Senators take up immigration in first hearing
The Senate Judiciary Committee will hear testimony from Janet Napolitano, Jose Antonio Vargas and others
By Erica WernerTopics: Jose Antonio Vargas, Janet Napolitano, Homeland Security, Senate Judiciary Committee, Immigration Reform, Politics News
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senators are weighing one of President Barack Obama’s second-term priorities at the first Senate hearing on a comprehensive immigration overhaul. Many stubborn fault lines are sure to emerge.
Wednesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, which comes amid a concerted focus on immigration reform from the White House to Capitol Hill, was to feature testimony from Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and — in an unusual move for Congress — an illegal immigrant, Jose Antonio Vargas, a former journalist who founded the group Define American, which campaigns for immigration reform.
The former head of America Online, Steve Case, also was on the witness list, along with Chris Crane, president of the immigration and customs’ workers union, which has opposed Obama’s immigration policies.
The hearing comes a day after Obama, in his State of the Union address, renewed his call for sweeping immigration legislation that includes a pathway to citizenship for the nation’s estimated 11 million illegal immigrants. Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of eight senators has been meeting to develop a bill by next month that accomplishes eventual citizenship for illegal immigrants while also containing enough border security and enforcement measures to gain conservative support.
The bipartisan Senate negotiators, including Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and John McCain, R-Ariz., are operating separately from the Senate Judiciary Committee, but the committee is expected to vote on any legislation they produce. In his opening statement for Wednesday’s hearing, Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., planned to emphasize the importance of a straightforward and attainable path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, including the youths known as “dreamers” brought here by their parents.
“Comprehensive immigration reform must include a fair and straightforward path to citizenship for those ‘dreamers’ and families who have made the United States their home — the estimated 11 million undocumented people in the United States,” Leahy’s statement said. “I am troubled by any proposal that contains false promises in which citizenship is always over the next mountain. I want the pathway to be clear and the goal of citizenship attainable.”
But with conservative lawmakers heavily represented on the panel, the hearing seemed likely to put into harsh perspective the difficulties of getting comprehensive legislation through Congress despite the commitment from Obama and many Republican leaders. A number of these leaders have come to view immigration legislation as a political imperative after November’s election, when Latino voters flocked to Obama and helped ensure his re-election. But that view has not been embraced by all rank-and-file Republicans.
“The biggest obstacle we face to reform is this nation’s failure to establish lawfulness in the system,” a top committee Republican, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said after Obama’s State of the Union speech Tuesday. “The president’s plan meets the desire of businesses for low-wage foreign workers while doing nothing to protect struggling American workers.”
In addition to border security and a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants already in the country, any comprehensive immigration legislation would probably address the issues of employer verification and temporary workers, and make changes to the legal immigration system. A major difference between Obama’s proposals and the blueprint embraced by the bipartisan Senate negotiators is that the senators are making a pathway to citizenship conditional on border security being accomplished first — something Republicans demand — while Obama’s plan contains no such linkage.
Vargas acknowledged his illegal status in a high-profile piece in The New York Times Magazine in June 2011 but thus far has avoided deportation. He was part of a Washington Post team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for coverage of the Virginia Tech massacre. He wrote in his Times essay that his mother sent him from the Philippines to live with grandparents in California in 1993 when he was 12. He wrote that he didn’t find out he was in the country illegally until he applied for a driver’s permit with forged documents.
Related Stories
More Related Stories
-
Report: Obama to make big speech about drones, Guantanamo
-
Paul Krugman's right: Austerity kills
-
Poll: Obama approval at 53 percent amid IRS, Benghazi controversies
-
Sunday shows round-up: All about the IRS and Benghazi
-
Colin Quinn's "Unconstitutional" history lesson
-
Paul Ryan: "I don't know" if there was a Benghazi cover-up
-
Jon Karl makes things worse
-
FBI reportedly joins Bachmann campaign finance probe
-
How Guantanamo affects China: Our human rights hypocrisies
-
Jindal: IRS officials should "go to jail" for targeting
-
Dem Congressman slams GOP for "doctored" Benghazi emails
-
Must-see morning clip: Amy Poehler returns to SNL
-
Top 5 investigative videos of the week: Nailing a dictator
-
Doug Henwood: Capitalism thrives on class exploitation
-
Growing, lurking threat: "Paper terrorism"
-
How right-wingers use semantic tricks to kill government
-
The conservative case for raising the minimum wage
-
Alex Gibney: Julian Assange has become like "those he despises"
-
The week in 10 pics
-
We're living in an Ayn Rand economy
-
Obstruction will ruin GOP
Featured Slide Shows
The week in 10 pics
close X- Share on Twitter
- Share on Facebook
- Thumbnails
- Fullscreen
- 1 of 11
- Previous
- Next
-
Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
Credit: AP/LM Otero -
Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
Credit: AP/Matt Rourke -
A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher -
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
Credit: AP/Molly Riley -
Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite -
Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster -
O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid -
Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield -
When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin -
A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin -
Recent Slide Shows
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
Mobile Entertainment: 9 Amazing Drive-In Movie Theaters Still Standing
-
The week in 10 pics
-
- Share on Twitter
- Share on Facebook
- Thumbnails
- Fullscreen
- 1 of 11
- Previous
- Next
-
The week in 10 pics
-
Mobile Entertainment: 9 Amazing Drive-In Movie Theaters Still Standing
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
Netflix's April Fools' Day categories
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
Slideshow: Nerd Obama
Related Videos
Most Read
-
Revenge, ego and the corruption of Wikipedia
Andrew Leonard
-
Obstruction will ruin GOP
Jonathan Bernstein
-
Jaron Lanier: The Internet destroyed the middle class
Scott Timberg
-
Is Reddit censoring openly racist users?
Fidel Martinez, The Daily Dot
-
We're living in an Ayn Rand economy
Paul Buchheit, AlterNet
-
The man behind Abercrombie & Fitch
Benoit Denizet-Lewis
-
My "truly remarkable" cancer breakthrough
Mary Elizabeth Williams
-
When the IRS targeted liberals
Alex Seitz-Wald
-
Krist Novoselic: My plan to fix Congress, curb obstruction
Krist Novoselic
-
Will you marry me -- once you're done peeing?
Tracy Clark-Flory
Popular on Reddit
links from salon.com

61 points62 points63 points | 3 comments
From Around the Web
Presented by Scribol
- The 8 Most Anti-Gay Statements From The Republican Nominee For Lt. Governor Of Virginia
-
Republican Virginia Lt. Governor Nominee: Obama Sees World "From A Muslim Perspective" -
Rep. Issa Aware Of IRS Investigation Since Last July -
French President Hollande Signs Marriage Equality Bill -
Obama Group Braces For Progressive Backlash Over Keystone



Comments
0 Comments