McCain, Flake Try to Sell Amnesty
“Both McCain and Flake say [amnesty]is crucial to Arizona, which has been the epicenter of the emotional debate over the nation’s broken borders. Arizona is the main gateway for illegal immigration, proportionally has one of the largest populations of undocumented immigrants, and has faced political blowback for enacting laws to address the federal problem,” USA Today reports.
“The two senators are set to provide more insight into their positions Tuesday during “A Conversation on Immigration with John McCain and Jeff Flake,” a hourlong event presented by The Arizona Republic, KPNX-TV, Phoenix, and azcentral.com. The discussion, at 1 p.m. ET at the Mesa Arts Center, will be streamed live on azcentral.com and usatoday.com.”
Obama Issues New Rule Prohibiting Deporting Any Parent
“The Obama administration issued a policy late last week telling immigration agents to try not to arrest and deport illegal immigrant parents of minor children — a move that adds to the categories of people the administration is trying not to deport.
In a nine-page memo issued Friday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said agents should use “prosecutorial discretion” to try to avoid detaining parents and, if parents are detained, agents should make sure they have the ability to visit with their children or participate in family court proceedings,” the Washington Times reports.
Tech Billionaires Seeking to “Hack” D.C.
“From their corporate campuses on the west coast, America’s technology entrepreneurs used to ignore faraway Washington, DC—or mention the place only to chastise it for holding back innovation with excessive regulation. They have, at times, invested in the low politics of self-interested lobbying . . . Yet unlike Wall Street, which has long mixed that sort of lobbying with supplying leaders to some of the highest offices in the land and feeding in policy advice, tech tycoons have remained largely aloof from the broader affairs of the nation’s capital,” says The Economist.
“Another big statement of political intent was the launch in April of FWD.us, a campaign for immigration reform. Convened by Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, its supporters are a who’s who of tech, including Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn; Marissa Mayer, the boss of Yahoo; Eric Schmidt, the chairman of Google; and the most successful techie of them all, Bill Gates. Despite some early rows over tactics, the group has survived and is spending heavily in the hope of pulling off an improbable victory.”