During his SOTU address, President Obama touched on broad immigration reform principles and commended the work bipartisan groups in both chambers are doing to draft a bill. His tone seemed to indicate he would let Congress take the lead on immigration. “Send me a comprehensive immigration reform bill in the next few months and I will sign it,” he said during the speech. But on Saturday, the White House leaked details of its own immigration proposal, which Sen. Marco Rubio has called “dead on arrival.”
A draft of a White House immigration proposal obtained by USA TODAY would allow illegal immigrants to become legal permanent residents within eight years.The plan also would provide for more security funding and require business owners to check the immigration status of new hires within four years. In addition, the nation's 11 million illegal immigrants could apply for a newly created "Lawful Prospective Immigrant" visa, under the draft bill being written by the White House.If approved, they could then apply for the same provisional legal status for their spouse or children living outside the country, according to the draft.
“If actually proposed, the president’s bill would be dead on arrival in Congress, leaving us with unsecured borders and a broken legal immigration system for years to come,” Rubio said in a statement.
"It fails to follow through on previously broken promises to secure our borders, creates a special pathway that puts those who broke our immigration laws at an advantage over those who chose to do things the right way and come here legally, and does nothing to address guest workers or future flow, which serious immigration experts agree is critical to preventing future influxes of illegal immigrants," he continued.
“Much like the president’s self-described ‘stop gap’ Deferred Action measure last year, this legislation is half-baked and seriously flawed," Rubio said, adding that the proposal would actually make America’s immigration problems worse.
Rubio also took issue with the White House drafting immigration legislation without input from Republican lawmakers. “President Obama’s leaked immigration proposal is disappointing to those of us working on a serious solution. The president’s bill repeats the failures of past legislation,” he said.
So what is the White House really trying to accomplish by leaking this proposal? For one, this move could suggest that the president is dead set against letting Rubio, the rising star of the GOP, be the face of immigration reform and wants to direct the conversation instead.
But the reversal of his hands-off approach could also mean he doesn’t want reform to happen just yet. Breitbart’s Joel Pollak weighs in:
Skeptics, however, continued to believe Obama would attempt to ensure that immigration reform would not pass, in order to continue using it as a political tool to drive Latino voters to the polls. That skepticism was reinforced by the fact that Obama had previously promised several times to take action on immigration reform without actually doing so.Now, Obama’s reversal on allowing the bipartisan negotiations to take their course, and his proposal for legislation whose policies are objectionable to the GOP, is a sign that he may prefer defeat to passage, at least until the 2014 midterm elections.
As NRO's Robert Costa noted in a tweet, "If reform is starting to die, defining who killed it will be impt to both sides."
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2013/02/17/rubio-leaked-wh-immigration-proposal-dead-on-arrival-n1514421
McCain: Obama Hasn't Spoken to GOP on Immigration
Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/McCain-Obama-GOP-Immigration/2013/02/17/id/490733#ixzz2LDGi6tNm
McCain: Obama Hasn't Spoken to GOP on Immigration
Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/McCain-Obama-GOP-Immigration/2013/02/17/id/490733#ixzz2LDGi6tNm
Rubio's awesome, isn't he? He sees an incomplete draft of a plan, says that it doesn't cover everything and would be "dead on arrival."
ReplyDeleteWe should probably ignore him claiming that the GOP isn't obstructionist, right? Just the same way that we're supposed to ignore the fact that this plan is pretty much identical to things that he already suggested.
And it makes him sad that the President is drafting plans without the input of the opposition party, like every other president since Washington was sworn in? He's not very good at this whole "politics" thing, is he?
My point is they are working together and then Obama is acting as if its way or the highway. Give them a chance. If I remember the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 with Reagan went through but we never got the boarder security that we need. Rubio and the Others want better boarder security with the bill, but the way it looks Obama don't give a shit about that part. I know quit a few legal Immigrants that went through the proper channels to get here and it would not be fare to them to force these people through quickly. I don't look at it just about Rubio, its the Group that came up with the plan.
ReplyDeleteNo, that would be the point. They are not working together. The GOP is continuing to do nothing but obstruct everything that the Democrats attempt to accomplish, even if it's something formerly championed by those very Republicans.
ReplyDeleteCase in point: immigration reform. Under Bush, it was a wonderful idea, with support from people like Lindsay Graham, John McCain, and Mitch McConnell. But it eventually failed. Now, it comes up again under Obama, with many of the same provisions, and how do those same policians react?
Yeah, right. It's all Obama's fault, for wanting the Congressional Republicans to actually do something for once.