Obama Speech Today on Immigration Plan
“The Obama administration has developed its own proposals for immigration reform that are more liberal than a separate bipartisan effort in the Senate, including a quicker path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, people with knowledge of the proposals said,” the Washington Post says.
“President Obama is expected to provide some details of the White House plans during a Tuesday appearance in Las Vegas, where he will call for broad changes to the nation’s immigration laws. The speech will kick off a public push by the administration in support of the broadest overhaul of immigration law in nearly three decades.”
Immigration Is Not a Cure-All for the GOP
“[W]hile immigration is an oft-covered topic, it’s not the top issue on Latino voters’ priority list. In a pre-election Pew Hispanic Center survey released last fall, a majority of Hispanic voters said education, health care and jobs/the economy were ‘extremely important’ to them. But only 34 percent said the same about immigration,” the Washington Post says.
“[T]here is a significant gap between some pillars of the Republican platform and the over-arching worldview of Hispanics.
Take the call for limited government, a cornerstone of the GOP’s political message. In a Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation survey taken last summer, 67 percent of Hispanics said they favor a ‘larger federal government with many services’ over a ‘smaller federal government with fewer services.’ Republicans expressed a dramatically different viewpoint in the poll, with 80 percent saying they prefer a ‘smaller federal government with fewer services.'”
Sen. Rubio’s ‘Evolution’ on Immigration
“Arizona Sen. John McCain partnered with liberal Democrat Ted Kennedy in 2005 to offer illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship, then allied with border security hardliners during a tough 2010 Republican primary. “Complete the danged fence,” McCain cracked in a widely publicized television spot,” National Journal says.
“Less well known is the equally dramatic pivot by Marco Rubio, from 2010 candidate who dismissed McCain’s proposal as ‘amnesty,’ to U.S. senator who on Monday championed reforms McCain said had ‘very little difference’ from his previous plan, which became the blueprint for failed legislation in 2006 and 2007.”
No Clear Answer on Border Security by GOP
“John McCain appeared on CBS This Morning to talk about the Gang of Eight proposal on immigration reform, and he starts out by insisting that ‘border security is a pre-requisite’ for immigration reform. But who gets to define when the border is secured in the Senate compromise plan? Later in the interview, McCain says not the commission described in the plan, but the Obama administration,” says Ed Morrisey at Hotair.com.
“In my interview with Marco Rubio yesterday, he seemed to believe that he had signed up for the guaranteed brake. And if the package doesn’t have it, Rubio committed to bailing out of it.”