Everyone is waiting for Sen. Marco Rubio’s immigration plan. (Photo by Gage Skidmore.)
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-FL, has been making it known that he is taking on the herculean task of drafting comprehensive immigration reform. His plans could not come a moment too soon as the right and left look to Rubio for the next step.
This week, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Goldwater Institute VP Clint Bolick wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal calling for immediate, sweeping changes to the country’s immigration laws.
Some policy makers are calling for piecemeal changes—such as issuing visas for high-skilled workers and investors, or conferring legal status on immigrants who were illegally brought into the country as children. Congress should avoid such quick fixes and commit itself instead to comprehensive immigration reform.
In some conservative circles, the word “comprehensive” in the context of immigration reform is an epithet—a code word for amnesty. People who oppose such reform declare that securing the United States border must come before moving toward broader reform.
Such an approach is shortsighted and self-defeating. Border security is inextricably intertwined with other aspects of immigration policy. The best way to prevent illegal immigration is to make sure that we have a fair and workable system of legal immigration. The current immigration system is neither.
Bush and Bolick insisted that Democrats and Republicans need to talk about many issues neither party wants to face. Among them: the fact that ”it is not law enforcement but the law itself that is broken, the U.S. needs workers of all types, the driver of immigration policy is ‘chain migration,’ and amnesty promotes illegal immigration.”
So far, the only person that has raised a hand to take on this task has been Rubio. And everyone else is waiting.
Bush has been a longtime supporter of Rubio’s plan and has shown interest in what Rubio eventually takes to Congress.
This week, White Press Secretary Jay Carney was asked whether the president was looking to work with Rubio on immigration reform. Carney said that he hadn’t seen Rubio’s full plan yet, but was interested in his ideas.
According to a transcript from The Tampa Bay Times, Carney told a reporter:
The President looks forward to working with Congress, members of both parties. He has always said that this is the kind of thing that has to be bipartisan and has in the past enjoyed bipartisan support from Republican leaders as well as rank-and-file senators and members of Congress.
President George W. Bush, as you know, was a strong proponent of comprehensive immigration reform, as was Senator McCain. And the President looks forward to working with Republicans and Democrats in achieving comprehensive immigration reform. He does absolutely believe that we need to do this in a comprehensive way, that that’s the appropriate way to move forward to ensure that we put in place the kind of comprehensive reform that achieves all the goals that are necessary here.
So far, only parts of Rubio’s immigration plans have trickled out.
The New York Times was able to chat with Rubio about his plan. Here are some of the things that Rubio’s plan tackles:
- “A nationwide exit system to check foreigners out of the country, to confirm that they left before their visas expired.”
- “A nationwide program for employers to verify the legal authorization of new workers.”
- “His plan would give a temporary “nonimmigrant visa” to illegal immigrants, which would allow them to remain and work in the United States. They would have to wait a “significant but reasonable” period of time before they could apply to become legal permanent residents, going to the back of the line in the existing system. Once they became residents, they could go on like other legal immigrants to naturalize as citizens.”
The Times also reported that ”Rubio’s principles did not sound very different from outlines for an overhaul that President Obama has offered.”
Rubio plans to release his proposal before the president’s State of the Union address.
IF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE DON’T SPEAK UP NEXT MONDAY, THEN THEY DESERVE WHAT THEY GET FROM THE OPEN BORDER ORGANIZATIONS? THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER MUST SPEAK OUT AGAINST ANOTHER POTENTIAL PATH TO CITIZENSHIP. CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES IN WASHINGTON AND “WARN THEM”, EITHER IN THE SENATE OR HOUSE OR LOSE BIG TIME IN MORE TAXES, SPENDING TO ACCOMMODATE ILLEGAL ALIENS HERE AND THOSE WHO WILL TURN UP LIKE A TARNISHED PENNY.
THE MAJORITY OF ILLEGAL ALIENS ARE ALREADY WELL VERSED IN HOW TO BEAT THE ENTITLEMENT SYSTEM. IT SHOULDN’T SURPRISE YOU TO KNOW, THAT MY COMMENTARY WILL NOT BE FOUND IN MANY DIE HARD LIBERAL MEDIA AS THEY DELETE MY FACTS, SO THEIR READERSHIP CANNOT FIND OUT THE REALITY OF THEIR LIES AND RHETORIC?
Of course President Obama is going to Nevada to debate Illegal Immigration, as the state is snowed under with illegal aliens. Thousands of them voted in the general election for President, as well as many of the 50 States in the clutches of Liberal assemblies. I just hope the Congress knows they are committing self inflicted Hari-Kari, if they presumed to know what the taxpayers want..? Only the ‘Deadbeats” don’t care as they are not paying a nickel into the federal and state tax pool, as they live like parasites of the people who have jobs, same as the illegal alien parents who have smuggled their offspring here and then apply for welfare for all their 6 kids, free schooling, health care and a lump sum of benefit money. Adds up to a nice tidy sum, which goes towards the underground job their relatives have marshaled them into? For me an Independent voter, that only the TEA PARTY makes sense and can return America to country it once was? Also don’t trust the mainstream press polls, as I am sure that they are fixed or at least engineered for positive results. The only one that can be trusted forthwith is the Rasmussen polls, as far as I am concerned. My personal poll is the thousands of comments in the newspapers—rural and national press—that gives a good indicator of what people are thinking; they are angry and frustrated with Washington issues, especially Immigration. If politicians want to comprehend the thought process of the average American; people believe that the Congress is pandering to the invaders from other countries.
The only way that I see to clean up the pandemonium called Immigration enforcement, is a strict and 100 percent mandatory E-Verify? A mandatory E-Verify, perhaps even run by a security company or a charge card company as Visa or Master card and not lax government employees? Spend the money and make it as foolproof as possible and use whatever resources are available. If the U.S. government can make vehicular unmanned probes that can detect a license plate from thousands of feet above us, they can surely build computer software that can detect illegal aliens in jobs meant for Americans and legal residents? E-Verify has expanded its information sources to include State driver’s license records, which strengthens the veracity of the program. Florida and Tennessee initiated this innovation allowing USCIS to collect data using their vehicle agencies for worker discrepancies. It is pastime that the Congress enact Lamar Smith’s “THE LEGAL WORKFORCE BILL” R-Texas) bill to (Phone: 202-225-4236), as proposed will make E-Verify a mandatory law and will no longer be voluntary. America has come to this paramount point, because of years of corruption by both parties.
An estimated 23 million Americans are still jobless, in part time work or just gave up looking, while millions of illegal aliens still have jobs. This is very sinister situation and those responsible should be held accountable, but never are? With President Obama’s ultimatum of another path to citizenship, we could be seeing a repeat of the rampant fraud that existed in the 1986 Amnesty. Like a giant magnet millions of more foreign nationals outside the United States are going to try and break into our sovereign nation. Illegal aliens will funnel somewhere along the border regions or by lying to the Embassy staff in foreign countries to obtain a visa as a tourist. Before any new Comprehensive Immigration Reform we must secure our borders, constructing the two fences to the former plan of President Bush, the 2006 Secure Fence Act.
Lastly, the second bill that must be passed is Steve Kings (R-Iowa) THE BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP AMENDMENT (H.R. 140). Contact his main Washington office at (Phone: 202.225.4426) or his subsidiary offices in Iowa. The Birthright Citizenship bill will bring to an end the “Anchor Baby” legal-corruption, meant for the past generation of slaves. By passing this law, we can stop any more DREAMERS’ ACT or sponsorship of family members who arrive here under CHAIN MIGRATION. There is no real statistics on the cost, but smuggling young children or unborn into the U.S. pays off for the illegal alien parents, in hundreds of billions of dollars a year—and over decades TRILLIONS OF TAX DOLLARS, including child tax refunds that should never paid in the first place. The IRS has turned a blind eye to this robbery of more taxpayer’s money. These two laws should be strongly endorsed right now, to eradicate the corruption in high positions. The insistence from lobbyists that our politicians should not pass these laws, as it would cut into the incredible profits of corporations and businesses, large and small. That is why the 1986 Amnesty became a terrible mess, because millions of foreigners poured into our country as soon as President Reagan signed the bill.
Least we not forget that Obama’s people passed the Affordable Care Act, which has endless possibilities for illegal aliens. Supposedly foreign nationals cannot apply for ObamaCare, but I know as well as millions of TEA Party members and a large proportion of average Americans that a loophole will materialize or using procured Social Security numbers or feeder identification that in the endless bureaucratic chaos to follow, they will benefit from it, costing the legal population even more billions?
Even with millions of Americans jobless the labor visa program still brings into this country over a million legal immigrants a year. A limited number come under the highly skilled category of STEM workers, who are top engineers and other heavily credentialed staff for different high level jobs. But the majority comes sponsored by years of immigration corruption going back decades. Immediate family members who are sponsored eventually become the U.S. taxpayer responsibility in the majority of cases.
Go to OPENCONGRESS TO SEND FAXES OR NUMBERSUSA.
criminal legislation, with a bullshit feel-good title, “Immigration Innovation” Act of 2013, who would be against something with that name. Don’t believe the bullshit about a “shortage of tech workers”, or that “H1b’s are paid good money”, or that “every H1b worker that comes here is the next Google creator”. The real truth is that they are basically wage slaves that depress pay and take jobs directly from the American taxpayers. I’m not paying taxes and voting for representatives to fix india’s unemployment problems – and neither are you. Look at who is for this garbage bill, that should say it all right there.Take action now, and let your rep’s know that you want this put down, and that you’ll be remembering who voted for this when it’s your turn to vote. END THE CORRUPT H1B PROGRAM NOW !!!!