Washington Times
By Seth McLaughlin
May 8, 2014
Republican
Rep. Raul Labrador on Thursday offered a potential immigration deal to
the White House, saying the GOP would agree to loosen penalties on
illegal immigrants
if President Obama would agree to increase visas for foreigners who work in high-tech fields.
Mr.
Labrador suggested dropping the penalty period that bars illegal
immigrants from reapplying to enter the U.S. legally after being
deported, a period that now lasts
for between three and 10 years, depending on how long they had first
remained in the country illegally.
“I
think most Republicans agree that the 3- and 10-year bars have to go
away because right now the people that are here illegally, they have to
go home to become legal,
but then they have to remain home for ten years,” the Idaho Republican
said. “We remove those bars from them, you could fix the status of about
25 percent of the people that are here illegally right now if they
return to their home country and then they come
back legally.”
Under
current law, those that leave the U.S. after living here illegally for
six months or more cannot return for three years. Those who lived here
illegally for at least
a year cannot return for ten years. That has served as an incentive for
many illegal immigrants to remain in the U.S. rather than return home
and face yearslong bans.
Mr.
Labrador, who dropped out of a bipartisan group last year that tried to
strike a broad immigration deal, made the overture at a forum of House
conservatives hosted
by the Heritage Foundation.
He
said in return for dropping the bars, Democrats should agree to boost
legal immigration by granting green cards to foreigners who graduate
from American universities
with advanced degrees in the fields of science, engineering, math or
technology.
Democrats
have said they support that change, and indeed this week the Department
of Homeland Security took unilateral steps to try to make it easier to
approve visas
for some high-skilled foreign workers.
But
Mr. Labrador’s proposal didn’t impress immigration advocates, who said
they will only accept a broad reform package that covers all parts of
the immigration debate.
“This
offer doesn’t come close to passing the laugh test,” said Frank Sharry,
executive director of America’s Voice. “We want reform that includes
legal status and the
opportunity at citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants.”
“If
House Republicans are prepared to give us a vote on that, they should
give us a call,” Mr. Sharry said. “If not, they will feel the pressure
of a changing electorate
until they get on the right side of history.”
The
advocates’ antipathy underscores the difficulty of moving any
immigration legislation. Democrats want all parts of immigration tackled
at the same time, and say a
pathway to citizenship for most of the 11 million in the country
illegally right now must be part of any deal.
House
Republicans, though, say they won’t pass a massive bill, and say they
want to tackle the immigration issue in pieces, including securing the
border, boosting interior
enforcement, rewriting the legal immigration system and expanding
guest-worker programs.
Republicans
also say they do not trust Mr. Obama enough to support any legislation
that puts legalization before strict border security that he would have
to enforce.
On
issues ranging from immigration and drugs to Obamacare and gay
marriage, Mr. Obama has unilaterally decided not to enforce or support
numerous laws and provisions of
laws with which he disagrees, a tactic Republicans have called lawless
and a reason not to trust his “law-enforcement priorities.”
“I
look back at the 28 years in the business world and I think, ‘Who was
it that ever destroyed my trust that was ever able to re-earn it again?’
I can’t come up with
a name in all that time,” Rep. Steve King, Iowa Republican and staunch
illegal immigration opponent, said Thursday. “I don’t trust him, except
to do what is politically to his advantage.”
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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