NATIONAL JOURNAL On Amnesty/ Immigration Surge Bill: "Signs of GOP Rebellion"—Finally!
06/07/2013
A+
|
a-
Print Friendly and PDF

A grassroots GOP rebellion is long overdue, so we can hope. 

The National Journal reports Mounting Signs of GOP Rebellion Against Immigration Reform, (By Beth Reinhard, July 7, 2013).

It's about the House’s resistance to Obama’s unconstitutional Administrative Amnesty:

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives on Thursday rejected President Obama's policy to stop deporting young people brought to this country illegally as children. With all but six Republicans voting against funding a policy that lets hundreds of thousands of law-abiding but undocumented youth enrolled in high school or the military to stay in this country, the vote spotlighted the long odds facing the much broader Senate bill to allow 11 million illegal immigrants earn citizenship.

The House vote came two days after Republican Gov. Rick Scott of Florida vetoed a bill that would help young people whose deportations were halted by the Obama administration get driver's licenses. And on Wednesday, a key immigration leader in the House, Republican Raul Labrador of Idaho, defected from bi-partisan talks.

These unexpected developments reflect the stirrings of what could snowball into a full-blown revolt against the most ambitious overhaul of immigration law in a quarter century.

"If they think they're going to force-feed amnesty, there's going to be a rebellion," said Rep. Steve King of Iowa, who spearheaded the vote one day after House Republicans huddled with one of the champions of immigration reform, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida. King added: "The vote might indicate that we're not particularly persuaded."

(VDARE.com emphasis added throughout). The article quotes a Republican pollster with the Standard Wisdom about the Hispanic Vote. That's what some rebel Republican needs to publicly question.

"There's no way you can spin this as good," said Republican pollster Whit Ayres, who advises Rubio. "I have thought for some time that if there is going to be immigration reform, it will pass after very intense debate and very vocal opposition. I hope this is a baby step back."

Heritage Action, an influential conservative group, urged members of Congress to support King's amendment and said the vote would be included in its annual legislative scorecard. Its affiliated think tank was widely criticized last month for releasing an anti-immigration reform report by an author who once argued that Hispanic immigrants have lower IQs. Thursday's vote is expected to revive Democratic attacks that portray the GOP as anti-Hispanic and anti-immigrant.

"The optics are really bad for Republicans," said Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum. "It's like they forgot what happened in November."

Or maybe they do remember what happened in November and they don't want to make it worse.

Print Friendly and PDF