Appearing on Sean Hannity’s radio show earlier this week, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) stated: I think the reason that President Obama is insisting on a path to citizenship is that it is designed to be a poison pill to scuttle the whole bill, so he can have a political... Continue »
The momentum of immigration reform this year, the broad agreement to start discussing immigrants as—you know—people, and years-long campaigns to push the public to “Drop the I-Word” had a huge victory yesterday, when the Associated Press announced that they no longer recommend that journalists use the term “illegal immigrant”... Continue »
PolitiFact: What is ‘a pathway to citizenship’? By Molly Moorhead Bloomberg: Obama Labor Pick’s Immigration Advocacy Tests Republicans By Laura Litvan Voices of NY: With Immigration Reform Looming, Undocumented Save Money, Pay Taxes New York Times: House Immigration Bill Is Said to Offer 3 Paths By Ashley Parker Associated... Continue »
Yesterday, TPM’s Benjy Sarlin took a closer look at Senator Marco Rubio’s latest delaying tactic on immigration: You’d expect Sen. Marco Rubio to be elated by the news over the weekend that labor and business groups reached a deal on a guest worker program, given that he’d identified their... Continue »
Two Republican Senators playing influential roles in the immigration debate are demonstrating contrasting profiles in leadership this week.  Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who is up for re-election in 2014 in one of the most conservative states in the nation, responded to the possibility of ads being run against him... Continue »
When it comes to immigration reform, Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida has a problem. In Spanish we’d say “quiere quedar bien con Dios y con el Diablo”—he wants to get along with God and the Devil. In other words, he’s trying to have it both ways. This past... Continue »
Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) has joined the likes of Jeff Sessions, Chuck Grassley, John Cornyn, and Donald Trump (!) in the “slow down” caucus, last weekend petitioning Chairman of the Judiciary Committee Pat Leahy to hold more hearings, etc., before pressing forward on immigration reform.  While the rest of the “slow... Continue »
Last weekend, Marco Rubio joined the chorus of Senate Republicans asking Patrick Leahy to slow down immigration reform, leading commentators and advocates alike to slam Rubio for trying to halt the gears on immigration.  At a time when the moment seems so ripe for reform, we must ask Rubio–a... Continue »
No April Fools’ joke.  At Talking Points Memo today is a great story about odd allies—and the friendship between undocumented activist extraordinaire Jose Antonio Vargas and founder of the Tea Party Patriots Mark Meckler.  Vargas is the gay Pulitzer Prize-winning immigrant who first outed himself to the New York... Continue »
  This weekend, the AFL-CIO and the US Chamber of Commerce agreed to a guest worker visa program, a major breakthrough in one of the biggest hurdles to immigration reform legislation.  The agreement means that the “all major policy issues” have been resolved in the run-up to legislation.  As... Continue »