Landscape shifts on immigration
By Alexander Bolton
From The Hill
A bipartisan group of senators on Monday said the political landscape for immigration reform has changed, boosting their hopes for passing a bill.
Recent elections have changed his party’s view on immigration, said Sen. John McCain, a Republican from Arizona who led an unsuccessful push to reform the nation’s immigration laws in 2006 and 2007.
McCain said his party’s leaders and strategists are convinced they need to agree to some measure of reform to boost the party’s image among Hispanic voters, who voted overwhelmingly for President Obama in November.
“As I’ve stated before, elections, elections,” said McCain, who along with seven colleagues spoke out at a Monday afternoon Capitol Hill press conference about a set of bipartisan principles for reform they had released a day earlier.
“The Republican Party is losing the support of our Hispanic citizens and we realize there are many issues in which we think we are in agreement with our Hispanic citizens but this is a preeminent issue for those citizens,” said McCain, his party’s standard-bearer in the 2008 presidential election.
“We cannot continue as a nation with 11 million people residing in the shadows and we have to address the issue and it has to be done in a bipartisan fashion,” McCain said.
McCain’s point was underscored by Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) participation in the bipartisan Senate group. Rubio is seen as a leading contender for his party’s presidential nomination in 2016, and his endorsement of the proposals gives the group some cover from conservative criticism.
The four principles unveiled late Sunday include granting temporary legal status and creating a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, increasing visas for skilled workers, establishing an employer verification program and setting up a guest worker program for jobs that cannot be filled by American citizens.
They stem from negotiations Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Judiciary immigration subcommittee, kick-started with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) after the election. Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) have endorsed it.
“The public’s attitude has changed in four years,” said Schumer. “Now they much prefer a comprehensive solution including a path to citizenship as well as fixing the border and doing the things we talked about.
“The public is yearning for real change now,” he said.
The White House on Monday welcomed the principles, with press secretary Jay Carney describing the group’s endorsement of a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants as “a big deal.”
While Schumer and McCain said the landscape on immigration reform had shifted, signs of the difficult debate ahead appeared throughout the day.
Shortly after their press conference, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, and Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) criticized the Senate group’s proposal.
Sessions compared the latest framework to the 1986 immigration law that granted legal residency to millions of illegal immigrants with the pledge the nation’s borders would be secured.
“That was the promise that was made in 1986 when the bill did pass. But it did not fulfill its promise,” Sessions said.
“So once again, I think that we’re in a situation where the promise will be made, that people will be given immediate regularized status and they won’t be given full rights of citizenship until certain laws are enforced and don’t worry about it,” he added. “But questions do need to be asked and we will ask those questions.”
Vitter said he is also skeptical of the bipartisan principles presented Monday by McCain, Schumer, Rubio, Durbin and Menendez.
“What heightens my concern is that we have history as a guide is that we have history as a guide and history suggests this brand of so-called comprehensive immigration reform, this promise of enforcement as long as we have an amnesty, all those things put together is a recipe for failure,” Vitter said.
