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StumblePublished Thursday, June 4, 2009 | 11:04 a.m.
Updated Thursday, June 4, 2009 | 11:26 a.m.
WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid signaled today a renewed push in making comprehensive immigration reform a priority, suggesting the Democrats’ expanded majority will be brought to bear to advance an issue that Congress has been unable to resolve for years.
Immigration advocates have fanned out this week across the capital and in communities, including Las Vegas, to focus the issue President Barack Obama has made a priority.
Reid said immigration was next up on the Senate docket, following health care and energy legislation.
“It’s going to happen this session – but I want it this year, if at all possible,” Reid said during a news briefing with Hispanic groups supporting U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.
Immigration presents challenges and opportunities for both sides in Washington. Republicans have been losing Hispanic support as their overall party numbers have declined. They must choose whether to continue holding a hard line on immigration reform, a strategy that plays well with the conservative base but alienates the growing Hispanic population, especially in the West.
As my colleague Timothy Pratt wrote over the weekend, the immigration debate in Congress will see both of Nevada’s senators playing critical roles – Reid, as the majority leader, and Republican Sen. John Ensign as the fourth-ranking leader in his party who helps shape debate as its Policy Committee Chairman in the Senate.
Ensign is very aware of the stakes for his party.
“If Hispanics continue to go over to the other party in the numbers they are going, we will be a minority party for the foreseeable future – period,” Ensign told the Sun earlier this week.
“We have to let them know that we care – we want them in our party.”
Yet Ensign continues to oppose legalization for the 11 million illegal immigrants already in this country – a deal-breaking stance for many immigration supporters.
“The bottom line for me is, take the amnesty part out,” Ensign told the Sun. “It is the most controversial part of the legislation, so take it out.”
Ensign instead supports a strategy that would provide multi-year work visas that could ultimately put immigrants on a path to citizenship. “We have to articulate it the right way,” he said. “It’s not about kicking people out of the country.”
Reid laid out the elements of a comprehensive package of reforms -- many that have been debated in Washington for years: Secure the borders, an expanded guest worker program (that includes the tourism industry), a pathway for citizenship for the 11 million undocumented living in this country, employer sanctions for hiring illegal immigrants.
“I am not going to deal with immigration on a piecemeal basis,” Reid said.
The majority leader was undeterred by the suggestion that the new ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, may pose a daunting foe.
Reid relied on the math, since Democrats have a robust majority in the Senate unseen in a generation, and one that tips the balance powerfully in the committees.
“Check the numbers of Democrats and Republicans on that committee,” Reid said.
I was born a Republican and I will die a Republican. What these illegal imigrants dont understand is that we want to make their life better here...become legal, get a job,pay taxes like the rest of us. Mexico doesn't care that their people arecomming over here as long as they send money back to them...if they REALLY wanted to be a citizen of the Unites States they would to the RIGHT thing and become legal...easy as that...whats so hard to understand???...Our prison system is chuck FULL of illegals...wasting away our tax dollars cause "we don't want too offend anyone" excuse me..they are offending us by coming here and committing crimes...We have enough problems with our own..we don't need people from everywhere comin here committing crimes and think it's ok...
Why even have immigration laws if the government won't enforce them? That's the biggest problem. If they were enforced there wouldn't be 50 illegal Mexicans hanging out every day at the 215 and Eastern looking for work!
Harry is looking for every vote he can get in 2010, he's gonna need them. Whoever runs against him in 2010 should be hammering on how Reid dropped e-Verify from the stimulus bill, for starters.
Why I support illegal immigration and the reason I don't want them to become legal like me are...
Because of this illegal workers I get cheap food (they work in farms, restaurant and meat processing units cheaply, thus saving million to the manufacturer/low manufacturing cost, so that I get cheap food).
Illegals work very hard building cheap houses (so I can buy them cheaply) and mowing my lawns for pennies.
If we do not have illegals in USA most of American companies will go bankrupt like GM, because no American worker including me wants to work as hard as and as cheap as they do., they don't even ask for health insurance nor they can complain to anyone.
The only choice they have is keep working! They can obey you like a Slave, before we had Blacks as slaves and now are the illegals
I love people here illegally, God bless them...
Government should never give them papers... Do you agree?
Not enough unemployment in Nevada harry? Now you want an EXPANDED guest worker program? Why do you hate the citizens in Nevada harry?
I am none Hispanic naturalized citizen that have children and grand children born in this country. I think an amnesty is a must and the right thing to do. I do not see any different between me and the "illegal immigrant". We both contribute to the greatness of this country and raised our children and grandchildren. I see a call to be against illegal immigrants as a call against all immigrants because you will not be able to distinguish between the two. Without amnesty we will remain divided and polarized. I always try to teach my children and my grandchildren with this fact and we always vote accordingly. Lets remain united so God cotinues to bless our America.
We citizens don't need "immigration" reform. We just need the government to enforce the current immigration laws as written by:
1. rounding up illegal aliens and deporting them.
2. rounding up illegal aliens and deporting them.
Get it, Harry?
Immigrants are fine, illegal ones should be sent home. No matter what crappy law Harry gets through, who is going to enforce it?
Does Harry want to see our unemployment rates rise even more?? Give me a break. Wish we could vote him out now....
It boggles my mind that we don't discuss blowing off other laws, such as stopping at a red light, or yielding you a siren etc..these laws save lives and keep order in our town. Immigration laws were created to do the same thing...keep order, save lives in our towns.
But here we are listening to a group of lawbreakers demand changes in laws they have not obeyed in the first place. To me, if you come into another persons home or country, you follow the house rules.
Here, in our country we have some nasty, rude visitors that do not want to follow the house rules.
It's like having a beautiful home, that you have spent a great deal of time and money creating.Then, you invite a few friends over to VISIT and they think to themselves.."Oh, what a lovely place you have here, may I live here as well? You politely tell your guests that there are procedures they must go through in order to live in your home and if they follow these simple rules, they may move here as well.
Suddenly, your guests get jealous and decide to move in anyway and bring their 10 kids!
Your beautiful garden gets trampled and ruined because your visitors do not care about gardens they just want to take and take and give nothing back. The money they make Is NOT ININVESTED in your home, rather they send the money BACK to their old home instead of contributing to the home they now live in.
Their children can tell their parents do not have roots in the community because they are always returning to Mexico and spending the money they earn here...over there. When they return to your home, instead of bringing food and supplies and trying to become citizens, they focus on using the resources available to help them take, take, take and never give back.
Their children attend schools where they need and receive many services because their reading levels are low and their English is even lower. Money that would be better spent on textbooks, now pay teachers to help illegal children. These children stay in school for about a month and then, they go back to Mexico and leave school here for about a month. When they return, fully expecting free services, the teachers need to start all over and re-teach everything they have already learned.
Your guests are rude and never say, "thank you" instead they keep their hands out begging for more and more free services that they are convinced you somehow owe them. Rude guests should never be indulged or they will never leave.They will suck you dry until there is nothing left for the legal citizens of this country. The ones that work here and PAY here..spend here and build up our country..instead of just taking and taking and taking...like we owe them something..
Guess What..we don't owe them anything.. come here legally, or go home and tear your own country apart, beg for resources in your own country. Keep your children in one country for their entire school years. You are hurting your children..making them criminals at a young age.
We have always had, to my knowledge, adequate immigration laws. I believe we simply need to enforce them. However, those in power want to retain their highly paid, royal positions, so we will never see any solution to the illegal immigration problem as long at these jerks are in control.
Our forefathers sacrificed everything to give us this great opportunity... a light for the world.... and we are blowing it. Why? Because we think only of ourselves. "What's In It For Me?"
Harry Reid should either dust off the Constitution, read it, or resign his office. Better yet, let the voters take him out next election. I'm registered as a Republican, but vote for the person (and his/her principles) and have been disgusted at the way the Republican Party and Bush have handed this country over to the socialist triumvirate; Obama, Reid & Pelosi. Good God!
This is better known as the Reid/Pelosi/Obamination plan for votes. Dumocrats just beig unethical as usual. Business as usual for these dolts.
Throw Sen. Harry Reid and all his pro-illegal immigrant, anti-sovereignty lap dogs out of office. He is the arch-enemy of the American worker. Learn the virulent facts at NUMBERSUSA, JUDICIALWATCH! Read about the DUI, Drunk while driving, spiraling criminal activity caused by illegal aliens everyday across our nation at AMERICAN PATROL. Read also about Overpopulation in our future and shortage of resources at CAPSWEB, UNIPAC. Please deliver us from this spreading pestilence across the United States.
Enforce the 1986 Simpson/Mazzoli bill, known as the Immigration Control and Reform Act. This law has never been enforced, so now we have 20 million plus foreign nationals here living off taxpayers. That's why California has a 47 billion dollar bugdet meltdown. Throw them all out using E-Verify along with the corrupt politicians like Sen. Harry Reid?
We need to show the 12+ MILLION illegals that we mean business!
We need to MAKE them come to America like everyone else had to!
Tell me how it is fair to let people from Mexico come here illegally and give them Amnesty when my friends from England who obviously speak ENGLISH, are EDUCATED, can highly contribute, have NO criminal record or gang affiliate, from a country who are are closest allies can not?
Mexicans are they ONLY race who REFUSE to learn English!
Look at how hard it is for the Chinese, Russians, French, Italians, Middle East, Japanese, Koreans, etc...to learn English but they DO IT! It costs our country millions if not billions to make everything in Spanish and it's not fair to all these other countries who did it right and learned the language.
We could save a lot of money!
If we do give them amnesty how does that teach them what they did was wrong it's like GIVING a child the candy they got caught steeling!
We need to give 18 million Americans some of the jobs 12 million illegals are stealing from them.
We need to follow our laws ALREADY in place, secure the borders, support ICE and E-VERIFY!
We need to make it hard for illegals to stay and make everything written, TV, RADIO in ENGLISH! If they want to have pay channels on TV like other nation that they should pay extra for why should I have to pay so they can have Spanish TV channels?
We NEED English as our official language!
The only way to REFORM is to enforce our laws, make them stand in line, pay any fine, pay taxes, register, go through the interview process, and LEARN ENGLISH, learn American history. If not they have nothing invested in America therefore they will not have pride as Americans.
Obviously Reid wants Amnesty for the votes!
The only way to do these things to protect our country is VOTE REID OUT!!!
Harry,
Please explain exactly what you mean by "comprehensive reform?" Do you mean amnesty? If so, just say it.
Why is noone courting the American Citizen vote? The voting block of over 70% of Americans who want border control and Deportation? Who are we to ignore?