Thread: Boehner Border Group Offers Plan

by Jonathan Strong 23 Jul 2014, 8:43 AM PDT
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A working group of lawmakers appointed by Speaker John Boehner released a set of recommendations to the House GOP conference Wednesday, including $1.5 in new spending and proposals to send the National Guard to the border and require the Obama administration to form a border security plan as tens of thousands of illegal alien children stream across the border.

The proposal faces an uncertain future, with congressional Democrats digging in with opposition to amending a 2008 human trafficking law that has been cited as an obstacle to deporting the children while the recommendations produced pockets of opposition on the right.

Several lawmakers said the plan was well-received by most Republicans in a closed-door meeting where Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX), the leader of the working group, outlined policy recommendations in the plan.

“I think it was received pretty well,” said Rep. John Carter (R-TX), a member of the working group.

“It looks like a common sense approach, but I want to read the details,” said House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, a key player on immigration issues.

But detractors made their voices heard while leaving the meeting to reporters as well.

“Disappointing,” said Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), who traveled to Central America over the weekend with a delegation led by House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA). “They need to have more ideas.”

“In a perfect world where you could start legislation in the House and maybe improve it in the Senate and send it back to conference or on to the president, then most of what they proposed is pretty good. There's some good ideas there, and there are things that would bring about a solution,” said Rep. Steve King (R-IA), a top immigration hawk. But “no one can answer how this gets to the president's desk, gets a signature and produces a positive result,” he said.

The proposal was discussed at a small meeting of top conservatives hosted by King over breakfast before it was released. There to discuss his border security bill was Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).

Rep. Matt Salmon (R-AZ), a key conservative who was appointed to the border working group by Boehner, attended the meeting and said he was able to bring some of its participants around on the direction they were headed.

“I've got to say I think by-and-large it was very well-received. I participated in a meeting this morning with several of those conservatives before this meeting and Sen. Ted Cruz. I was able to clarify a lot of things, because there was a lot of misinformation out there,” Salmon said.

King raised what is a top concern on the right, that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid would use the passage of the House bill to attach immigration language opposed in the House and send the bill back to Boehner, creating pressure on him to act on a broader measure.

“What's missing is an understanding that anything we send over to the Senate leaves us vulnerable for them to attach on the Gang of Eight or parts of the Gang of Eight and send it back to us. So Harry Reid hangs the Gang of Eight around the neck of John Boehner, how long does John Boehner stand there with that around his neck before the pressure gets too great and then the rationale that we're better off to pass something becomes too great to resist?” King said.

“The Speaker has made the commitment over and over and over again that anything with the Gang of Eight is dead on arrival and he will not conference anything with the Gang of Eight. That's his commitment,” Salmon noted.

Salmon noted another objection, one that House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte has made, he said, that “that the president picks and chooses the laws that he wants to abide by. And that's the other argument from some of the other conservatives, no matter what we pass, the president's going to use his pen and his phone to do whatever he damn well pleases.”

Salmon said that House Republicans should still act, even if Obama won't implement their bill.

“I think we have a responsibility to [act]. If the president decides he wants to not adhere to the law, then I think we take him to task with whatever mechanisms we've got to do that, whether it's through lawsuits, or whether it's through power of the purse. We need to exercise every option we've got. But still we've got a responsibility to legislate and do our jobs,” he said.

Rep. Jeff Denham (R-CA), a top proponent of comprehensive immigration reform, said he wants to see the House act to ensure the Obama administration doesn't run out of money over the August recess for dealing with the crisis.

“I think there would be huge ramifications if we run out of money, and in August there is certainly that possibility,” Denham said.

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said that he expects the working group's proposal to amend the 2008 human trafficking law will encounter opposition from Democrats.

“I think that's going to be one of the sticking points between the House and the Senate and the White House. I'm hopeful that they'll eventually see the light on that. I think they initially made indications that they understood that, and that they were going to go along with that change, and then they backed off,” McCaul said.

Both McCaul and Granger predicted that the eventual bill would garner support of some number of Democrats, helping counteract the conservative opposition to reach a majority in support of the bill.

“We think we can get 218 votes. I think some Democrats will come along with us. We've included some Democrats in crafting our recommendations,” Granger said.

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by Jonathan Strong & Caroline May 15 Jul 2014
breitbart

WASHINGTON, D.C.—A working group of lawmakers appointed by Speaker John Boehner is poised to recommend deploying the National Guard, amending a 2008 law requiring a lengthy deportation process, bringing in temporary judges to reduce a legal backlog and new border security measures to the GOP version of an emergency spending bill planned for floor consideration before the August recess.

Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX), the leader of the working group, briefed Republicans at a closed-door meeting Tuesday, reporting on their trip to Guatemala and Honduras over the weekend where they met with each country's president and from which tens of thousands of unaccompanied children are streaming across the southern U.S. border.

“The presidents of both countries, I met with them, our group met with them, they want their children back,” he said. “They're saying, 'please, send our children back!'” said Rep. Matt Salmon (R-AZ), a member of the working group and a key conservative lawmaker.

On the trip, the group was briefed by U.S. general John Kellly on the Mexico-Guatamala border. While witnessing individuals openly swim across the river border there, Kelly told lawmakers that drug cartels – some involved in financing terrorism operations – were directing and reaping the profits from sophisticated smuggling operations that had advertised the leniency of U.S. laws.

“There's no doubt that the message went out, go cross the border now, the United States won't do anything about it,” Granger told reporters after briefing colleagues. “That came, primarily, from the coyotes who were transporting these kids. These coyotes, it's really something we weren't prepared from, they sort of advertised – they actually advertise – as social workers. We're going to help you take your kids out of the poverty and the danger they have in these countries and put 'em in the United States where they will receive an education and be taken care of.”

Granger said she was surprised to learn that in Guatemala coyotes are charging between $6,000-$9,000 per person. Salmon said the group was told one coyote was making $50,000 a week smuggling children into the United States.

Since October more than 57,000 unaccompanied minors have been detained illegally crossing the southern border into the U.S. The vast majority of the illegal minors are from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

Last week President Obama requested $3.7 billion in emergency appropriations to deal with the crisis, but Republicans have rejected the figure and set about crafting their own response.

“In terms of priorities, we're on different planets,” Salmon said about the president's border ask.

At a press conference following the meeting, Boehner himself was circumspect about his views on how to address the issue. Asked about his ideas for addressing the crisis, Boehner said “I’ve got lots of them.”

Rep. Hal Rogers, the powerful chairman of the House Appropriations Committee who is in charge of crafting the actual legislation to be considered on the House floor, declined to say how much the GOP bill would spend, but said it would be less than the $3.7 billion the president has asked for.

“Well, we're trying to put together a bill, first off, that makes sense and we can afford and does the right thing – humanitarian-wise and regarding the border,” Rogers said. “I am hopeful as we go along that this will become a bipartisan effort – and bicameral.”

He noted that the goal is to pass the bill before the August recess.

In the hours before the working group makes its final policy recommendations, the key issue still under discussion are proposals to help secure the border. One option under discussion is language from a bill sponsored by working group member Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.

The bill has drawn fire from key immigration hawks, including the Heritage Foundation and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

McCaul said the bill was under discussion for inclusion in the proposal.

“Border security is part of this – a big part of this. The McCaul bill is going to be a big factor, that's all I can tell you,” said Rep. John Carter (R-TX), another member of the working group.

“I think border security issues are going to be part of it,” Salmon said. “Whether it's going to be that language or some other language remains to be seen.”

On the general approach of the group's policy recommendations, McCaul said “We want to swiftly and humanely return them to their home. Only until we do that will we stop the flow. So we need a message of deterrence. We need to look at more border security measures. We're going to need a surge of judges, whether it be retired judges or special masters to process these cases more expeditiously, because it takes four or five years now. We're looking at all of those components and working with the countries of origin in terms of their capacity to take these kids back, and also with Mexico and Guatemala to help secure their southern border so they can't make that journey through Mexico.”

He added, that as Boehner and others have pushed, the group will “certainly” be including the deployment of the National Guard in its proposal. Granger said that the National Guard proposal will be an important factor.

“We've got border patrol people trying to do a good job but they're so overwhelmed by the number of people coming across that they're taking care of children and filling out forms, and so we need National Guard to add more bodies to what's happening at the border” Grander said, adding that immigration cases need to be adjudicated much more quickly.

“An average case with someone coming across the border illegally, going through the process we have will take between a year and half to as long as five years. Well with 57,000 unaccompanied children, that's just unacceptable,” she continued. “So we've got to change that. Which means, changing not the process so much but adding the people that help with that process – more judges to hear those cases, there's some – not adding permanent, but often time retired judges. There are different categories that can do that to make sure that that goes faster.”

Salmon reiterated the need to “plug the holes” with the National Guard, where Border Patrol has been moved to deal with children.

“It's not that you have to have more people to catch them. But the cartels are playing bait and switch,” he said. “Make no mistake, it is the cartels that are basically overseeing these coyotes that are smuggling in the people and they are making a ton of money off of this.”

After the House GOP Conference meeting, members of the working group said they were on their way to meet with Department of Homeland Security Sec. Jeh Johnson.

The working groups’ recommendations will come as Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX) works with Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) on a separate bill to deal with the crisis by, in part, change a 2008 human trafficking law that has made removing unaccompanied minors from Central America very difficult.

The pair’s legislation would, according to Cornyn, “improve the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2008, treating all unaccompanied minors equally and ensuring Due Process under the law in a timely, fair manner.”

According to Brady, the bipartisan bill has been “well-received” and many Republicans have pointed to the 2008 law as ripe for tweaks. Indeed, Salmon, one of the most conservative members on the working group, introduced a bill to alter the law last week.

However, the bill is drawing scrutiny from conservative outside groups who are anxious about the details of legislation drafted and enacted in a crisis environment.

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