian streak while Pearce represents a district that is 52 percent Hispanic and Ellmers is a Democratic target this year.

“Libertarians are more inclined to an open borders strategy,” said a GOP aide.

Groups that want to block a pathway to citizenship for millions of illegal residents and limit the expansion of guest-worker programs also recognize they must win over key Tea Party voices.

“It’s very difficult to change the minds of 180 people or 100 people so you look to see who the peer leaders are in each class and also state delegations,” said Roy Beck, executive director of NumbersUSA, which supports reduced immigration. “We certainly have anticipated the importance of keeping those kind of people on board.

“Our activists are hitting Ellmers very hard after her comments this week. If any of these type people show signs of giving in to the establishment, we do regard it as very important,” he added.

In a recent op-ed published in the Fayetteville Observer, Ellmers expressed support for letting illegal immigrants obtain legal status and apply for "naturalization."

“We must also acknowledge that these people have lived in our communities for years and are a vital part of many farms and businesses right here in the 2nd District,” she wrote.

Ellmers said she does not support a "pathway to citizenship," but could support granting legal status to immigrants to admit to violating the law, pay a penalty and verify their identities. Once legal, they would have the opportunity to begin the naturalization process, she wrote.

Lobbying within the House GOP conference has picked up ahead of the retreat Republicans will hold this week in Cambridge, Md., where they will debate their plan for immigration reform.

House Republican leaders and key GOP members, such as House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (Va.), are working on a set of principles for immigration reform that will guide the conversation.

They are expected to call for a path to legalization for many of the nation’s estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants, along with strengthening the border and interior security, a guest-worker program and an enhanced e-verify system for employers.

They may also back a version of the Dream Act granting citizenship for children brought into the U.S. illegally by their parents.

The GOP document is expected to stop short, however, of endorsing the kind of path to full citizenship desired by Democrats and included in the Senate’s immigration bill that passed last June.

Senior Republicans view the release of the principles as a way to test the conference's support for a more aggressive push on immigration in the first half of the year.

GOP Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart (Fla.), Raul Labrador (Idaho), and Darrell Issa (Calif.), among others, are working on bills dealing with legalization that could be added to a package of proposals that have already moved through the Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees.

Those measures deal with a guest-worker program, an enhanced e-verify system, border security and giving more enforcement power to state and local governments.

Rep. Paul Ryan (Wis.), the party's budget chief and a respected voice on policy matters, is deeply involved in the effort as well.

Aides to Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), who helped lead opposition to immigration legislation in the upper chamber, met Thursday with aides from about 15 conservative House Republican offices. At this stage, Sessions is reaching out to core allies to help arm them for the internal debate.

Sessions is emphasizing the potential impact of legalizing millions of immigrants and expanding work visa programs on the citizen workforce.

“It would be tragic if the Leader's immigration principles were simply a ‘piecemeal’ repackaging of the Senate plan,” he said in a statement.

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/19...gration-reform

Published January 27, 2014
Fox News Latino


Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., left, talks with Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP)

They’re not the conservative faction that has been front and center in the opposition to giving undocumented immigrants a chance to legalize their status and stay and work in the United States.

The toughest stumbling block to a comprehensive immigration reform agreement in the House of Representatives, The Hill reports, may well be a quiet group – a handful of Tea Party conservatives who aren’t the kind of fixtures in front of the camera that other immigration hardliners, such as Rep. Steve King of Iowa and Rep. Louie Gomert of Texas, have been on the emotionally-charged issue.

Those quiet critical few, The Hill said, include Reps. Jason Chaffetz (Utah), Trey Gowdy (S.C.), Justin Amash (Mich.), Renee Ellmers (N.C.) and Steve Scalise (La.).

These lawmakers are likely to look to conservative peers – not lobby groups or the GOP establishment – for cues on how to move on the immigration issue, the publication said.

House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, has said he will push a measure if it gets a majority – or 117 – of the 233 members of the Republican conference.

“American Principles [Project, dedicated to promoting conservative policies] is going after Tea Party conservatives who are influencers. Their votes will influence other Tea Party members and at the end of the day that will make the difference with House Republicans,” said Alfonso Aguilar, executive director of Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, to The Hill.

Immigration reform seemed on a roll last year as a bipartisan group in the Senate worked very publicly on a comprehensive measure that ultimately called for beefing up border security, expanding foreign work visa programs, and providing a path to legal status for certain undocumented immigrants.

The Senate passed the bipartisan measure in June.

But almost immediately conservatives in the House, where Republicans have a majority, vowed not to rubber-stamp the Senate measure.

They said they would act on immigration in a piecemeal way. And some of the most conservative Republicans said they would not approve any measure that called for giving a break to people who had broken immigration laws.

And so, efforts to pass an immigration measure in the House came to a halt.

“Libertarians are more inclined to an open borders strategy,” said a GOP aide, who was not named in The Hill story.

Some of the country’s leading proponents who lobby for strict immigration enforcement concede that swaying lawmakers on immigration is a tough battle.

“It’s very difficult to change the minds of 180 people or 100 people so you look to see who the peer leaders are in each class and also state delegations,” said Roy Beck, executive director of NumbersUSA, which supports reduced immigration. “We certainly have anticipated the importance of keeping those kind of people on board.”

“Our activists are hitting (N.C. Rep. Renee) Ellmers very hard after her comments this week. If any of these type of people show signs of giving in to the establishment, we do regard it as very important,” he added.

Meanwhile, Republicans are said to be working on a set of “immigration principles” that call for stricter enforcement as well as allowing some undocumented immigrants to earn a legal status.

Some conservatives, including Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, have strongly denounced the principles, though they have not been made public.

Sessions reportedly held a meeting with staff members of some conservatives last week to strategize about how to handle the principles and other developments regarding immigration reform.

He has warned that legalizing millions of immigrants and giving foreign nationals expanded opportunities to work in the United States will be detrimental to American workers.

“It would be tragic if the Leader's immigration principles were simply a ‘piecemeal’ repackaging of the Senate plan,” he said in a statement, The Hill reported.

On Tuesday, President Barack Obama is expected to push again for congressional action on immigration reform in his State of the Union address.

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/pol...conservatives/

Wednesday, 29 Jan 2014 03:06 PM
By Melissa Clyne
newsmax

Whether immigration reform happens this year could depend on who presents a more appealing case to House Republicans — the old guard GOP or the tea party, according to The Hill.

The conservative American Principles Project is focusing their lobbying efforts on lawmakers they characterize as “influencers,” members of the tea party whose opinions can sway their GOP colleagues, according to Alfonso Aguilar, executive director of Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles.

The Latino Partnership is part of the effort by the American Principles Project to engage more Latinos in conservative issues, particularly the debate over immigration.

“While there are vocal factions on either side of the debate, the battle for immigration reform will be fought over a bloc of lawmakers who have stayed relatively quiet on the issue,” The Hill noted in a report Sunday. “Many of them will take their lead from conservative colleagues they respect more than House GOP leaders or big business groups.”

The five ‘influencers” in American Principles’ sights are JasonChaffetz of Utah, Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, Justin Amash of Michigan, Renee Ellmers of North Carolina and Louisiana’s Steve Scalise. Two other potential influencers are Reps. Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina and Steve Pearce of New Mexico, Aguilar noted.

Last week, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, the No. 3 Democrat in the Senate, rattled the cages of many conservatives when he blamed stalled immigration reform measures on racist tea party members who are upset about America’s changing demographics, Talking Points Memo reported.

"Yes, things have changed,” Schumer said during a speech to the liberal Center for American Progress. “White Anglo-Saxon men are not exclusively running the country anymore. President Obama lost the white male vote 35 to 62 percent yet he recaptured the presidency -- by 5 million votes and a resounding electoral college margin.

"It also explains why so many on the right vehemently opposed the Senate immigration bill, a bill that actually embodies many conservative, non-governmental principals: reducing our deficit by billions, growing our economy, creating jobs and spurring new entrepreneurial activity," he said. "In a pre-tea party world, the Senate immigration bill would have been welcomed by House Republicans. However, the tea party rank and file know it's a different America. It looks different; it prays different; it works different. This is unsettling and angering to some."

House Speaker John Boehner has vowed only to advance immigration legislation if a majority of the GOP’s 233 members support it.

Though polls indicate the tea party as a whole does not favor a new pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, there are tea party representatives whose position is unclear.

Amash, according to The Hill, “has a libertarian streak while Pearce represents a district that is 52 percent Hispanic and Ellmers is a Democratic target this year.”

Even elected officials who oppose any path to citizenship recognize there is political obligation and capital in representing the communities they serve, according to The Hill. The newspaper referenced a op-ed piece in North Carolina's Fayetteville Observer penned by Ellmers, who expressed support for legal status and naturalization for illegal immigrants.

“I do not support a ‘pathway to citizenship’ or ‘amnesty,’” she wrote. “We are a nation of laws, and when those laws are violated, there is a price that needs to be paid. However, we must also acknowledge that these people have lived in our communities for years and are a vital part of many farms and businesses right here in the 2nd District.”

Citing Republican aides, The New York Times reports that Boehner is expected unveil a bill that will “call for a path to legal status — but not citizenship — for many of the 11 million adult immigrants who are in the country illegally." But the Times notes that Republicans will offer a pathway to citizenship "for immigrants brought to the United States illegally as young children."

http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/tea-...1/29/id/549779