The Huffington Post | By Sabrina Siddiqui Posted: 11/06/2013 4:16 pm EST | Updated: 11/06/2013 4:54 pm EST
WASHINGTON
-- New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's landslide reelection has led some
observers to declare him all but certain to seize the GOP presidential
nomination in 2016. But Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), another likely
Republican contender for president, on Wednesday cautioned against
jumping to conclusions about the significance of Christie's victory.
"I
think we need to understand that some of these races don't apply to
future races. Every race is different -- it has a different set of
factors -- but I congratulate [Christie] on his win," Rubio told CNN's Dana Bash.
"Clearly
[Christie] was able to speak to the hopes and aspirations of people
within New Jersey. That's important," he added. "We want to win
everywhere and Governor Christie has certainly shown he has a way of
winning in New Jersey, in states like New Jersey ... so I congratulate
him on that."
But Rubio stressed that New Jersey, a decisively
blue state, has its own distinctive traits and a race in the Garden
State wouldn't play out the same as it would elsewhere.
Barack and Michelle Obama at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute gala in 2011. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)Updated, 3:50 p.m.
The biggest obstacle facing immigration reform may be not opposition
but inertia. Leaders of the House of Representatives have said they
plan to act, but with the coming months likely to be consumed by budget
drama, immigration could fall by the wayside.
If
that happens, advocates of immigration reform have another idea:
They’ll push Obama to press the button on the immigration-reform nuclear
option.
The option commonly referred to by immigration
reformers as “Plan B” would see the president take executive action to
prevent undocumented immigrants from being deported -- along the lines
of the deferred-action program the administration created for “Dreamers”
last year. It wouldn’t be a panacea, and it wouldn’t give them
citizenship. But such an action could at least spare some from the
constant threat of deportation. And perhaps just as important, it could
exact major political revenge on Republicans, galvanizing the Hispanic
electorate against them and further hurting their image with the
fastest-growing segment of voters.
The idea gained some prominence earlier this month, when Republican Senator Marco Rubio mentioned it in a talk-radio interview:
“I believe that this president will be tempted, if nothing happens in
Congress, to issue an executive order as he did for the Dream Act kids a
year ago, where he basically legalizes 11 million people by the sign of
a pen,” Rubio said.
Opponents of immigration reform howled that Rubio’s implied threat was a form of blackmail.
But that’s exactly how reformers see the executive-order possibility --
as the potential penalty if Congress does nothing. And as the
legislation’s congressional prospects get ever dimmer, the buzz about
Plan B gets louder. "Some people feel like we need to cut our losses,
legalize as many people as we can," Juanita Molina of Humane Borders
recently told National Journal.
Richard Morales, director of deportation prevention for the PICO National Network,
confirmed that activists are prepared to turn their sights on the White
House. “Organizers think long term, so they know that legislation is
one way, but that DACA” -- the June 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrivals program -- “has proven that the administration can provide
another way,” he told me in an email. The faith-based network’s
“targeted deportation actions” highlighting the plight of individuals
have already gotten five undocumented immigrants released from detention
or spared deportation.
The Washington Post’s Brad Plumer recently examined the potential mechanics of a broad executive action halting deportations. A large number of legal experts endorsed DACA, though some conservatives argue it was unconstitutional.
Depending on the extent of a broader action, a similar rationale --
assigning certain cases lower-priority status based on prosecutorial
discretion -- could apply, but it would only give the undocumented a
temporary reprieve and the ability to work legally, not permanent
residency or citizenship.
Immigration advocates claim 'resounding win' in quiet August
By Russell Berman - 08/29/13 01:46 PM ET
Advocates
for comprehensive immigration reform are claiming victory in the August
recess. Their argument? They won because they didn’t lose.
With
legislation stalled in the Republican-controlled House, the push to
overhaul the immigration system has not dominated the national headlines
or evening news during the four weeks that Congress has been taking its
annual summer vacation.
Proponents
of reform say they entered the recess worried that foes of the effort
would flood town-hall meetings and stage large rallies, in a repeat of
the Tea Party uprising that threw the push for healthcare reform off
track in the summer of 2009.Despite efforts by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa)
and others, that dynamic hasn’t materialized.
“What’s more
important than what we have seen is what we haven’t seen,” said Jeremy
Robbins, director of the Partnership for a New American Economy, a group
co-founded by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg that is advocating for
immigration reform. “August was a resounding win for us.”
The
conservative activist Grover Norquist, who is pushing for immigration
reform, also cited the lack of major opposition as the dog that didn’t
bark in August. “There’s nothing like that,” he told The Hill on
Tuesday. “The anti-immigrant stuff is an inch deep and a mile wide.”
At the same time, the modest rallies in favor of reform have fallen short of a groundswell of support.
Advocates
say they did not plan their own large-scale rallies but targeted their
efforts to individual congressional districts, and they cited
endorsements of a path to citizenship by a number of House Republicans
as evidence of their success.
“We never approached August with the
idea were going to move 100 House Republicans into the yes column,”
said Tom Snyder, who is managing the AFL-CIO’s campaign for legislation
that includes a path to citizenship.
In
a vote hailed by US President Barack Obama, the Senate passed a
comprehensive immigration reform on Thursday that would help 11 million
people gain citizenship, but is expected to be blocked by the
Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
The U.S. Senate approved a landmark immigration
bill on Thursday that would provide millions of undocumented immigrants
a chance to become citizens, but the leader of the House of
Representatives said the measure was dead on arrival in the House.
In
a rare show of bipartisanship, the Democratic-controlled Senate passed
the bill by a vote of 68-32, with 14 of the Senate’s 46 Republicans
joining all 52 Democrats and two independents in support of the bill.
But
any air of celebration was tempered by House Speaker John Boehner, who
hours before the vote emphasized that Republicans would “do our own
bill,” one that “reflects the will of our majority,” many of whom oppose
citizenship for immigrants who are in the United States illegally.
Any
bill in the Republican-controlled House is expected to focus heavily on
border security and finding immigrants who have overstayed their visas.
“Immigration reform has to be grounded in real border security,” Boehner said.
Republican
divisions over immigration were evident throughout the U.S. Capitol.
While Boehner was putting the brakes on the Senate bill, Republican
Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, a possible 2016 presidential candidate,
delivered a passionate speech urging passage of the measure that he
helped write.
After recounting his parents’ difficult lives in
Cuba and their struggles after immigrating to the United States, Rubio
said: “For over 200 years now, they (immigrants) have come; in search of
liberty and freedom, for sure. But often simply looking for jobs to
feed their kids and the chance of a better life.”
At the end of
the Senate debate, a packed gallery of supporters, who have labored
decades for such a moment, witnessed the vote that came after three
weeks of sometimes heated discussion. More than 100 children of illegal
immigrants who were brought to the United States by their parents hugged
each other when the bill passed.
President Barack Obama, praising
the bill, said it contained tough border security requirements and
“earned citizenship” for about 11 million undocumented residents.
“Today, the Senate did its job. It’s now up to the House to do the same,” Obama said in a statement.
Mexico’s
Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the Senate bill “has the
potential to improve the lives of millions of Mexicans living in the
United States today.”
The Senate vote came after several
unsuccessful attempts in the past decade or so to overhaul a U.S.
immigration law enacted in 1986. The goal has been to improve an
outdated visa system and help U.S. firms get easier access to foreign
labor ranging from farm and construction workers to high-skilled
employees.
Business and labor groups reached a deal on the new
visa system, which is part of the Senate bill. But controversy raged
over how much new border security was needed and how long the 11 million
should wait before becoming legal residents and then citizens.
PHILADELPHIA (CBS)
– The immigration reform bill sailed through the United States Senate
yesterday, offering hope of citizenship to millions of undocumented
immigrants across the country (see related story). Local advocates are a little nervous as the bill gears up to move into the House.
“It’s a little bit of a bitter sweet pill I think right now,” says Erika Almiron, executive director of Juntos.
She says the community is happy the bill is moving forward, but afraid
that if it ever passes the United States House it won’t resemble the
Gang of 8 proposal originally lauded by immigration reform advocates.
“We see these concessions happening around this bill, so it just raises our concern as we move into the House,” she says.
Concessions
like adding tens of billions of dollars for stepped up border security
and adding more red tape to the path to citizenship. Natasha Kelemen of
the Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition says the only recourse is to continue to push lawmakers.
