Amnesty for illegal aliens never seems to be really, truly dead, despite frequent pronouncements.
The news that John Boehner has hired a former John McCain staffer involved in McCain’s push for immigration reform has rekindled speculation that Boehner will go soft on the issue.
Steve Dinan in The Washington Times write, Hola: Boehner prepares to push amnesty bill through House:
House Speaker John A. Boehner announced Tuesday that he has hired a longtime advocate of legalizing illegal immigrants to be an adviser, signaling that the Republican is still intent on trying to pass an immigration bill during this congressional session.
Immigrant rights advocates cheered the move as a sign of Mr. Boehner’s dedication to action. Those who want a crackdown on illegal immigration said the top Republican in the House has moved closer to embracing amnesty by hiring Rebecca Tallent, a former staffer for Sen. John McCain and fellow Arizona Republican Jim Kolbe.
Tallent’s hiring suggests he really does still want to push an amnesty through the House, which to me suggests that the immigration hawks still have their work cut out for them,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies. “She is a professional amnesty advocate.”
Ms. Tallent is leaving a job as immigration policy director for the Bipartisan Policy Center and will join Mr. Boehner’s staff Wednesday, putting her in the center of one of the thorniest issues in Congress.
Roll Call reports, Boehner’s New Immigration Policy Director Has Deep Experience on Overhaul Efforts:
During her time with McCain, she helped the Arizona Republican draft a handful of immigration overhaul measures, including the last big push McCain made with the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., in 2007. In 2008, she was a policy adviser on McCain’s presidential campaign. Before working for McCain, she worked for former Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., a longtime advocate of overhauling the immigration system who was involved in immigration efforts before he retired in 2006.
The BPC, the nonpartisan think tank established by four former Senate majority leaders — Howard Baker, R-Tenn., Tom Daschle, D-S.D., Bob Dole, R -Kan. and George Mitchell, D-Maine — announced her departure on Tuesday afternoon, beating Boehner’s office to the punch by several minutes.
The BPC release heralded Talent’s new job as one that “signals new momentum for immigration reform.”
“Speaker Boehner could not have chosen a better person to help House leadership develop effective immigration reform legislation,” Haley Barbour, the former Republican governor of Mississippi who is co-chairman of BPC’s immigration task-force, said in a statement.
I have an email in to Boehner’s press spokesman as to whether this signal’s a change in Boehner’s position, but have not yet heard back.
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Comments
Amnesty for illegal aliens is like a zombie: it’s never really dead.
And Boehner won’t “go soft”. He already is and always has been.
1. Two words: third party.
2. Rhetorical question: if there’s a wave election in 2014, how long will it take for the voters to recoil in disgust from the Republicans?
3. I’ve said it before and I’m repeating it now. A nation that refuses to control its borders does not deserve to survive, and won’t. Sooner or later its luck, like the dodo’s, will run out.
4. I’ve said it before and I’m repeating it now. The real villains in the illegal incursions are not the people who cross the border looking for a better life. The real villains are the vermin in high places who undermine the law and its enforcement. The real villains are the well-connected traitors in both parties who betray their fellow Americans & the country’s future for short-term personal gain.
Agreed, on all counts. My Republican connection is tenuous, and this would sever the relation for good.
Either John McCain does not know how to pick staff, or he ignores their advice. Having worked for him is no great recommendation, in my view.
With respect to the passage of any immigration reform measure, I believe the key to passage must be transparency, including a full and robust (and, accurate) discussion of the text of any amendments.
We have already seen what unethical politicians will do, if given the opportunity to pass unexamined legislation. (I am talking to you, Nancy Pelosi, and you, Harry Reid.)
And, we know that we have a President who will lie his a$$ off about the content of legislation, in order to get legislation he knows would not otherwise be acceptable to the American public, passed. (I am talking to you, Barack Obama.)
We also have people who are opposed to Amnesty who do not know how to read legislation (I am talking to you, Michelle Malkin, and you, Rand Paul.)
The only way to protect ourselves from the oncoming train wreck is to print the operative language and discuss it in detail.
I look forward to seeing links to drafts and to the Congressional Record, and to video from politicians who claim to be knowledgeable, here.
Among the various “Liberty Amendments” to the U.S. Constitution being discussed is a requirement for FINAL versions of any bill being considered in either house of Congress to be published for proper public evaluation at least 30 days PRIOR to a final vote. (With some LIMITED exceptions for GENUINE national emergency.)
Would be very interesting to know who among our present national “leadership” might try to make a “principled” case in opposition to such a reasonable constraint.
Seems like a great time – again – to have some expansive discussions of such a provision.
Finally. Common sense. I like you already.
I smell a rat, but then the country is knee-deep in rats.
Is GOP support for amnesty about to be traded for killing Obamacare? Ginned up between Boehner/Pelosi and Reid/McConnell with the idea that Obama is already lame duck and can be steamrolled by Reid, et al, on this?
Or, is this simply a standard GOP sellout to the Chamber of Commerce other big business seeking cheap labor and hispanic votes?
Or, is this a Boehner feint, a bone tossed to amnestarians to string them along? Would Tallent allow herself to be used thus?
Or, is this a shot across the bow of Robert Goodlatte (R-VA), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, where immigration legislation was supposed to start? Boehner saying, “Let go. I got this”?
I’d shoot Goodlatte an email seeking comment, too.
The Dems will not give up Obamacae no matter what they say. They will make the stupid leadership of the GOP believe that so the morons can push through amnesty, alienate their own base, set themselves up to be primaries of for a third party, which if the latter, will throw the election to the Dems leaving them in power. That may be what the Stupid Party wants anyway cuz some of them have said they prefer to be a minority party. Governing is like math.
Primary Boehner and Cantor. Cantor especially is a huge liar.
What part of there are no jobs for Americans don’t they understand?
What part of uphold American law don’t these idiots get?
What part of illegal aliens, especially Hispanics, vote for big government because that is what they are accustomed to, can’t they grasp?
The Dems will bail on Obamacare and Obama the minute their reelections are threatened. Nothing is sacred to them, not even Obamacare. Obama himself will die on that hill, but he’s second term, lame ducked, and has nothing to lose by it.
“I smell a rat, but then the country is knee-deep in rats.”
Come now, Mr. Hawkins, you know that is simply not true. The country is neck-deep in rats.
I stipulate to neck deep on the coasts, but knee deep in flyover country.
Perhaps we should compromise on waist deep — if we define the waist as positioned at about 47% of the body’s height. IYKWIMAITYD.
On the other hand, rather than choosing a description based on the percentage of supporters (or detractors), perhaps we should focus on the actual effect. The left is in charge of practically everything and does what it wants to, when it wants to, and by any means it wants to use. It cares nothing about the percentage of Americans who support their schemes. The way things are, they are in almost total control. So I will argue for our being neck-deep in rats. The people in flyover country are being bitten just as badly as anyone. In fact, there is some evidence that red state residents are being treated worse by the law than blue state residents. State pols may be trying to fight back, but they have little success to show for their efforts. Even over their most vigorous objections, the flyover folks are still under the control of the federal government, neck deep.
Last, it takes only one infected rat to kill the victim it bites. We have one giant demonrat in the White House who is doing his best (by which I mean his worst) to kill off this country, metaphorically if not actually. The actual rat count is less important than the ferocity of the Rat King.
Given Boehner’s history, I’ve always wondered why people think he’s a Republican. He doesn’t vote Republican values, he doesn’t support Republicans, nor does he use the power as Speaker to squash anti-American legislation. He’s the perfect Democrat.
Boehner has a very high conservative rating from every single rating agency except the ones affiliated with the people trying to take over the GOP from within. Boehner’s herding cats, some of them who have very sharp claws pointed at his back.
When you ring the bell in the Skinner Box, the rats all run for cheese.
Dinan: “. . . signaling that the Republican is still intent on trying to pass an immigration bill during this congressional session.”
Um, how stupid are YOU? Do you know how long it takes to get a bill through committee in the House? Do you really think Boehner is going to bypass all those rules to bring a vote on a bill that isn’t yet written but is certain to alienate close to a majority of the Caucus? Really? Then you ARE stupid.
It’s one thing to be a conservative on the internet where you can tut-tut anything that diverges at all from your One True Path. It’s quite another to actually win elections, where majorities must be cobbled and it pays not to alienate everyone except your most diehard supporters.
Boehner has been giving these head-feints and lip service to immigration reform ever since Schumer-Rubio passed the Senate, if you had been paying any attention at all. So how many bills have even had full mark-ups in committee since then?
If you don’t know, that’s okay. Why would ignorance of the subject stop you from venting?
Why would Boehner care if you vent? You Purity nuts all hate him already because he was only the 8th most conservative member of the House from 2001-2011 (Speakers don’t vote except for ties).
I am amused that so many of my conservative friends are so unsophisticated that they don’t just get upset if their favored policies aren’t followed, they freak out if they don’t win 100% of the PR releases, too. Rave on, children.
“When you ring the bell in the Skinner Box, the rats all run for cheese.”
No rats in Skinner Boxes, just infants. Not that Skinner would have seen a difference.
“Boehner has been giving these head-feints and lip service to immigration reform ever since Schumer-Rubio passed the Senate, if you had been paying any attention at all.”
So says our resident RINO Jockey a few posts below a commenter asking:
“Or, is this a Boehner feint, a bone tossed to amnestarians to string them along? Would Tallent allow herself to be used thus?”
We’ve heard your political prescription ad nauseum – don’t engage in fights unless you know in advance you will win, the exact formula that has led to one GOP loss and failure after another.
It’s OK. Don’t fight. Keep your hands clean, though the dirt shows instead on your knees. Just sit over there in the corner working up your next failed GOP plan. We’ll notify you when the fight is over.
I agree with your sentiments and cautionary attitude, however you could leave off the mean language and it would improve your comment.
Wouldn’t it be make more sense to focus on the political capital from the obamcare debacle, than squandering it on something no one but democrats want?
The problem is that it’s more than just Democrats who want this. The current GOP leadership would do it tomorrow if they thought they could survive it politically.
Is amnesty really dead?
I don’t know, maybe we should ask a “corpseman”.
Yes I am losing my mind, thanks for asking.
Various news sources have reported that Speaker Boehner has hired a former McCain immigration advisor and chief of staff to be his immigration advisor. The fact that she is pro-amnesty and worked on Sen. John McCain’s amnesty bills suggests that the Speaker may be leaning toward amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants; or toward support of legislation that would embody provisions of S744, notwithstanding previous public statements to the contrary.
Many observers of “illegal immigration scene”, I believe, share the hope that adding Ms. Rebecca Talent to the Speaker’s staff does not presage his support for legislation granting amnesty (other than temporary legal residence followed by self-deportation or deportation) to millions of illegal immigrants.
We hope he will encourage enforcement of 8 U.S.C. § 1302 : US Code – Section 1302: Registration of aliens, which specifies:
(a) It shall be the duty of every alien now or hereafter in the United States, who
(1) is fourteen years of age or older, . . .to apply for registration and to be fingerprinted . . . (and make sure that alien children 14 yrs. of age or older do the same).
Also, support legislation calling for
1) issuance of temporary legal documents requiring that formerly illegal registrants return home on or before the expiration dates thereof,
2) extension of e-verify nationally to all employers, large and small, with severe penalties for hiring/employing illegal immigrants(to cut off the carrot of illegal employment) and
3) mandated participation of local police as key enforcers in a seamless national network of national, state and local authorities concerned, inter al., with monitoring adherence of temporarily legalized residents to terms of their legal documents. (Given the tendency to ignore law enforcement, manifest in some communities, participation of local police cannot be optional).
Surely the Speaker is aware that while he serves solely at the pleasure of his constituents, millions of citizens outside his Ohio district are affected directly or indirectly by his decisions. We can only hope he and his staff will keep their interests in mind in the process of considering legislation that will affect the future of 11 million or more illegal immigrants in such a way as to be of maximum benefit to all citizens—and the nation
Immigration reform is not as complicated as some people would like to make it. We have a very large hole in our immigration law, where a guest worker program should be.
Fix that hole, and the problem melts away.
My goodness, how many more guest worker programs do we need? Perhaps we should ensure that some of the guest worker programs we have, like the H-2A visa program, are used rather than evaded; and others, like the H-1B visa program, are used to fill actual worker shortages rather than to lower personnel costs.
http://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/temporary-workers/temporary-nonimmigrant-workers
How do we suddenly convince illegal aliens and crooked businesspeople to comply honestly with guest worker programs? It’s just so much easier and cheaper to ignore them, or to abuse them. Why should citizen workers pay the price for corruption?
This is a 2007 story about the Pearl Street Scam that I won’t let fall off my radar; you’ll learn a lot from it: http://www.vdare.com/articles/the-pearl-street-scam-or-how-to-displace-american-workers-without-quite-breaking-the-law
Everyone understands that most people would be willing to support some form of amnesty if they could be convinced it was truly a one-time event (and that it did not come in a package that involved large increases in immigration, as well) — but one of the biggest sticking points is that these claims of future enforcement are, simply, empty promises. The Gang of 8 bill has so many loopholes, and Obama has shown that even in the face of laws to the contrary, he won’t enforce.
Which means, when it comes down to it, to put it harshly, Boehner and allies are either fools or liars, if they claim that they’ll pursue, and achieve this amnesty + enforcement combo.
http://janetheactuary.blogspot.com/2013/12/do-you-trust-your-congressman.html
We already had that one-time amnesty; it evolved into five amnesties (not including the additional NACARA and HRIFA amnesties) and resulted in even more illegal immigration.
http://nassaucivic.com/U.S_Amnesties_for_Illegal_Aliens.htm
Of course there was never an honest intent to enforce the law. To do so would have cost our politicians
bribesum, er, “campaign contributions” and other benefits.