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12-12-2012, 12:57 AM #1
Rubio, McCain huddle on immigration reform
By Alexander Bolton - 12/11/12 05:00 AM ET
The Hill
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is seen as his party’s natural leader on immigration reform, but he will have to share the stage with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).
The 2008 GOP presidential nominee is the upper chamber’s most seasoned expert on immigration reform, and nearly pushed a comprehensive deal through Congress six years ago.
Rubio has already talked with McCain to iron out a strategy for next year, but the two lawmakers have yet to sit down together to carefully review policy details. McCain has been focused on the defense authorization bill and could shift his attention to the fiscal-cliff negotiations, as he often plays a central role in major policy debates.
The two influential senators don’t appear to be on the same page on whether to go big on immigration.
Rubio says it would be a mistake to push a large, comprehensive reform bill, which could draw reflexive opposition from conservatives who are suspicious of sprawling bills that remind them of the 2010 Affordable Care Act.
“One massive piece of legislation, bill, is probably not the right approach, but I do think we need a comprehensive package, several bills,” Rubio told The Hill. “Not 10, but maybe three or four that sequentially address these issues in a coordinated way.”
McCain is not yet sold on that approach. After all, he and the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) managed to push a comprehensive reform bill through the Senate in 2006. McCain, who has a long history of working with Democrats, knows they would resist any effort to split immigration reform into several pieces.
“We’ll see. I think that’s one thing that needs to be discussed, whether it would be either/or,” McCain said when asked about whether immigration reform should be attempted all at once or done piecemeal.
McCain was less involved in the comprehensive package assembled by Kennedy and Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) in 2007, which failed to muster enough support to overcome a filibuster.
Rubio is the only Republican Hispanic in the Senate, and his fluent Spanish makes him an ideal spokesman for any GOP immigration reform plan. Some political insiders view Rubio as the odds-on favorite to secure the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.
But McCain has a better grasp of how to pass major bipartisan legislation. Before pushing immigration reform through the Senate, he formed a coalition to pass campaign finance reform in 2002 — despite long odds.
Democratic leaders such as Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.) and Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.) have made it clear that reform should be pursued through one piece of sweeping legislation.
Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), chairman of the Immigration Task Force of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, worries Republicans will pass legislation to take care of highly skilled immigrants and farm workers, but leave millions of others unaddressed.
“There’s always a desire to take care of certain things, but it doesn’t help millions and millions of people everywhere who work every day and sweep floors and wash dishes,” he said. “For me, they’re all equal.”
While his colleagues focus on avoiding the fiscal cliff or other issues likely to come up in the lame duck, Rubio has been working behind the scenes to lay the groundwork for immigration reform.
He has reached out to House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), another top-tier prospect for the White House in 2016, as well as to Senate Democrats, according to a source close to Rubio.
Rubio and Gutierrez, the Democratic point man in the House, have planned to meet before Christmas, according to Gutierrez.
Senate Republicans say they do not see any one lawmaker taking the lead on immigration reform.
“I think it will be a combination of people,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of McCain’s closest allies.
Graham said freshman Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Sen.-elect Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) would also play active roles.
Graham, who has resumed long-stalled negotiations with Schumer, the chairman of the Judiciary panel’s Immigration subcommittee, declined to rule out a comprehensive bill.
“We’ll see where everybody comes out on that,” he said.
Rep. Raúl Labrador (R-Idaho), who has been building a coalition of House conservatives to support immigration reform, said he expects the Senate to act first because lawmakers there have significant legislative experience on the subject.
He envisions Rubio and McCain as co-leaders of the effort.
“We will probably see something come out of the Senate pretty quickly,” he said. “You have some members working it for some years.
“I think Marco Rubio and John McCain can work very well together. You have the experience John McCain brings to the table and you have the communication skill that Rubio has. That’s a great way to form a partnership. I don’t think it matters who gets the credit,” he added.
Rubio has focused this year on legislation to grant legal status to illegal immigrants who came to the country at a young age. The freshman senator was expected to unveil it earlier this year, but held off after President Obama announced a major change in deportation policies.
Rubio had been working with Kyl and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), who are both retiring at the end of the year. The Achieve Act, introduced last month by Kyl and Hutchison, would not create an expedited pathway to citizenship, which Democrats favor. It would limit eligibility to immigrants who came to the U.S. before turning 14.
The legislation being crafted by Rubio is “very, very similar in many aspects to what we have been working on with [Kyl and Hutchison],” he said.
He added, “I’m also starting thinking about ideas about how to strengthen our borders and modernize the legal immigration system so that it’s good for America and its economy, and then of course there’s the issue of what to do with the 11 million people who are in this country now undocumented.”
Rubio, McCain huddle on immigration reform - The HillSupport our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at https://eepurl.com/cktGTn
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12-12-2012, 02:31 AM #2
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I'm seeing a complete collapse of the GOP in 2014... I'm talking a rout at the polling booths
Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)
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12-12-2012, 07:17 AM #3
Maybe there will be enough fighting amongst themselves that nothing gets done. Airborne, after all the taxes for Obamacare are seen, I think both parties will be in trouble
Proud American and wife of a wonderful LEGAL immigrant from Ireland.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing." -Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)
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12-12-2012, 07:19 AM #4
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Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)
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12-12-2012, 07:29 AM #5
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The reason I said the GOP is the Republican Party is already in hot water with it's base... over any number of things
as soon as they, the Republican Party try to slip the Amnesty cherade, is when they find out how fast the base bails on them
the Democrats love what Obama is doing; they even want Amnesty; as far as the GOP base... they have been fighting RINO Amnesty
the GOP Base HATES Obama with a Passion ... but they are wanting a purge in the RNC / GOP. The base is Pissed like I have never seen and allot of that is directed at the GOP National Leadership
If they touch Amnesty... there will be a purge at the polls .. at least as far as the Republican party is concernedJoin our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)
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12-12-2012, 07:46 AM #6
I agree, it is time for the republicrats to go. I honestly see the party going the way of the whigs or tories. I also am wondering if with such strong held, incompatible beliefs held by the republican and democrat bases, this country will implode like so many countries overseas are doing. I pray that doesn't happen, but with the "my way or the highway" attitudes on the left, the future is uncertain at best.
Proud American and wife of a wonderful LEGAL immigrant from Ireland.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing." -Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)
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12-12-2012, 09:11 AM #7
ADDED TO ALIPAC HOMEPAGE News with amended title ..
http://www.alipac.us/content/rubio-m...n-reform-1201/Join our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & to secure US borders by joining our E-mail Alerts at http://eepurl.com/cktGTn
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12-12-2012, 11:07 AM #8
Related GOP Suicide ..
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It Is Time to Throw the Social Conservatives Out of the GOP
War opens inside GOP over immigration
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Limbaugh: There Will Be Amnesty, Folks
Buchanan: Is the GOP headed for the boneyard?
Boehner: Election a 'mandate to work together' with DemsJoin our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & to secure US borders by joining our E-mail Alerts at http://eepurl.com/cktGTn
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12-12-2012, 11:34 AM #9AprilGuest
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12-12-2012, 02:36 PM #10
The GOP needs a new group of people,they have failed in putting forth a conservative candidate in fact they seem frighten to do so.I've never voted 3th party but will do so next election if the GOP keeps raising the French flag.
I'm old with many opinions few solutions.
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