There will be intense pressure on the House Republicans to approve not just an immigration reform bill, but one that includes citizenship for adults who broke the law to come here.
Amnesty is what this debate is all about.
Democrats want it in the worst way, and big business and labor are willing to go along if they get goodies thrown in the bill to help them.
The Open Borders crowd can almost taste it. As discussed here previously, given the generous family unification provisions and the discretion of Janet Napolitano to waive deportation and removal, the Senate bill will de facto open the borders.
All the money is flowing towards advertising in favor of amnesty, although the marketing focuses on border security because that sells the best. The frequency of advertisements in favor of the amnesty bill is worthy of the closing weeks of a presidential campaign.
As The NY Times reports, numerous groups are ganging up to get the House to pass something close to the Gang of 8 bill, and amnesty is the make or break issue. You could give these groups everything they want, but if no amnesty, no deal.
Varied Alliance to Press House on Immigration Bill:
Even as they were popping corks on Thursday night after a strong bipartisan vote in the Senate to pass an immigration bill, supporters of the overhaul were laying plans for the far more difficult task of moving something similar through the Republican-controlled House….As a sign of the conservative direction of the debate in the House, its Judiciary Committee recently approved a bill to enforce immigration laws away from the nation’s borders that was much tougher than anything from the Senate. The House has yet to produce a bill that includes a core piece of the Senate legislation: a path to citizenship for 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the country….Latinos, who showed their strength when they overwhelmingly supported President Obama last November, are a leading force, but are not the only one, supporters said. Business and technology industry groups, labor unions, agricultural growers, farmworkers, law enforcement associations, churches, educators, youth groups and other immigrant organizations are also in the mix.
The diversity gives supporters a variety of pressure points for approaching reluctant House Republicans, said Clarissa Martínez de Castro, an organizer for NCLR, the national Latino organization also known as the National Council of La Raza. A lawmaker who does not have many Latino voters in a district might have vegetable farmers, or labor unions, or a university, or an evangelical Christian megachurch, she said.
Mr. Rodríguez, of the evangelical coalition, said Republicans who voted to block the overhaul could face future costs.
“We were at the edge of the Jordan River, but after the Senate, we officially got our feet wet,” he said. “If 11 million immigrants are left in the middle of the water and do not reach the promised land, neither will the Republican Party reach the promised land of the White House.”
We need to keep the pressure on the House not to give in. Immigration reform which rationalizes the system to our national needs, yes. Amnesty for adults who broke the law to come here, no.
Let reform sink on that issue if it must.
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