Thread: In Congress, a harder line on illegal immigrants

"In Congress, a harder line on illegal immigrants"
By SUZANNE GAMBOA • T
he Associated Press •
December 28, 2010



In a matter of weeks, Congress will go from trying to help young, illegal immigrants become legal to debating whether children born to parents who are in the country illegally should continue to enjoy automatic U.S. citizenship.


Such a hardened approach — and the rhetoric certain to accompany it — should resonate with the GOP faithful who helped swing the House in Republicans' favor. But it also could further hurt the GOP in its endeavor to grab a large enough share of the growing Latino vote to win the White House and the Senate majority in 2012.


Legislation to test interpretations of the 14th Amendment as granting citizenship to children of illegal immigrants will emerge early next session. That is likely to be followed by attempts to force employers to use a still-developing web system, dubbed E-Verify, to check that all of their employees are in the U.S. legally.


There could be proposed curbs on federal spending in cities that don't do enough to identify people who are in the country illegally and attempts to reduce the numbers of legal immigrants. Democrats ended the year failing for a second time to win passage of the Dream Act, which would have given hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants a chance at legal status.


House Republicans will try to fill the immigration reform vacuum left by Democrats with legislation designed to send illegal immigrants packing and deter others from trying to come to the U.S.


Democrats, who will still control the Senate, will be playing defense against harsh immigration enforcement measures, mindful of their need to keep on good footing with Hispanic voters. But a slimmer majority and an eye on 2012 may prevent Senate Democrats from bringing to the floor any sweeping immigration bill, or even a limited one that hints at providing legal status to people in the country illegally.

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The Rest of the Story from Link Above

President Barack Obama could be a wild card.

He'll have at his disposal his veto power should a bill denying citizenship to children of illegal immigrants make it to his desk. But Obama also has made cracking down on employers a key part of his administration's immigration enforcement tactics.

Hispanic voters and their allies will look for Obama to broker a deal on immigration as he did on tax cuts and health care. After the Dream Act failed in the Senate this month, Obama said his administration would not give up on the measure. "At a minimum we should be able to get Dream done. So I'm going to go back at it," he said.

The president has taken heavy hits in Spanish-language and ethnic media for failing to keep his promise to address immigration promptly and taking it off the agenda last summer. His administration's continued deportations of immigrants — a record 393,000 in the 2010 fiscal year — have also made tenuous his relationship with Hispanic voters.

John Morton, who oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in a recent conference call that there are no plans to change the agency's enforcement tactics, which are focused on immigrants who commit crimes but also have led to detaining and deporting many immigrants who have not committed crimes.

The agency also will continue to expand Secure Communities, the program that allows immigration officials to check fingerprints of all people booked into jail to see if they are in the country illegally. Both illegal immigrants and residents can end up being deported under the program, which the Homeland Security Department hopes to expand nationwide by 2013.

Many of those attending a recent gathering of conservative Hispanics in Washington warned that another round of tough laws surrounded by ugly anti-immigrant discussions could doom the GOP's 2012 chances.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a possible 2012 presidential candidate, cited Meg Whitman's failed gubernatorial bid in California despite her high spending. When 22 percent of the electorate is Latino, candidates can't win without a vigorous presence in the Hispanic community and a "message that is understandable and involves respect," Gingrich said. Even so, Gingrich was unwilling to call on his fellow Republican senators to drop their opposition to the Dream Act, saying the legislation should not have been considered without giving lawmakers a chance to amend it.

The next Congress will be populated with many newcomers elected on a platform of tougher immigration enforcement. They'll have ready ears in Republican Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, who will chair the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Steve King of Iowa, who is expected to chair the committee's immigration subcommittee.

That's a recipe for more measures aimed at immigration enforcement, including requiring businesses to use E-Verify rather than eyeballing paper documents to check workers' citizenship and legal residency status.

"I've already told the business community it's going to happen," said Beto Cardenas, executive counsel to Americans for Immigration Reform, a coalition of business leaders who support overhauling immigration laws. Changes to immigration law contained in appropriations and authorization bills, where immigration enforcement hawks are likely to tuck some measures, would also be tough to reject.

But more controversial measures such as attempts to deny citizenship to children of people who are in the U.S. without permission could be tempered by GOP leaders aware of the need to curry more favor with Hispanic voters.

Many of those attending a recent gathering of conservative Hispanics in Washington warned that another round of tough laws surrounded by ugly anti-immigrant discussions could doom the GOP's 2012 chances.

"anti-immigrant" ? discussions?

Never heard of them.

Many of those attending a recent gathering of conservative Hispanics in Washington warned that another round of tough laws surrounded by ugly anti-immigrant discussions could doom the GOP's 2012 chances.

"Conservative" Hispanics! Since when did "conservatives" of any ethnicity consider law breakers, or tough laws prohibiting lawlessness a liability to conservative thought or the Republican Party?

Oh, my bad, I brought Republicans and the concept of "conservatives" into the same sentence!

What a bunch of hooey!

I am also getting real tired of this crap that ethnicities need be considered when the concept being pushed by the Republicrats is conservative philosophy. YOU EITHER IS, OR YOU AIN"T MY BABY!

Hey Wonder Boy,...WHOSYERDADDY? You piss poor excuse for an impostor!

Many of those attending a recent gathering of conservative Hispanics in Washington warned that another round of tough laws surrounded by ugly anti-immigrant discussions could doom the GOP's 2012 chances.

"gathering of conservative Hispanics in Washington"

What exactly is that? How can you be a "conservative" and want to threaten Republicans with "doom" for stopping the outrageous, intolerable, inexcusable, costly, disgusting and repugnant illegal immigration in the United States that steals jobs from Americans, grows unemployment and poverty and increases tax burdens and government spending that causes deficits and government debt??!!!

Do not be fooled by these so-called "conservatives", because they're just DemoQuacks wearing red looking for a tax break. How to test them? Find out if they support the FairTax. If they don't, send them somewhere else and tell them to take their "doom" with them. Republicans are committed to passing the FairTax and stopping illegal immigration once and for all and doing so in ways that will never allow what has happened to our country through open borders and mandated income taxation to ever happen again.

We are as determined on these issues as our ancestors were committed to ending slavery.

I DON'T THINK THE REPUBLICANS WILL HAVE ANYTHING TO WORRY ABOUT. THE HISPANIC VOTE IS SOMETHING THAT I'M GETTING REAL SICK OF HEARING ABOUT I FOR ONE WILL BE VOTING FOR A REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT. I'M AN INDEPENDENT AND I USE TO BE A DEMOCRAT, BUT WHEN THE DEMS STARTED TRYING TO GRANT AMNESTY TO THOSE WHO ARE HERE ILLEGALLY, WELL THAT WAS ENOUGH FOR ME. FURTHER MORE THERE JUST MIGHT BE A NUMBER OF DEMS WHO WILL NOT VOTE FOR OBAMA SEEING HOW HE HAS LET A LOT OF THEM DOWN. WHEN EVER THEY DON'T GET THEIR WAY THEN THE POOR THINGS START MAKING THREATS. THESE PEOPLE JUST MAKE ME SICK

"He'll have at his disposal his veto power should a bill denying citizenship to children of illegal immigrants make it to his desk"

It won't
Now is the time to craft the legislation , But also the best course at this time is for a state , Such as Arizona to craft the law , then get it to the supreme court , Once it has be re interpreted correctly there would be no need for a congressional bill,
But , it could be done if the court gets it wrong , hopefully in 2012 when we kick that moron out of the white house

Yup. if we can get an understood interpretation done that the 14th amendment doesn't grant automatic citizenship to illegal babies I'm fairly sure Obama would have no say. All he could do is try and abuse his executive powers for mass amnesty but that would pretty much be repealed quickly enough with a death certificate on his career. Not even sure he could get a job as Mc D's after that.

It sound like our newly elected Congress is not going to lighten up on Illegal Immigration this time and that's what I've been wanting to hear.

This article makes it sound as if Hispanics (including illegals) are the largest majority with the the largest voting block and if the Republicans don't back off, they'll be voted under.
Votes go one way or the other for a reason. Too many US Citizens and Taxpayers are fed up with illegal immigration and a corrupt, unAmerican Government. Threats won't work on those of us who are fed up with our governemnt kissing the asses of Law breaking illegal Aliens.
We're finally out to finish what THEY started.
So they better get use to it.

We need to hold their feet to the fire. They know why they got voted in and we have to make sure they remember every single day.
If every Hispanic voted Democratic we still out number them. And they are ticking off more and more Americans every day. We need to make every American aware of what is going on.
Obama will seal his fate with a veto pen. He had his chance when the Dems were in the majority and he did nothing. The Hispanics still think he will bail them out and get them amnesty. Not now. And it would be a huge mistake for obama to try.
States are taking this in their own hands like Arizona is trying. If we have several states making it too hard for illegals to live, obama and his buddies will have a hard time stopping it. And it will be a snowball going down hill since other states will have to pass the laws or they will be getting all the illegals leaving states like Arizona.
Some times I get so excited like maybe we are getting somewhere with sending illegals out, but then I remember the REAL Washington. Where votes are bought and bribes are common. Does everyone have a price? Not me. But the promises and money in Washington are bigger then I could think of.
So, keep the heat on. Keep calling. We started this and we can't quit. Stay on the new people. Keep reminding them of why they got there. Also, let them know we can get them out just as easy. Tell the same things to the ones up for re-election in 2012.

And, I have a question. Does anyone believe all this crap about how the illegal students are committing suicide since the Dream Act failed to pass? I don't. I don't think they have given up. I don't think they realize how much Americans detest this amnesty. I hear the sob stories and they just get me all po'd. Kids that whine should go to their rooms, not go out in public.