Next: White House set to make major push on immigration, including a path to citizenship
Mr. Obama and Senate Democrats will propose the changes in one comprehensive bill, the officials said, resisting efforts by some Republicans to break the overhaul into smaller pieces — separately addressing young illegal immigrants, migrant farmworkers or highly skilled foreigners — which might be easier for reluctant members of their party to accept.
The president and Democrats will also oppose measures that do not allow immigrants who gain legal status to become American citizens one day, the officials said…
The White House will argue that its solution for illegal immigrants is not an amnesty, as many critics insist, because it would include fines, the payment of back taxes and other hurdles for illegal immigrants who would obtain legal status, the officials said.
The president’s plan would also impose nationwide verification of legal status for all newly hired workers; add visas to relieve backlogs and allow highly skilled immigrants to stay; and create some form of guest-worker program to bring in low-wage immigrants in the future.
Blowback
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Good thing Rubio out-smarted them.
aryeung on January 13, 2013 at 10:34 AM
Everyone always talks about that. It only works if there is a huge stick on the other end. The govt. would have to attach a prison term to give this teeth. At the moment you can get eyes on someone’s drivers license and social security card (one or both of which can be fakes) and claim you performed due diligence. If ICE eventually busts you they say fire these people. There is no fine and no punishment IME.
CorporatePiggy on January 13, 2013 at 10:38 AM
Border enforcement? A fence? No, I thought not.
Wethal on January 13, 2013 at 10:38 AM
If they are granted amnesty…will they still refer to themselves as Latinos?
trs on January 13, 2013 at 10:38 AM
Once they get drivers’ licenses, they will registering to vote or voting with provisional ballots, regardless of lack of citizenship.
Wethal on January 13, 2013 at 10:39 AM
Smartest GOP move (yes, I see the irony of using smart and GOP in the same sentence) would say that we’ll get to this after we get our fiscal house in order and the senate passes a budget.
Wethal on January 13, 2013 at 10:41 AM
like that would actually happen…puhleeze
gop will cave because they think they will get the latino vote…
unstinkingbelievable….
cmsinaz on January 13, 2013 at 10:41 AM
Rubio did get out ahead of this, which is a good thing.
Then maybe states controlled by Republicans (aka a lot of the swing states) should add proof of citizenship as a requirement to their voter id laws.
Illinidiva on January 13, 2013 at 10:45 AM
We can start the separation now or later.
artist on January 13, 2013 at 10:52 AM
Or will refer to ourselves, especially here in the Southwest, as Norte Méxicanos?
ShainS on January 13, 2013 at 10:53 AM
Where are the JOBS Mr President? Health care, gun control and immigration are more important than employment? Well, when your agenda is implementation of the Cloward-Piven strategy, I guess so.
Alphabet networks are complicit in this also.
Clink on January 13, 2013 at 10:56 AM
This is nothing more than Charlie Brown football.
The White House and the Congress have no credibility on this issue at all.
Any promise they make is just as useless as all the past promises they have made regarding border security, e-verification and the claim that illegal aliens cannot receive govt. benefits
NeoKong on January 13, 2013 at 10:56 AM
cloward and pivon
wheelgun on January 13, 2013 at 11:01 AM
Any chance of sneaking an actual budget bill in there somewhere?
Didn’t think so…
Kraken on January 13, 2013 at 11:02 AM
Maybe we could call it E-Verify.
Dr. Frank Enstine on January 13, 2013 at 11:04 AM
Once Castro and Chavez are dead, nobody will be paying for Sendero Luminoso types to blow up foreign investments, or for parties supporting Hugo Chavez-types from taking power and nationalizing foreign investments.
A good portion of illegal immigrants take welfare in order that Mama’ be able to stay at home while Papa’ works a job that otherwise would not afford a house or food on the table. Jobs back in Latin America where the cost of living is lower, the law is completely on their side, and everybody speaks Spanish may end up more attractive than amnesty in the US.
Sekhmet on January 13, 2013 at 11:04 AM
DOA in House, fortunately. No way amnesty is getting the majority of the majority needed to come to the floor.
Jon0815 on January 13, 2013 at 11:08 AM
First off, there are still states were illegals can go to get their drivers licenses w/o proof of citizenship. They can show a mexican birth certificate and a piece of mail with an address in that state (easy to fake) and get a drivers license, which is then good in all 50 states.
Second off, the biggest incentive to hiring illegals in many industries is that they don’t have to follow OSHA laws, minimum wage laws, 40 hour work week laws, overtime laws, pay social security fees and obamacare comprehensive health insurance, etc etc.
So if you’re in a seasonal business like landscaping, it can be difficult to follow labor laws written with manufacturing in mind. Some weeks in the summer, the guys will be working 7 days. They want the money and you want the work because everyone knows come november, they’re going to have plenty of time off to sit around and do nothing.
Timin203 on January 13, 2013 at 11:22 AM
A system only used by employers large enough to be easy targets for criminal prosecution or civil litigation…
Again – teeth.
CorporatePiggy on January 13, 2013 at 11:22 AM
Yeah, because Boehner just showed us how much he cares about that guideline. Remember the fiscal cliff deal?
Timin203 on January 13, 2013 at 11:23 AM
As long as we keep reminding our House members that we can probably wait out the illegal immigration problem. Net migration has been zero since 2007, and could go negative if the Venezuela-Cuba axis breaks. Many Chavistas in Venezuela have no use for the Cubans. Chavez was probably the only one of them who ever had a friend named Ivan. They are not down with the program of keeping up the old KGB/DGI operations throughout the Americas, and see it as pointless.
I suspect the reason Cuba has been playing “Weekend at Bernie’s” with the dead or dying Fidel Castro is that America was Asimoved in the open-secret treaty that ended the Cuban Missile Crisis. Fidel Castro would have been immensely stupid to have included his brother in any “you will not harm or allow to come to harm” treaty. It would have been asking for an “unfortunate accident,” should Raulito get ambitious, or those surrounding Fidel got sick of smelling his farts. Cuba owes a lot of money to a lot of foreign countries, many of which also have Cuban assets. A confirmed death of Fidel may be all they need to seize the Cuban assets.
The end of the Cuba-Venezuela axis could mean an explosion of foreign investment in Latin America, which could suck jobs southwards. It seems to be happening already.
Sekhmet on January 13, 2013 at 11:25 AM
You can dress up breaking the law in a pretty skirt, but it is still breaking the law. A lot of us are quite happy to rationalize it in the same way that no one drives the speed limit.
Doesn’t make it correct.
CorporatePiggy on January 13, 2013 at 11:25 AM
Well, I’m saying change the labor laws, tax laws and welfare laws in this country and you will fix a lot of the “unintended consequences” of those laws, one of which is creating an underground labor economy. And it’s not just illegal immigrants taking part in it.
Timin203 on January 13, 2013 at 11:32 AM
Not included in Obama’s agenda is a jobs plan.
Grunt on January 13, 2013 at 11:35 AM
And even when all of these illegals become citizens (so that they can vote for democrats and receive more welfare), how many of them do you think will go into the “real economy”? They have jobs and are used to being paid under the table (which means a lot more money goes into their pockets) plus they won’t be eligible for anywhere near as many government benefits if they show an income on a tax return.
Any agreement has to include preclusion from welfare benefits, a financial penalty, and an enforceable way to remove anyone who chooses not to come forward and to remain under the radar.
And going forward, we could discourage this problem from happening again by changing out welfare rules, our tax laws, and our labor laws. Otherwise we will keep attracting more and more people to come here and live under the radar and for more and more american citizens to live and work under the radar.
Timin203 on January 13, 2013 at 11:36 AM
And do you ever wonder why it costs so much more money to remodel a corporate building or a government building then a house? It’s not that it’s any more difficult to work on a larger building (it’s usually easier, with drop ceilings etc), it’s that you have to work legally. That means pulling permits, using legal employees, paying a lot more per hour per employee (although they see less in take home pay), and paying taxes on everything.
When I worked on someones house, I would take cash up front, pay the lumber yard in cash, pay my employees in cash, and pay all of my expenses in cash. If I worked on a city project, I’d have to charge a lot more to cover all of the taxes and fees built in along the way.
Timin203 on January 13, 2013 at 11:39 AM
Amnesty in any form will make America a defacto one party state in perpetuity.
It’s national suicide, and any GOP House or Senator who goes along with it is both an idiot and a traitor.
Rebar on January 13, 2013 at 12:02 PM
But they will continue for the fourth straight year not to pass a budget, as the law requires.
Good Lt on January 13, 2013 at 12:11 PM
The fact he is making this one bill, instead of easier-to-swallow three bills, indicates 0bama is not as serious as he appears about amnesty either. He wants the R House to kill it as an election talking point, not actual amnesty. As Timin points out, a lot of these folks make their money by *not* working on the books, which would be impossible with any realistic amnesty bill. Forcing them onto the books will make too many of them, particularly in light of an improving Latin American economy compared to ours, decide leaving the US is preferable.
Sekhmet on January 13, 2013 at 12:22 PM
IMHO it’s partly because he isn’t serious and partly because he’s too stupid to have an ounce of political strategy. Literally all he knows is to make big ponderous bills and try to ram them through like Pickett’s Charge.
MelonCollie on January 13, 2013 at 12:30 PM
TxAnn56 on January 13, 2013 at 12:34 PM
Bingo. The vast majority of blacks are already on the Democrat welfare plantation, like it, and will never leave. Between them and white liberals we’ve already got a hard time. If the Dems get another wave of illiterate brown peasants, we’ll have passed the 50% line irrevocably and nothing short of a plague or c1v1l war will change things.
MelonCollie on January 13, 2013 at 12:39 PM
Great. Just what we need, more “Americans” vying for jobs that don’t exist, signing up for benefits we can’t afford.
ctmom on January 13, 2013 at 1:03 PM
clowns to the left of me, traitors to the right….
rightwingyahooo on January 13, 2013 at 1:52 PM
Very different situation, and having already angered conservatives by breaking the Hastert Rule there, it will be even harder for him to break it again to pass an amnesty.
Jon0815 on January 13, 2013 at 1:56 PM