Illegal Immigration

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said last week that if the House and Senate went to conference over the Schumer-Obama amnesty bill, S.744, that the bill would ultimately pass. Two House Committee's have already approved several immigration-related pieces of legislation. Should the full House pass any one of the bills, the Senate could take up the bill, substitute it with S.744, and send it back to the House. In lieu of passing the bill, the House could opt to go to conference.

During an appearance on CBS's Face the Nation on Sunday, former vice presidential candidate and current Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) said that illegal aliens should not receive work permits until the border is secured and interior enforcement, including E-Verify, is in place. The Schumer-Obama amnesty bill grants instant work permits to the nation's 11 million illegal aliens before any increases in border security or mandatory E-Verify are in place.

The union that represents the agents at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services sent a letter to Congress this week saying that the agency is ill-prepared to handle the mass influx of visa applications that could result from a DREAM-like amnesty bill. Last week, the House Judiciary Committee, at the urging of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), held a hearing on the prospect of granting amnesty to illegal aliens who were brought to the country at a young age to no fault of their own. Rep. Cantor and the Committee's chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) are working on legislation that would do so.

Over 100 Republican donors, fundraisers and former Party officials wrote Republican members of Congress on Tuesday to urge them to pass an amnesty and overhaul the nation's "broken" immigration system.  The letter is one element of a campaign to lobby Republican legislators as they return to their districts for August recess.

A new investigative report from the Arizona Republic has found that the Department of Homeland Security has refused to consider academic analysis of the situation along the Southwest border with Mexico and has refused to move forward with proposed analysis that would provide the agency with much needed data. The report states, "DHS officials don't want to know, and don't want the public to know" what's really happening along the border.

The National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO) issued a press release yesterday urging Republican House leadership to forgo plans to provide amnesty for the 11 million illegal aliens in the United States. The organization instead, calls for the House to focus on enforcing the nation's laws. 

"The NAFBPO urges the American public to directly request Congressmen John Boehner, Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan to abandon their dreams of amnesty, by whatever name, and get on a realistic track to ensure national security and public safety. That track leads to effective interior enforcement in every jurisdiction in all fifty states. Only then can actual border security and control become possible," the group wrote in the release.

Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and Center for Immigration Studies fellow Jerry Kammer wrote a piece after Monday's march that focused on the civil right's aspect of illegal immigration. He wrote, "young blacks have been especially affected by job displacement as employers have hired millions of illegal immigrants." This theme was invoked in the speeches of four Black Leaders on Monday as Kammer recounts.

The Black American Leadership Alliance hosted a march through Washington D.C. on Monday, protesting the Senate-passed amnesty bill, S.744. Breitbart.com provided live webcasting of the event and estimated around 3,000 people attended. They heard nearly four hours of speeches by Black Alliance leaders and others, including Senators Jeff Sessions and Ted Cruz and Representatives Steve King and Mo Brooks.

The march and rally focused on how amnesty and high immigration levels hurts low-skilled American workers and their wages.

In a statement issued after a two-hour House Republican conference meeting, GOP Leadership and the chairmen of key committees reaffirmed their position today that it will take a piecemeal approach in reforming the nation's immigration system. They also said the House will not vote on the Senate-passed amnesty bill.

A new poll conducted by pollster John McLaughlin has found that 60% of Hispanic voters support amnesty only after the goal of stopping 90% of future illegal immigration has been achieved. Only 34% of Hispanic voters said they support an amnesty first plan similar to the Senate-passed S.744.

The Senate only had 10 roll call votes on amendments (three were to table amendments) after voting to bring the Gang of Eight's amnesty bill, S.744 to the floor for debate and before voting for final passage. This is quite contrary to the open process promised by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).

In a letter addressed to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the Gang of Eight, and Senators Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and John Hoeven (R-N.D.), 13 Senators protested the management of the Schumer-Rubio Amnesty bill, S.744. Earlier today, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid filed a motion for cloture on the bill, meaning no more amendments will be voted on unless they're approved by Sen. Reid.

The Congressional Budget Office has released its analysis of the Schumer-Rubio-Obama amnesty bill, confirming the opponent's predictions that it would be devastating for American workers and would not end illegal immigration. Since the bill purposely delays green cards for some illegal aliens by 10 years, and the CBO only scores the fiscal impacts for the bill's first 10 years, the report says that the bill will not have a major impact on the national debt over the first decade.

An article that will be published in the June 24, 2013 issue of The New Yorker magazine reports that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) sided with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on the issue of a guest-worker program for the construction industry. Construction workers and the unions opposed an expanded guest-worker program unless it was tied to the unemployment rate, but the Chamber of Commerce was concerned that since unemployment rates tend to be higher in the industry, it would be a road block to the temporary visas.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) offered the first amendment for consideration during full Senate debate of the Schumer-Rubio-Obama Amnesty bill, S.744. His amendment would require certification that the border is fully secured before any of the 11 million illegal aliens would be eligible to receive legal status and work permits. Instead of holding an up or down vote on the amendment, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid motioned this morning to table the amendment. The motion passed by a 57-to-43 margin split mostly along party lines.

In a letter to Senators Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas), ICE Union President Chris Crane says the Gang of Eight's bill, S.744, is flawed because it places "new restrictions on interior enforcement." Crane writes that the bill would make the current situation worse and more hazardous and urges them to reject S.744 and instead focus on Rep. Trey Gowdy's (R-S.C.) interior enforcement bill and Rep. John Barrow's (D-Ga.) border security and interior enforcement legislation introduced in the House.

State Legislators for Legal Immigration, a group comprised legislators from 38 states, urged Members of the U.S. Senate to reject S. 744, the comprehensive amnesty bill.

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said that he plans to force a GOP conference should House Leadership decide to move forward on an unpopular amnesty bill in the House of Representatives. Under caucus rules, any Member can can force a closed-door session if he can gather 50 signatures. The session would force a caucus vote on the bill in question, and Leadership is supposed to follow the will of the caucus.

After several more North Carolina sheriffs signed on to a letter to Congress from the law enforcement agencies across the nation, Rep. Walter Jones issued a statement on Wednesday saying he stood by the sheriffs in their opposition to the Schumer-Rubio-Obama amnesty bill. Rep. Jones said he, too, is concerned about the bill's lack of interior enforcement.