Congressman Paul Ryan talked with Bill Bennett on Wednesday morning. I think this interview was actually pretty thorough and Paul Ryan was definitely on top of his game. Listen to them discuss the Senate immigration bill, energy policy and upcoming budget issues.
What are your thoughts? Do you have the magic solution to immigration and the changing demographics of America? Share them with us here, or Tweet us.
Today, Newt Gingrich published this very good op-ed on the immigration debate. I felt this was worth sharing in its entirety because of its depth.
Campaigning for president last year included the opportunity to participate in a number of memorable televised debates.
As I think about what the Republican Party must do to rebuild, a particular set of exchanges from these debates stick out as a lesson.
We, the candidates, were asked repeatedly what we would do with the 12 million illegal immigrants currently in the United States, “many of whom have been in this country a long time.”
I always laid out two critical pieces of any immigration solution: the urgent need to secure the border, and the creation of a guest worker program.
But it was also important to answer the real question with intellectual honesty.
There are 12 million people in this country who have come here illegally. It wasn’t our choice for this to happen, but their presence is a fact. So we must decide: Are we really going to deport all 12 million people, many of whom have deep ties here?
My position was that people who have come here recently, have no ties to this country, should go home. But the-size-fits-all deportation of 12 million people, without regard to their circumstances, would constitute a level of inhumanity the American people would never accept.
As I said in a Florida debate, “We as a nation are not going to walk into some family…and grab a grandmother out and then kick them out.”
In response to this call for discretion and humanity, while at the same time enforcing the law, several other candidates — including our party’s eventual nominee — had repeatedly accused me of amnesty.
At an earlier debate Governor Romney replied to my suggestion by saying, in essence, “Amnesty is a magnet…people respond to incentives. And if you can become a permanent resident of the United States by coming here illegally, you’ll do so.”
The Democratic National Committee actually cut an attack ad against Romney based on this very exchange, which you can see here.
The ad below was produced by the Democratic National Committee
It is difficult to understand how someone running for President of the United States, a country with more than 50 million Hispanic citizens, could fail to acknowledge that the American people should not take grandmothers who have been here 25 years, have deep family and community ties — and forcibly expel them.
When asked in a Florida debate if, in light of his criticism, his own immigration proposal would round up 12 million people and deport them, he replied, “Well, the answer is self-deportation.”
And we wonder why the Republican Party achieved historically low levels of support among Latinos in 2012?
As we study what happened last year, we’ve discovered the data support the intuition that this rhetoric can kill the Republican Party among Latinos.
An August 2011 Univision National Poll in collaboration with the Mellman Group and the Tarrance Group found that only about a third of likely Hispanic voters had an unfavorable impression of Governor Romney. Roughly a fifth had a favorable impression, a quarter weren’t sure, and the rest had never heard of him.
The poll showed that 41 percent of likely Hispanic voters were still persuadable — they were weak Obama supporters, or they were undecided or favored Romney. There was opportunity for Republicans.
An election eve poll of Latino voters found that a year later, only 14 percent thought Governor Romney “truly cares about Latinos.” 56 percent said he “does not care about Latinos,” and 18 percent said he is “hostile toward Latinos.” 66 percent, meanwhile, said President Obama “truly cares.”
When asked about Governor Romney’s statements on immigration, including specifically his claim that illegal immigrants would “self-deport,” 57 percent of Latino voters said it made them less enthusiastic about him. Only 7 percent said it made them more enthusiastic, meaning on that issue he was underwater by 50 points.
He went on to be defeated by wide margins among Latino voters.
In fact, if he had won even 36 percent of them, Governor Romney would be President Romney today.
I do not write this to single out Mitt Romney. He worked hard for a long time and his campaign was up against skilled opponents. But the sad fact is that the Republican Party for too long has failed to communicate to Latino Americans a positive vision for the future. Our slide among Asian Americans has been in the works for a generation.
I write this because as the current immigration debate heats up it is critical for us to recognize that words and attitudes really matter. Understanding what people hear matters. We may not mean to say what people hear we say. After decades in politics this is a lesson I have learned the hard way.
As a party, we simply cannot continue with immigration rhetoric that in 2012 became catastrophic — in large part because it was not grounded in reality.
Senator Marco Rubio has done an important service cutting through some of the baloney with the observation that what we have now is de facto amnesty. It is reality. The 12 million people are here, living and working. Many of them are bound together by the web of human relations — family, friends, neighbors — and the American people will not support mass deportation.
That is the reality — the starting point of the debate about what we, as a country, should do.
This does not mean we as Republicans should give up on our principles, or on the priority of securing the border.
It means we must recognize, as I tried to do in that primary debate, that politics is always an intersection of principles and people.
A party that appears to ignore people won’t get the chance to make the case for its principles — any of them.
You can sign-up for Newt’s emails directly.
US Senator Marco Rubio has written this op-ed for La Opinion. The op-ed was originally written in Spanish, and I have used a “translate” option in order to post this here. So, you will have to excuse what appear to be errors, blame it on the software translation.
Guest column
As a nation founded, built and made exceptional by immigrants and their descendants, Americans have a special appreciation for how important immigration has been throughout our history and recognize it as an indispensable part of our future.
In return, Americans have been welcoming of immigrants than any other nation. With more than 1 million people coming here legally every year to stay permanently, no other country even comes close.
Unfortunately, our immigration system is broken, and our dysfunctional Congress has been unable to launch a new legal immigration system that honors our heritage as a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws.
To accomplish this, we need to address three key areas: modernizing the legal immigration system, implementing real and effective mechanisms of enforcement, and create a human process and responsible for dealing with the 11 million undocumented immigrants, a process not be unfair to those who are waiting to get on the right track and that it encourages illegal immigration in the future.
First, we need a modern legal immigration system with implementation and enforcement of the law, which is based on cutting-edge technology to simplify the process to come and stay here legally. We need a guest worker program that allows us to bring agricultural workers both temporary and long-term to provide our farms, dairies, and other agricultural industries the number of workers needed.
Also we can not have a system that allows only get about 6.5 percent of our immigrants based on knowledge. We need visa programs to attract and retain more entrepreneurs, investors and highly skilled in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. It makes no sense to educate and train these talented individuals in our universities and then send them back to their countries.
None of this should lead us to abandon or weaken immigration based on family. This is how my parents came legally to the United States, and as a lot of new Americans join our society every year.Family unification should remain a high priority, together with interest and economic needs of the nation.
If we fail to do this with the modernization of our immigration system, then no matter what we do with those who are here now, we will be back with millions of undocumented people in the future.
In addition to modernizing our legal immigration system, a second major area of focus is to improve our ability to enforce our laws. In no nation on earth should be expected to ignore immigration laws, and we can not ignore. We achieve substantial progress for operational control of our borders, create an effective mechanism of enforcement in the workplace and find a way to ensure that visitors to our nation out of our country when they are supposed to do .
The third key area is not easy, how to treat undocumented immigrants already here. Like most Americans, I am concerned that we have millions of undocumented immigrants in the United States.
For those who have committed serious crimes in the United States, should be found, arrested and deported.
But most people who are undocumented are not dangerous criminals, but they are not victims.Knowingly violated our immigration laws and have no legal right to remain here. But they are also human beings, who took these decisions in pursuit of a dream that we would recognize as the American dream.
The best for our country is to address this problem in human form but responsible. One way to ensure this never happens again. This is not against the person who has the “right” to come and stay here illegally, but with or without documents, most of them are here to stay.
Can not round up 11 million people and deport them. Nor can we fix our broken immigration system if we continue to offer incentives for people to come here illegally – which is precisely the signal it would send a general amnesty or special new ways to gain citizenship.
But if we modernize our legal immigration system, secure the border and create an effective system of enforcement in the workplace, we can find a solution that protects our right to have our laws are respected in the future and that is fair for those who have come here the right way.
The first step should be to require that those who have not committed any serious crimes and have been assimilated into American culture, they have the opportunity to apply for nonimmigrant status temporarily. To receive this status will have to emerge from the shadows, admit having acted against the law, submit to a background check, pay taxes and a meaningful penalty for breaking our laws.And to maintain this status, should be kept clean criminal record, providing services to the community and demonstrate a command of the English language and U.S. civics.
In addition, they may not receive social assistance benefits, student aid or other federal public assistance we provide to legal immigrants.
They will have to remain in this status of nonimmigrant temporary for a significant period of time. But ultimately, it is a good idea to have millions of people trapped in a permanent immigration status is keeping them away from our society. Therefore, if and when our new measures of enforcement are working legally – should be allowed to apply for permanent status, not through a special path, but through the legal immigration process we imagine new and modernized. This means you will have to wait behind all those who applied before them legally. And when his turn comes, must meet the conditions of any visa request.
This will not be an easy road. In fact, it will be longer and more difficult than if they had chosen to respect our laws first. But legally allowed to live here, work and pay taxes while they wait.
In the past, efforts to accommodate illegal immigrants because the measures have failed to implement the law were never implemented. That is why this option to apply for a green card and get in line should not be available until it is certified that significant progress has been made to control the border and the federal government has implemented a workable employment verification and a system to ensure that our visitors do not stay longer than welcoming with their visas expired.
This is a good common sense approach will have enough support from across the political spectrum, because both parties would like to have a makeover. For those concerned about illegal immigration, what we have now is a de facto amnesty. For those seeking help undocumented families remain separated by deportations, while politicians are still arguing and trying to impress each other.
My hope is that President Obama will use his voice and influence to promote this measure. However, if what you offer is a process for undocumented immigrants to be more forgiving and faster than even most of the advocacy groups are calling for immigrant rights, that does not bode well for reform. It will be a clear sign that, instead of passing a law, he is more interested in a political victory that benefits Democrats. For the sake of our country and the millions of people affected by our broken immigration system, I hope the President show that is so serious about the problem as many of my colleagues and myself.
– – –
What are your thoughts on what Senator Rubio had to offer? Leave a comment or Tweet us @GPHconsulting.
American Renaissance Political Consulting Group 