Thread: Durbin says basics in immigration bill must stand

May 5th, 2013
10:08 AM ET



(CNN) - Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, part of the bipartisan Gang of Eight senators pushing immigration reform, said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that he agrees with Republican Sen. Marco Rubio that their bill may need some improvement but argued that they need to “stand by the basic agreement” of the legislation.

The Democrat from Illinois said, however, that he would support a same-sex provision in immigration reform, a plan that could undermine bipartisan support for the bill introduced last month.

Florida's Rubio, the leading Republican on immigration reform, said last week that the bill he helped craft would struggle in the Senate and would not pass in the House as it currently stands. The bulk of public outcry has been over the bill’s promise for a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million to 12 million undocumented immigrants in the country.

"Congress will have a chance to make it tougher, yet still realistic," he wrote in an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal, responding to further criticism that the bill is not strong enough in border security.

Durbin said there may be “elements where we need some improvement” but did not specify which parts should be tweaked and argued instead that the main foundation of the bill should stand.

“We've got to basically stick to the standard of what we've established, what we've agreed over the last three months,” he told CNN's chief political correspondent Candy Crowley.

In the proposed legislation, it would take 10 years for the majority of undocumented immigrants to get green cards and another three years to gain citizenship.

The legislation mandates strict new controls on the U.S.-Mexico border before any pathway to legality is opened.

The bill goes for markup this week in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The committee’s chairman, Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, is proposing legislation that would allow gay Americans to sponsor their partners not born in the U.S. for green cards.

Currently, such rights apply to only to foreign-born men or women in heterosexual marriages with U.S. citizens. If Leahy moves ahead, some fear that it could upend efforts for any significant Republican support for the compromise immigration effort.

Durbin, a co-sponsor of the Leahy legislation, described the measure as a “hot” and “contentious” issue but added that he nonetheless supports it.

“If we can find a way through this to protect that basic right of an individual and still pass immigration reform, that's what I want to achieve,” he said. “We have two very important issues before us here. I hope we can get them both done. We may face a choice at some point in the future.”

President Barack Obama indicated at a news conference in Costa Rica on Friday that the idea was "the right thing to do" but acknowledged that such a politically charged issue may ultimately not make it into a final immigration package.

"I'm not going to get everything I want in this bill," he said in response to a question about his support for gay rights and its relation to immigration reform, a priority for Democrats seeking to maintain strong support from Hispanics and Republicans trying to woo them to their side.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com...ll-must-stand/

Apparently he is busy today.
~~~

By Justin Sink - 05/05/13 09:41 AM ET
The Hill

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Sunday that the comprehensive immigration bill he negotiated with a bipartisan group of seven other senators directly addresses some of the security flaws that may have been exploited by a foreign student accused of helping bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev dispose of evidence.

"It's hard to believe 12 years after 9/11 we're having this conversation, but you put your finger on it. There's not enough coordination between these different agencies so that we know someone should not have been readmitted to the United States," Durbin told CNN. "But our bill addresses that directly."

The Department of Homeland Security announced over the weekend that border security agents must now check that foreign students entering the country have a valid visa. Azamat Tazhayakov, who was arrested last week and accused of removing a backpack containing fireworks from Tsarnaev's apartment, did not have valid documentation when he returned to the U.S. in January, but was waved through by border agents who did not have access to the database from Homeland Security.

Other lawmakers have questioned the border security system after it was revealed that a trip to Russia by Dzhokhar's brother, Tamerlan, went undetected because of a spelling mistake.

Durbin said Sunday that the immigration reform bill "starts to do things that should have been done long ago."

Under the bill, Durbin says, the federal government would be able to track all immigrants and "know not only when they arrive, but when they leave."

The Senate Judiciary Committee will begin debate on the bill this week, but some lawmakers have already expressed concern about the legislation's long-term prospects. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) has said that the bill would not pass the House without strengthening the border security triggers necessary for a pathway to citizenship, while Democrats have complained the bill does not include a provision for same-sex couples.

Durbin said he believed "of course" there were elements that could be improved, but also seemed to caution Republicans from trying to move the bill too far to the right.

"I have friends of mine, incidentally, who look at it from the viewpoint of Democrats and from the left and say there are things we'd like to see in it too," Durbin said. "But we've got to basically stick to the standard of what we've established, what we've agreed to."

Coincidentally, Durbin is co-sponsoring the amendment that would give American citizens the opportunity to sponsor a same-sex partner, but Republicans have warned such a provision could torpedo the bill. On Sunday, Durbin defended the amendment as "consistent with the position we should have marriage equality."

"If we can find a way through this to protect the basic right of an individual and still pass immigration reform, that's what I want to achieve," Durbin said.

He also said that Gang of Eight negotiators, who had agreed to oppose as a group amendments that had the potential to kill the overall immigration bill, "did not have a specific agreement among the eight of us about this particular issue."

But the Illinois lawmaker also said there was the potential that the entire debate over the inclusion of LGBT benefits in the bill might soon become moot.

"The Supreme Court has taken up [the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act]. That decision on DOMA may preclude this whole conversation. They may help us reach the right place in this whole conversation," Durbin said.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefi...rathon-suspect

Go march in another May Day parade Senator. http://rebelpundit.com/2013/05/senat...y-day-chicago/