About Me

My photo
Beverly Hills, California, United States
Eli Kantor is a labor, employment and immigration law attorney. He has been practicing labor, employment and immigration law for more than 36 years. He has been featured in articles about labor, employment and immigration law in the L.A. Times, Business Week.com and Daily Variety. He is a regular columnist for the Daily Journal. Telephone (310)274-8216; eli@elikantorlaw.com. For more information, visit beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com and and beverlyhillsemploymentlaw.com

Translate

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder Leads GOP on Immigration Reform

U.S. News & World Report
By Lauren Fox
March 18, 2014

It has been one year since the Republican National Committee released a report calling on Republicans to tackle immigration reform and grow its Latino base. But since that time, little progress has been made to win the hearts and votes of Latinos from Capitol Hill Republicans.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, appears to have backed away from an earlier pledge to push immigration reform through the House this year. In fact, House Republicans made headlines last week for bringing a bill to the floor aimed at rolling back President Barack Obama’s executive authority to curb deportations. Even RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, a co-author of the GOP autopsy report, admitted the Republican Party is still too fragmented to move forward with one comprehensive plan at this point.

“There’s general agreement that we need to have serious immigration reform, but I don’t believe there’s general agreement as to what that reform is,” Priebus said during a breakfast with reporters Tuesday.

But while Washington is gridlocked, divided over immigrant visas and border control, one Republican governor remains committed to reform, if for no other reason than to help save his state and bring its economy back from the brink.

Michigan's Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, has presented a vastly more progressive stance on immigration reform than his colleagues inside the beltway. In his January State of the State address, Snyder unveiled an aggressive plan to not only embrace immigrants in Michigan, but to recruit them to revitalize Detroit. Snyder’s plan included an executive action to create the Michigan Office for New Americans, a mechanism to integrate new immigrants into the state. Snyder also announced a visa program that could help attract 50,000 immigrants to his state.

Snyder has been a strong advocate for Congress to fix the “dumb” immigration reform system for a long time. But ultimately, he says, he cannot wait for Congress to act.

“People have different styles,” Snyder told U.S. News in a recent interview. “I try to focus in on what the positive solution is to a problem. Don’t worry about blame or credit. Solve the problem.”

There’s another factor that separates Snyder from his GOP colleagues in the House. Instead of trying to limit Obama’s executive authority on immigration reform, Snyder is asking the president to use it and increase the number of high-skilled worker visas available to Michigan.

“This is a way for the federal government to help without a financial bailout,” Snyder says. “I hope this can be done through executive action.”

Alfonso Aguilar, a Republican pro-immigration strategist, says it is no surprise that Snyder is one of the voices leading the GOP on immigration reform. Governors have a record of putting practicality ahead of political posturing, he says.

“The governors understand the need for immigration reform. Politicians in Washington say they are in touch with the people, but they are in a bubble,” Aguilar says. “The disconnect is that ironically, conservative members in Washington are responding to the anti-immigrant lobby and talking heads rather than listening to the governors who understand the issue better.”

Snyder’s approach to immigration is no doubt shaped in some part by the politics of his state. Snyder is running for re-election this year in a state Obama won by comfortable margins, twice. However, Snyder is still a rare immigration advocate in his party.

For more information, go to:  www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com

No comments: