Thread: GOP Seeks Immigration Deal

GOP Seeks Immigration Deal

By: Carrie Budoff
March 14, 2007 07:55 PM EST

The first sign that something important might be transpiring inside the Dirksen cubbyhole was the cluster of bodyguards near the door. Another was the trickle of Republican senators shuttling in and out, unescorted by staff and tight-lipped.

Stung by the political backlash from last year's stalled debate over immigration, a small circle of GOP senators has been meeting quietly and regularly -- three times, this week -- with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez to craft their own answers to the immigration riddle.

The Cabinet secretaries have held numerous meetings on Capitol Hill with Democrats and Republicans. But the latest talks are noteworthy for their frequency and the composition of the players, highlighting the level of eagerness in the White House and among congressional Republicans to dispense of an issue that has dogged them for years.

President Bush touted these efforts Wednesday while traveling in Mexico, saying they were an important step to finding "common ground" among Republicans -- and, eventually, with Democrats.

The deal-making dozen, which includes Republican senators previously at odds on the issue, coalesced in recent weeks in response to a high-profile push by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) to deliver an immigration bill. (The security details, it should be noted, were for the Cabinet secretaries.)

The policy goal is to draw up a "consensus of principles, provisions that we can all agree on," said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who voted against the bill last May but is now at the core of the GOP immigration group. Any bill stands a better chance in the House if it passes the Senate with as many Republican votes as possible.

The political subtext is the desire to avoid a repeat of last year, when the Republican-controlled Senate and House passed conflicting bills, then argued out their differences on the campaign trail rather than in a conference committee. The result was no law, a dissatisfied electorate and a Republican Party portrayed as do-nothings.

"Republicans blew it last year. We simply stopped in the middle of the game," Cornyn said. "We have a depth of debate and discussion that didn't exist last year."

Details, however, are hard to come by.

The usually loquacious Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) clammed up Tuesday when asked about the private confabs.

"There's a lot of talk going on," he said. "I don't want to get into it."

Later in the day, as they rode the Senate subway, Graham probed his colleagues during a break in the meeting.

"How do you think we're doing?" Graham asked.

"I think we're making progress," said Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.). "I think we could go a little faster."

"But I tell you, there is something very nice about covering every point, not jumping ahead," Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) said before acknowledging, "It is awfully slow."

Chertoff and Gutierrez joined intensive, two-hour nightly talks with GOP senators on Tuesday and Wednesday, and will continue on Thursday. The group has included at least four senators who opposed last year's bill -- Cornyn, Jon Kyl of Arizona, Johnny Isakson of Georgia and John Ensign of Nevada.

"They are taking a big gamble to make something happen," Tamar Jacoby, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, said of the White House.

The idea, Jacoby said, is to create a united position among Republicans that could then find favor among Democrats. "I think it will be hard," she added.

The Republican initiative is running parallel to Kennedy's effort.

The Massachusetts Democrat was working with Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona on producing a new immigration bill that they had hoped to introduce this week. But, concerned that disagreements were preventing them from moving fast enough, Kennedy has abandoned that strategy.

Instead, he intends to introduce the legislation passed last March by the Senate Judiciary Committee as a starting point for negotiations, spokeswoman Laura Capps said Wednesday.

Capps said Kennedy welcomed the administration's involvement.

"They need to be active, and to pull the Republican leadership in the right direction," she said.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0307/3154.html

There all a bunch of cowards!! just enforce our laws!!!!!

SOSADFORUS wrote:

just enforce our laws!!!!!

Well, here's why employer sanctions don't work according to the brilliant mind of Senator Feinstein:

Employer sanctions, I mentioned, do not and, I believe, in our global economy, will not work. That is evidenced by the fact that in 2004, only
46 employers in the United States were criminally convicted for employer sanctions out of 3,258 cases initiated.

(Doesn't make any sense to me, either--Oliver.)

http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... c&start=25

Originally Posted by olivermyboy

SOSADFORUS wrote:

just enforce our laws!!!!!

Well, here's why employer sanctions don't work according to the brilliant mind of Senator Feinstein:

[quote:1o38zcjn]Employer sanctions, I mentioned, do not and, I believe, in our global economy, will not work. That is evidenced by the fact that in 2004, only
46 employers in the United States were criminally convicted for employer sanctions out of 3,258 cases initiated.

(Doesn't make any sense to me, either--Oliver.)

http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... c&start=25[/quote:1o38zcjn]


Well Duhhh!!! another idiot, boy, they are coming out of the woodwork today, aren't they!!! I guess its time to get rid of Chertoff!
I tried to call Cornyn but the offices were closed already, but wait until morning, I am flabbergasted!! these prople are running scared, their not making any sense any more!!

We need to be writing all our Rep/ leaders and just bluntly tell them they will be fired if they pass any kind of amnesty bill over the protest of American citizens, I don't think it will much help to protest to the liberal democrats, I am afraid they have already sold out!

NittyGritty wrote:

We need to be writing all our Rep/ leaders and just bluntly tell them they will be fired if they pass any kind of amnesty bill over the protest of American citizens,

Let's start with Lindsay Graham, Arlen Spector and John Cornyn.

Later in the day, as they rode the Senate subway, Graham probed his colleagues during a break in the meeting.

"How do you think we're doing?" Graham asked.

"I think we're making progress," said Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.). "I think we could go a little faster."

If the bill will be something Sen. Specter will support, it certainly won't be something we can support! He and Graham are amnesty all the way.

I wonder if they realize they will all be marked men if this thing (amnesty) passes.