Rep. Labrador Leaves House Amnesty Group

Citizenship Path Splits GOP

“Long after dozens of his fellow Republican lawmakers had filed out of room HC-5 in the basement of the U.S. Capitol, Rep. Steve King of Iowa emerged, red in the face and agitated. “I feel like Rumpelstiltskin,” King said, apparently thinking of Rip Van Winkle. “I went to sleep last year before the election believing that all my colleagues believed in the rule of law, and opposed amnesty, and understood the impact of amnesty. And then I woke up the morning after the election and they believed something different,'” National Journal reports.

“The Republican Study Committee’s closed-door immigration meeting on Wednesday made one thing clear. On two of the three central missions that define comprehensive reform efforts—enhancing border enforcement and improving the legal immigration system—Republicans are largely on the same page. But when it comes to dealing with the millions of immigrants already living in the U.S. illegally, there remains a persistent—and intense—disagreement within the GOP.”

Navarrette: Rubio’s Wild Immigration Ride

“Former Wyoming Sen. Al Simpson knows a thing or two about passing landmark immigration reform. My friend and former graduate school professor did it in 1986 with the Immigration Reform and Control Act, which he co-authored with former Rep. Romano Mazzoli.
Simpson knows that the endeavor is not for the faint of heart, or the thin-skinned or the easily disillusioned. It means navigating one of the wackiest and wickedest debates in our public discourse. The immigration debate, he likes to say, is filled with ’emotion, fear, guilt and racism,'” says Ruben Navarrette Jr.

“Schumer predicted Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that a bill could pass by the Fourth of July and that he is shooting for 70 votes, which he thought he could get, including a majority of Republicans. Don’t believe it. I’ve followed Schumer’s approach to the immigration issue for many years, and most of what he says on the subject is a falsehood, a fraud or a fairy tale.”

Rep. Labrador Leaves House Amnesty Group

“A bipartisan House immigration group has lost one of its eight members, as conservative Rep. Raúl Labrador (R-Idaho) informed colleagues Wednesday that he could not sign on to legislation the group hopes to release in the coming weeks.
Labrador told reporters after an hour-long meeting that he was leaving the group because of concerns that the bill would not sufficiently protect taxpayers from footing the healthcare bill of undocumented immigrants,” The Hill reports.

“‘It bothers me that they don’t have to pay for their own healthcare,’ he said Wednesday. ‘I believe they should have to pay for their own health insurance. If they’re going to have the benefit of living in the United States – which is a privilege, it’s not a right – they should provide their own health insurance.'”

Rubio Says Bill Must Change to Get Passage

“Speaking after a meeting with a group of House conservatives Wednesday, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida continued to voice support for immigration reform legislation, but distanced himself from the Senate proposal he helped craft with the bipartisan ‘gang of eight,'” CNN reported.

“Rubio was asked about his comments on a conservative radio show earlier in the day that he may vote against the Senate bill if the changes he wants don’t pass. He didn’t tell reporters on Capitol Hill he would vote against it, but did say, ‘If the changes don’t happen, the bill can’t pass. We’ll keep working. We won’t abandon the effort, we’ll keep working to ensure that we have a bill that can pass.'”

“Republicans’ concerns, Rubio said, center on border security and the bill’s cost. Republicans are ‘generally prepared to do immigration reform so long as we can ensure that it doesn’t cost the taxpayer money, and so long as we can ensure that there isn’t another wave of illegal immigration in the future,’ Rubio said. ‘So that’s what we’re going to have to focus on, is winning peoples’ confidence that that’s what the bill will do.'”