Immigration

In his remarks on Thursday on the House floor, Iowa representative Steve King spent several minutes outlining a rough – and roughly factual – history of Mosaic law, Greek and Roman civilization, censorship and the Constitution in defending comments about young undocumented immigrants that have been broadly derided as offensive.

In response to a remark made by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) that many young undocumented immigrants had "calves the size of cantaloupes" from smuggling heavy loads of drugs across the border, DREAMers showed up at King's office with gifts of cantaloupes on Thursday.

Several Republicans on a Senate committee are refusing to attend hearings on whether or not to confirm Mayorkas for the Homeland Security post, in a boycott of the president’s nomination.

A poll carried out in late June by the conservative American Action Network found that most voters in Iowa’s Fourth Congressional District disagree with their representative, Steve King, on immigration reform. King has been the most strenuous voice of opposition to bipartisan efforts on the issue. This week, the leaders of his own party rebuked him for saying that most young undocumented immigrants were drug mules.

A group of 20 pro-immigration reform lawmakers from the House and Senate are touring immigration-related sites in New York City this weekend. The trip includes a meeting with Mayor Michael Bloomberg at the Gracie Mansion and a stop at Ellis Island.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) distanced themselves from comments made by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) to Newsmax last week about DREAMers.

The number of unaccompanied minors has shot up since 2008. Over 13,000 of them were Mexicans, according to a report by Mexico's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Data from the Pew Center suggests that much of the remaining number were Central Americans.

A senior White House aide denounced the "Kids Act" -- a GOP bill which could extend legal status and eventually citizenship to young undocumented immigrants but providing nothing for their parents -- in a Twitter post on Tuesday morning.

The House Judiciary Committee will contemplate a bill which would offer a path to citizenship for young people brought to the US illegally when they were children.

The Republican representative from Iowa will make a rare appearance on Univision’s “Al Punto Con Jorge Ramos” this Sunday. Advance transcripts indicate Ramos will confront King on his stance regarding the legal status of the nation’s estimated 11 million undocumented as well as his comments comparing immigrants to dogs.

Vice President Joe Biden chimed in on the debate over immigration reform on Friday after a meeting with law enforcement officials, saying the issue was really “a public safety issue writ large.”

In an interview with the Daily Caller on Thursday, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said he would likely support a limited “amnesty” for certain undocumented immigrants if the US-Mexico border were appropriately impenetrable, but added that he was “reluctant to say that amnesty is a possibility because I am not very confident about the probability of getting to that point. We haven’t seen a president that can do this in my adult lifetime.”

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and former Mitt Romney running mate told a North Dakota radio station on Thursday the GOP doesn't want to "push people into citizenship". He added, "Most people just want to have a legal status so they can work to provide for their families."

The month-long August Congressional recess is expected to be a busy one for supporters of comprehensive immigration reform, who hope to use the month to bear down hard on House Republicans who have thus far dragged their feet on the issue.

“I’m making this video from Mexico. I know it’s going to sound a little crazy, and to be honest, I still can’t believe that I’m here. It’s surreal,” says Lizbeth Mateo in a video posted on the Facebook page of the National Immigrant Youth Alliance. Mateo and the two other activists will try to re-enter the United States on Monday.

The House "Gang of Seven" comprehensive immigration reform plan would grant "probation" to the undocumented and require them to admit their guilt in having broken US law.

"These children were brought here of no accord of their own, and frankly they're in a very difficult position," said House Speaker Boehner (R-Ohio) at a press conference. Details on the bill have not been released, but it could set up a showdown between House Republicans and advocates of a path to citizenship for a much larger group of undocumented immigrants.

In four interviews with Telemundo and Univision stations on Tuesday night, President Barack Obama drew a line of sand over what immigration reform must include for him to get on board, saying a pathway to citizenship for the nation’s undocumented “needs to be part of the bill”.

The nation’s immigration system is “broken”, according to just about everyone. Why are 4.4 million documented immigrants still waiting for permanent residency?

President Barack Obama will speak with Spanish-language television anchors from New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and Denver on Tuesday about “the need to move forward on immigration reform”, according to White House spokesman Jay Carney.

The first flights of the Interior Repatriation Initiative took off from El Paso, Texas on Thursday, in what marks the commencement of a now-permanent program. Previously, deportees were dropped off by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Tijuana and other cities along the border, where they were frequent targets for organized crime.

Republican leaders question Obama's ability to deliver on immigration reform.

Gridlock reigns on the question of immigration reform. After a two-hour meeting on Wednesday to discuss the GOP’s approach on immigration, Republicans rejected the Senate bill and its path to citizenship for the undocumented and indicated it would continue to consider small bills reflecting the priorities of its most conservative members.

The former president spoke today about immigration reform at a naturalization ceremony at his newly minted presidential library in Dallas, but stopped short of offering policy recommendations, saying he didn't want to "get involved in the politics or the specifics of policy".

William Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard, and Rich Lowry, who edits the National Review, called the Senate’s immigration reform bill a “comprehensive mistake” and wrote that House Republicans should “kill it without reservation” in an op-ed published in the National Review on Tuesday.

Democrats from the House of Representatives met on Tuesday with the four Senate Democrats who helped write the Senate’s immigration reform legislation to discuss the party’s strategy in handling the issue. They told reporters afterward that they would not support any major bill that does not include a path to citizenship for the nation’s undocumented.

Opponents of immigration reform point to economic reasons for why the bill should not be passed. However,comprehensive immigration reform could provide many economic benefits.

“These illegal aliens are criminals and we need to treat them as such,” says Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) in a clip used for the ads.

In an interview with ABC’s “This Week” taped in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where the former president is helping renovate a cervical cancer screening and treatment center, George W. Bush said he thought a comprehensive immigration reform bill could “fix a system that’s broken”.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has repeatedly said that he would not introduce the Senate immigration reform bill to the House floor, citing opposition from the majority of his party. Can a rare legislative mechanism force a vote on it anyway?