by Matthew Hay Brown
A day after Congressional Hispanic Caucus members blasted Democratic leaders for failing to take on comprehensive immigration reform, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she appreciates their frustration.
"I am frustrated, too," the California Democrat told reporters today. "And as I have said since the day we took over here, we're not going to have an immigration bill unless the president takes the lead on it. There is no way to have a partisan immigration bill. And we saw what happened in the Senate on it."
An immigration reform package collapsed last year in the face of Republican objections. Democrats this year have attempted to pass individual bills focusing on highly skilled and seasonal workers, but the all-Democratic Hispanic caucus has blocked what members call piecemeal legislation.
Rep. Joe Baca of Texas, the caucus chairman, called such efforts "nothing more than a Band-Aid being used to cover up a gaping wound," in comments reported by the Associated Press.
"My party wants to do what is easy, not exactly what is right," added Rep. Luis Gutierrez of Illinois. "The leaders in our party who are arguing for consideration of helping just a few immigrants are risking the future of all immigrants."
Rep. Raul Grijalva called fellow Democrats "spineless."
Supporters of expanding access to H2B visas for seasonal workers have been frustrated by what they see as obstructionism by the Hispanic caucus. A variety of seasonal businesses - ski resorts in the Rockies, crab-picking houses on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, golf courses and traveling circuses - rely on foreigners to fill temporary jobs they say Americans won't take.
Pelosi called the concerns of the Hispanic caucus "very legitimate."
"In homes across America, people's homes are getting kicked in and families are being split and so I understand their frustration with this," she said. "In order, though, to have any compromise, even something that falls short of comprehensive, which is what I support, we're going to have to have presidential cooperation and more than that, leadership.
"The principles of the Hispanic caucus are the principles of the [House Democratic] Caucus: secure our borders, enforce our laws, keep families united. Even his holiness, the holy father when he was here, Pope Benedict, spoke about unifying families. To have some kind of insistence that people who are here be here legally."
(Photo: Rep. Joe Baca.)
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Comments
How is it the American divide? We have some great workers, who are here because they had no choice. They have raised good kids, supported America and her economy. Any nation would be proud to have them as citizens, they have worked hard, followed our laws and are proud to call themselves, Americans. I don't know why it is so hard to give them the reward of citizenship, they have earned it!!! They are better Americans, than some " official " Americans!!!!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, Chicago | April 24, 2008 6:49 PM
Gee, if only there were a presidential candidate who had some spine and put his name on a comprehensive legslative package that reformed our immigration system while still providing jobs and a future here for anyone willing to work despite the political liabilities associated with it. Oh wait, there is one and his name is McCain.
Posted by: Jeff | April 24, 2008 6:56 PM
"THE BOEHNER SPEAKS"
PUT UP OR SHUT UP! GIVE MY PRESIDENT IMMUNITY, OR WE WILL CONTINUE TO VETO AMERICA TO THE BRINK OF 1936 COLO SOLO PANAMA CANAL ZONE.
PUT UP OR SHUT UP! GIVE US 11.4 MILLION "Z" PEOPLE TO PAY INTO OUR PRIVATE SOCIAL SECURITY ACCOUNTS OR WE WILL FILLIBUSTER, EVERY DOMESTIC SPENDING BILL ATTACHED TO OUR MONTHLY EMERGENCY SPENDING BILLS.
GIVE US OUR IMMUNITY, AND PROTECTION LIABILITY FROM PRISON OR THIS PRESIDENT AND ALL HIS MEN, INCLUDING ME, AND THE BLUNT HIS WIFE, HIS WIFES DEALINGS WILL RAISE THE PRICE OF WATER NEXT!
GIVE US OUR "Z" PEOPLE UNCONDITIONALLY BECAUSE THEY ARE LEAVING AND WITHOUT "CAFTA" WE AREN'T GOING TO HAVE ANY WORKERS TO WORK FOR PENNIES ON THE DOLLAR.
GIVE US OUR IMMUNITY OR WE WILL JUST "SHUT DOWN" THE SENATE LIKE HITLER DID IN 1939!
GIVE US OUR IMMUNITY AND WE WILL GIVE YOU A "Z" PATCH AND A 4.4 BILLION BORDER SECURITY ACCOUNT!
GIVE US OUR IMMUNITY NOW, OR JUST SHUT UP!
NO DON'T SHUT UP THEN WE CAN'T COMMUNICATE THEN I MIGHT GO TO JAIL WITH THE REST OF THEM.
RICK RENZI WIRETAPS ARE COMING DOWN SOON, AND WE NEED THAT IMMUNITY PROTECTION FROM LIABILITY.
PLEASE NANCY, PLEASE.
PUT UP OR SHUT UP! YOU JUST WAIT, UNTIL TOMORROW. WE WILL PUSH PUSH IN THE BUSH, LIKE IT WAS THE "HO CHI MINH TRAIL" ALL OVER AGAIN.
GIVE US IMMUNITY AND WE WILL GIVE AMERICA 11.4 MILLION "Z" PEOPLE WITH A RUDY GUILLIANI SKYWATCH PATCH! HECHO IN MEXICO!
BORN THERE TOO!
LONG LIVE NANCY PELOSI!
Posted by: Roger Morris | April 24, 2008 7:39 PM
How could Democrats be "spineless" in not pushing for "immigraion reform" if mass amnesty for illegal aliens (i.e., "immigration reform", Dem-style) is as popular as the Tribune and the Democratic Party says it is?
Posted by: Bruce | April 24, 2008 7:50 PM
Immigration has direct massive negative consequences on today's and yesterdays economy.
The pro-illegal immigrant special interests groups use the same MANTRA, as though by confusing the words is going to change the demands of the majority of logical thinking citizens and legal residents. Most national newspapers and the media, always categorizes ALL people who enter America as immigrants! There is a stark difference between those people who are inspected for contagious diseases, criminal backgrounds and have been issued a entry visa. People who ignore THE PEOPLE'S laws are illegal immigrants or illegal aliens? In most newspapers the editors have been brain-washed or lobotimised, because they refuse to illustrate the massive difference between legal and illegal.
AFTER YOU READ THIS DISTURBING REPORT, YOU EITHER DON"T CARE ABOUT YOUR NATION OR YOU EXPECT EVERYBODY ELSE TO DO THE DIRTY WORK?
Are you now living from paycheck to paycheck, wondering how your going to feed your family, making your mortgage payment.
You need to be aware of how much Uncle Sam is secretly skimming off your taxes and diverting into government freebies
for immigrants and illegal foreign nationals.
This is a document that should disturb you, because the globalist open border, free traders do not want you to see it. This is an thoroughly researched analysis of immigration costs, that the hierarchy of the U.S. government and special interests groups do not want you to read.
Now you can read the disturbing details in the new 70-page document called “The Economic and Fiscal Impact of Immigration” by Edwin S. Rubenstein (www.eagleforum.org/sources). A Manhattan Institute adjunct academic with a mile-long scholarly resume, he has been doing financial analysis ever since he directed the studies of government waste for the Grace Commission of 1984.
Keep calling your Congressmen today, toll free numbers include 18778516437 and 18662200044, or call toll 12022243121 AND REGISTER YOUR OUTRAGE at ongoing efforts to keep our country from enforcing its immigration laws!
Please copy and paste and distribute freely
Posted by: Dave | April 24, 2008 8:08 PM
It would be great if those reporters would have asked Pelosi if she has any qualms about trying to portray law enforcement as equivalent to the Gestapo.
As for McCain, his scheme was opposed by most Americans. It would make the situation worse, and it would also give more power to the Hispanic Caucus when giving more power to racial demagogues who oppose our laws is not in the national interest.
Posted by: LonewackoDotCom | April 24, 2008 8:18 PM
I am a Dem and I make note of the difference between immigrants and illegal immigrants. I really don't want people here whose first act on American soil was an illegal act. They may be nice people, however, I can't trust them bc I already know that they believe the end justifies the means--they have proved it. That is a crappy value to bring here. It does not make this a better nation. It asks us to look the other way at lawbreakers. I thought we were a nation of laws--until BushCo. What's next?
Posted by: Vivian | April 24, 2008 8:40 PM
After careful review, anyone with a even a modicum of logic can come to no other conclusion: illegal immigration must be halted, illegal immigrants here now must be deported and legal immigration needs decreased from the approx. 2 million allowed in per year currently.
Please review the following report on the FISCAL COST OF IMMIGRATION by economist Edwin Rubenstein just released this past week:
http://www.esrresearch.com/Rubensteinreport.pdf
A partial summary of the report:
The impact on 15 Federal Departments surveyed was: $346 billion in fiscal related costs in FY 2007.
Each immigrant cost taxpayers more than $9,000 per year.
An immigrant household (2 adults, 2 children) cost taxpayers $36,000 per year.
Legal immigrants were not separated out from illegal immigrants for the fiscal impact study, but if they had been, the fiscal cost per ILLEGAL immigrant would be even more shocking than the figures quoted above.
The most extensive and authoritative study, prior to economist Edwin Rubenstein's "The Fiscal Impact of Immigration" (April 2008) , is the National Research Council (NRC)’s The New Americans: Economic, Demographic and Fiscal Effects of Immigration (1997).
The NRC staff analyzed federal, state, and local government expenditures on programs such as Medicaid, AFDC (now TANF), and SSI, as well as the cost of educating immigrants’ foreign- and native-born children.
NRC found that the average immigrant household receives $13,326 in federal annual expenditures and pays $10,664 in federal taxes—that is, they generate a fiscal deficit of $2,682 (1996 dollars)per household.
In 2007 dollars this is a deficit of $3,408 per immigrant household.
With 9 million households currently headed by immigrants, more than $30 billion ($3,408 x 9 million) of the federal deficit represents money transferred from native taxpayers to immigrants.
Our national immigration policies have to work for the United States. While improving the plight of the world’s poor is a laudable goal, the finite resources we have available to fulfill that goal would be swamped if there wasn’t some orderly and manageable system in place to limit entry into the United States to what this nation can actually support. The more illegal aliens that are permitted to subvert the immigration system, the fewer immigrants we can accommodate who might actually produce a positive benefit for our country.
The more we become a nation of illegal immigrants, the deeper we fall into anarchy.
Posted by: zeb arrow | April 24, 2008 9:44 PM
The hispanic caucus is an ethno-centric supremacy group of politicians embedded within the House of Representatives. Just like "La Raza" (the Race) they advocate amnesty for illegal aliens who disregard our laws and for legislation that benefits hispanics exclusively.
Posted by: zeb arrow | April 24, 2008 9:50 PM
The sound you hear at 10:30pm are illegal immigrants cleaning-up offices all over the country. Tomorrow morning, they'll babysit babies of parents going off to those offices, work in landscaping, pick the fields for our evening dinners, or work the kitchens & clean-off the tables for those who choose to go out to dinner Friday evening. Take your car to the car wash this Saturday & they'll be the one's drying your car. Have a contractor come out to place fresh tar on the office parking-lot on Sunday & he'll hire a few to help him.
Illegals are everywhere. Build a fence, ship back as many as you can pack in the Econolines, threaten, harrass, intimidate, & scare them all you want. They are not going away.
Everyone has a blind eye.
Posted by: RomanB | April 25, 2008 12:01 AM
Gee, if only there were a presidential candidate who had some spine and put his name on a comprehensive legslative package that reformed our immigration system while still providing jobs and a future here for anyone willing to work despite the political liabilities associated with it. Oh wait, there is one and his name is McCain.
Posted by: Jeff | April 24, 2008 6:56 PM
Oh, you meant the legislative package he now completely disavows in order to pander to his party to get the nomination? The one he didn't even bother to show up to vaote for?
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/02/27/mccain_retools_immigration_stance/
McCain is willing to surender any political value he has ever held in order to advance his own ambition.
Posted by: Michael | April 25, 2008 7:37 AM