Bachmann out to kill immigration overhaul

Bachmann out to kill immigration overhaul

Donovan Slack, Gannett Washington Bureau 7:45 p.m. EDT July 9, 2013

Minnesota Republican and other conservatives want to secure the border first.

http://www.gannett-cdn.com/media/USA...7a13faa9f8741e
Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., speaks at the Faith , Freedom Coalition conference on June 14 in Washington, DC.(Photo: Mark Wilson, Getty Images)
Story Highlights

• Bachmann says border security is all Congress should address
• House GOP is meeting Wednesday to discuss immigration
• Conservatives vehemently oppose Senate-passed bill

WASHINGTON – Rep. Michele Bachmann is on a mission to kill an immigration overhaul. The Minnesota Republican contends immigrants who came to the United States illegally shouldn't be rewarded with legal status. She says they are taking jobs from American citizens and depressing wages because they work for less. Creating a path to legal residency is a key piece of the bill passed by the Senate last month.
Bachmann wants to finish building a fence along the border to stop the flow, and then – and only then – consider what to do with the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants already in the country.
She hopes to persuade fellow House Republicans at a special meeting Wednesday to dump any idea of a broader overhaul until the fence is built.
"Until they can certify that the border is secure, I don't think we should take up any bill whatsoever," Bachmann said in an interview Tuesday.
The meeting Wednesday marks a crucial test for the prospects of immigration overhaul.
House Speaker John Boehner has pledged that he won't bring any bill to the floor of the House without support from a majority of House Republicans – about 118 members. House Republican leadership hopes to reach some semblance of consensus on a way forward at the meeting. But that could be tough.
Right now, the GOP is sharply divided. Some influential members, such as former vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., are pushing for a comprehensive bill that includes a path to citizenship to immigrants who came to the United States illegally.
On the opposite side of the spectrum are Bachmann and her colleagues in the Tea Party Caucus. She and Reps. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, and Steve King, R-Iowa, gathered signatures from 50 of their colleagues pushing for the special meeting, which she hopes will be an open forum where everyone can be heard.
"This is one of the most consequential topics for the American people, for job creation, for the costs of government," Bachmann said. "If we don't have a full-throated conversation within our own ranks in the House Republicans, this will be a highly charged atmosphere, I think. Because members are waking up to this issue now, because the folks back home are waking up on this issue."
Bachmann said she got an earful from constituents during the July Fourth recess, and many opposed immigration reform, particularly the opportunity to earn citizenship, which she equates with amnesty.
The pathway to citizenship in the bill that passed the Senate requires that undocumented immigrants pay a fine and cross other hurdles, including learning English before they can become citizens. But they could get temporary permission to legally work in the United States in the meantime.
Bachmann says new legislation is unnecessary. She points to laws passed in 2006 mandating and funding construction of several hundred miles of fence along the Mexican border, a project that was not completed.
"It's like the old commercial from Burger King, 'Where's the beef?' You know, where's the fence? There is no fence," she said.
And she asserts that new proposals to increase the number of border agents and beef up security in other ways are empty gambits designed to trick Republicans into approving legalization, a key goal of Democrats and the Obama administration.
"Legalization equals amnesty, which equals citizenship. And that is the must-have. That's the goal of the administration is legalization because they want tens of millions of voters to pay for, to vote for their agenda. That's really what this is about. Everyone knows it. And it's not about border security," she said.
Bachmann said her primary concern is immigrants taking jobs from American workers, but immigration advocates deny that providing undocumented workers with an opportunity to earn citizenship will cost Americans jobs or drain federal benefits from citizens. In fact, they contend it will boost the economy exponentially.
"She's essentially got it backwards on every single front," said Marshall Fitz, director of immigration policy at the left-leaning Center for American Progress. Fitz said he hopes Republicans see the value legalizing undocumented immigrants so they can become taxpayers and fuller participants in the economy. But he is worried that Bachmann and other conservatives could succeed in stymieing a broad immigration bill.
"I am hopeful that there are going to be a lot of cooler heads, including Paul Ryan and others, who stand up tomorrow and really push back hard and aggressively at the Michele Bachmanns and Steve Kings of the party."
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/07/09/bachmann-immigration-house-border/2504167/