According to House “Gang of Eight” Member Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY), the group is “very close” to releasing its comprehensive immigration reform bill. “We’ve really resolved all of the truly contentious issues,” Yarmuth announced in an interview last Wednesday. (MSNBC, Mar. 27, 2013) “I’m very optimistic… In our group, everybody is really committed to getting this done. We know we have to deal with the immigration issue and this is the best opportunity we’ve had in generations.” (Id.)
Anonymous sources familiar with the negotiations elaborated on the aspects of the plan dividing the bipartisan group. According to the sources, the House Gang has yet to reach consensus on the following issues: a path to citizenship, reforming the visa process for high-tech workers, and the process for introducing and voting on a bill. (Politico, Apr. 1, 2013)
Specifically, the group plans to attempt to make the bill more palatable to the American people by calling the citizenship provision a “pathway to status.” Under this “pathway,” it will take approximately 20 years for an amnestied illegal alien to become a U.S. citizen once the border is deemed secure. (Id.) The newly amnestied aliens would obtain a green card after 10 years and pay back taxes, a “hefty” penalty, gain English proficiency, and make an admission that they broke the law. (Id.) Then, the amnestied alien could gain citizenship in another 10 years. (Id.)
The length of time to obtain citizenship is designed to make the bill appear less costly. Specifically, the Congressional Budget Office, which is charged with assessing the budgetary impact of a bill, can only consider a 10-year period to reach its estimate. Thus, the group’s 20-year plan skirts the CBO’s scoring ability. (Id.) Additionally, the bipartisan group plans to offset the cost of securing the border by increasing visa fees and Republicans in the group want to make the amnestied aliens ineligible for entitlement programs. (Id.)
The Republican members of the group are debating internally and in consultation with House Leadership on how to proceed with legislation because the House is poised to take a piecemeal approach to immigration reform. (Id.) Although three committees have jurisdiction on immigration issues — Judiciary, Education and Workforce, and Homeland Security — Republicans are considering only going through the Judiciary Committee or even bypassing the committee process entirely. (Id.) The sources revealed that it is essential for Gang of Eight Member Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID) to sign off on the deal to ensure eventual passage. (Id.)
Yarmuth declared that the House bipartisan group is playing the more important role towards eventual passage of legislation because it would ensure Republican support and guaranteed passage of an amnesty bill. “One of the things that we’re dealing with is the issue of making sure House Republicans, who are in the majority, are comfortable with whatever package comes to the floor of the House,” Yarmuth said. (MSNBC, Mar. 27, 2013) “The sensitivity is would House Republicans be open to a bill that comes from a Democratic-controlled Senate or from a Democratic President. That’s why we think our effort is most important. If we can get one through the House then the odds of actually getting it signed into law improve a lot.” (Id.)
Yarmuth also indicated that Members of the House Gang of Eight have been talking with their Senate counterparts, who also claim to be nearly finished with their amnesty bill. “The bottom line is we’re very close,” declared Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY). (The Hill, Mar. 27, 2013) “I’d say we’re 90 percent there. We have a few little problems to work on,” Schumer said, but he indicated that the Senators were working together during the two-week recess to complete their negotiations. (Id.)
Both “Gangs” are expected to introduce their respective pieces of legislation the week of April 8.
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STOP THE MERRY-GO-ROUND FACTS SAY ILLEGALS COST $1+ TRILLION PER YEAR!
12 million citizens are on unemployment compensation and not earningf a wage!
11 to 30 million aliens are in the US illegally, illegally taking citizen jobs, illegally paying no taxes ETC!
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Fox says 12 million on unemployment, 8 million working part time and 3.5 million without hope is 23.5 million citizens who need a job and the dignity it brings. The US poverty level is $23,000. It’s reasonable to say all qualify for food stamps, shelter, child support, and all of the many scattered welfare subsidies required to bring them up to a “poverty level”! Government says the average wage is $43,500/yr. If we put 12 million unemployed to work @ $43,500, taxable INCOME INCREASES $522 BILLION simultaneously with a GOVERNMENT SPENDING REDUCTIONS OF $240 BILLION (12 million off welfare @ $20,000 – (redo it with $23,000 if you want). THAT NET US ECONOMIC BENEFIT IS $762 BILLION!
Nobody knows how many illegal aliens are working in the US! Reliable sources claim 11 or 12, to 30 million illegal aliens are in this country working. A US government that tracks every dime that goes through a citizen’s bank accounts, registers and taxes your car, home, dogs, and sodas you drink, doesn’t know how many aliens are taking citizen jobs, receiving food cards, and every other citizen tax paid welfare benefit plus education and health care by simply not paying! Government allows the corporate health provider to add that cost to citizen billings! School districts increase taxes! Let’s be real, because illegal presence is a criminal offense, the job they occupy is a criminal offense, and the employer who harbors and protects them is criminally involved! A significant portion of this activity is conducted in cash, to avoid payroll taxes, and every insurance and employment regulation imaginable – offenses that brings immediate arrest, jail, and poverty to citizens and legitimate employers! One seems to never ask or hold our executive-legislative officers to the law. How dare Mr. Holder thumb his nose at 23.5 million citizens who are in unnecessary economic crisis?
Let’s ignore the health care crisis, overflowing prison costs, failing to educate our own children in the midst of many children who can’t speak English, etc., and just say the unending food stamps & welfare they get is a low ball $20,000/yr., applied to at least 12 million, and we have another $240 billion reduction in government spending, when citizens replace them! That plus the $762 billion US CITIZEN WAGES brings the COST OF AMNISTY TO OVER $1 TRILLION/yr. You can’t reconcile this travesty with amnesty!
Imagine, the abject poverty, lawlessness, hopelessness, and oppression in governments plantations of Philadelphia, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, LA, and everywhere else these progressive vermin have voters on leash & meal routine. Imagine $6 trillion debt spending with mind boggling global bank bail outs, money for terrorists, etc. and these oppressed CITIZENS see nothing but homes bulldozed, bullets flying everywhere, no law, and no hope yesteryear, today and as long as progressives can hold their nose in the mud! If the RINOS had a brain they’d help bring them a seed, a paint brush, and the proverbial fishing pole of self sustinence… but they too are progressives! It’s time to rebuild America, but we have to establish Constitution and law first!
PASS IT ON — HOLD OUR EXECUTIVE-LEGISLATIVE OFFICERS TO THEIR OATHS, CONSTITUTION, & LAW!
We’re supposed to believe that all those people who broke the law in the way they got here, have used false or stolen SS numbers, obtained drivers licenses under false pretenses, and drove without insurance, are suddenly going to be honest citizens when they get their amnesty. These are exactly the people we DON’T need.
Many of these “people” are hard workers and less dependant on welfare than may legal inmigrants and citizens. Many of them are actually doing the work that most of us have refused to do. I am not saying all, but the majority of them are very honest and decent.
By the way, see today’s (April 4) piece in the New York Times, Priced out of Citizenship, by Rahm Emmanuel and Luis Gutierrez. It claims that the US taxpayer should be subsidizing the costs of naturalizing immigrants. That the fees are too high and that more immigrants would become citizens if they could afford it. Of course, it ignores the fact that immigrants in this country are supposed to be SELF-SUPPORTINGj. If citizenship isn’t important enough to you and if you’re not earning enough to save $650 over 5 years to pay for the fees, well, we shouldn’t have let you in in the first place. Moreover, the fees the USCIS charges are supposed to cover only the processing costs already, so that the US taxpayer isn’t stuck with the bill. Why should AMERICANS pay for immigrants and legalized illegal aliens to become citizens?
Hey, Ali, don’t look now but American taxpayers are already subsidizng not only the cost you mention, but everything else illegals require – jobs, rent vouchers, education for their children, food stamps and whatever they need to live in Santa Land. The only solution is deportation for all those not here legally. Luis Guiterrez is the number one anti-American, pro-illegal supporter this country has. I know Rahm Emanual is a low life, but didn’t know he was also a pro-illegal supporter. However, most of this administration is, so it’s no wonder we continue to be invaded.
really?…………….not true……….remember thanks to the immigrants from the 1600’s until now….you have the american dream……………..not fair guys…….the immigrants I know they have higher degrees and never took a penny from the gov…………………
Finally a comprehensive bill that will actually pass, this eight senators are doing a wonderful job and the bill will be passed and signed by Presiden Obama by this summer. God bless America
Don’t Talk This Way Around the General American Population
Especially where the legal citizen unemployed gather….if you do, wear a tin hat.
Although it is very unfortunate that many amercians are out of a job, I would say that these inmigrants are doing something that many unemployed Americans would never consider doing. Agriculture jobs. I don’t see a lot of unemployed people flocking to the fields. Even out of a job, people still buy strawberries, fruits and vegetables at the grocery store with the unemployment check. Without these inmigrants, there would be no strawberries, fruits nor vegetables.
Tigerbyte, more to the point, will provisions to protect AMERICAN workers from more illegal immigration actually be carried out? Fact is, the 1986 bill promised to enforce the law and it never happened. In fact, this president is ignoring the law to give illegal alien “children” DACA. It doesn’t matter what’s in the bill. What matters is what comes after–and we already know that the only thing we’ll get is amnesty and guest workers, all of which are bad for Americans.
They’re only doing a “wonderful job” if you like American workers getting the shaft. We have enough unemployed in this country without guest workers.
Tigerbyte – so you approve of our country being invaded? People who follow our laws to become citizens are called immigrants. Millions who sneak in are called illegal alien invaders.
The lies are already provable. The guest workers are not “guests”. They don’t go home, they apply for a green card after a year, and they get to change jobs if they don’t like the one they came here for, no matter the amount of time.
There’s a GLUT of All College Educated and Especially Unskilled Professions in America
Professional [college degreed] and unskilled Americans need to support each other through general depopulation, not listen to open border liars who PROCLAIM some professional worker [and unskilled too] shortages….its all BLATANT two party lies to make it all FAR WORSE.
YOU GOT IT ALL WRONG…………you should have said……they should ALL work together to come up with industries NOBODY has so that even China with such human resources could not compete with us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!…………………be positive!!