Ryan Sets Votes on Immigration as Moderates’ Revolt Falls Short

I think the correct interpretation is that Ryan offered to bring something to a vote, something that even in the House would be less popular than the bill by the Democrats and moderate Republicans that was approaching success. His opposition to allowing the Dreamers to stay has been long and strong. And Ryan should get an Oscar nomination for his repeated fictional claims that he does not want to waste time by voting on a bill that will not become law. HE HELD OVER A HUNDRED FAILED VOTES to repeal entirely or in part the Affordable Care Act, most of them while the Senate wouldn't consider such bills and Obama was President. Nobody sane believes him on this, but apparently a lot of the members of his party are not sane, or are knaves.

“Paul Ryan desperately wanted to avoid bringing those BIPARTISAN measures to the floor”. That pretty much sizes up today’s Republican Party doesn’t it? God forbid they do anything that even hints at bipartisan cooperation. The hate is too entrenched. And so is their “base”. It reminds me of the bad PR any Republican politician received if he was seen being too chummy with Obama (of course it had nothing to do with race, right?) . First, Republicans sold their soul to the religious right, now it’s lost it’s soul to bigots of all sorts. It’s sort of like they’re now the more acceptable version of the klan. The Nativism and blatant racism of the GOP will bring on its own demise, one can only hope. I just wish immigrant workers of all types could go on strike for a month so all Americans could see how dependent on them we are. It might wake people up when they can’t drive through and pick up their Big Macs or get their hotel rooms cleaned or eat most fruits and on and on.....

The liberal media's favorite (mendacious) explanation for the failure to resolve the situation of DACA recipients and the "Dreamers" is that cruel xenophobes in the GOP have heartlessly forced them to twist in the wind, keeping their lives in perpetual limbo. The truth, however, is quite different. The Democrats are the main villains in the piece. They have resisted stand-alone legislation that would solve the existential travail of these young people -- by legalizing them and putting them on a path to citizenship. That's because the Democrats are holding them hostage to an amnesty for the entire illegal population in the US -- conservatively estimated at 12 million but likely twice as high. The DACA recipients and "Dreamers," the most photo-shopped of all illegal aliens, are popular with most Americans who would like to see them stay and become citizens. That's partly because they had no moral agency in breaking US law -- and also because they've been outrageously over-sold as a cohort of high school valedictorians with high academic goals, people already working on cancer cures who cross old women at busy intersections. The less glorious truth is that 70% are NOT pursuing higher education, fewer than 1 percent are in the military, and most are making $15.00 an hour competing with other poor Americans at lousy jobs in the service sector. They are valuable as propaganda for a mass amnesty: the Dems could care less about their disrupted lives.

I believe the debate on immigration ought to have two components. 1. Ways to reduce illegal immigration 2. How can immigrants help jump-start economic progress in their countries of origin so that people no longer feel the need to come to America. For the latter, author Rubens Titus proposes a few key ideas in the book titled "Roadmap to Haiti's Next Revolution - Capitalizing Foreign Economies with US Remittances". Legal Immigrants ought to show responsibility and concerns as well.

"Mr. Ryan desperately wanted to avoid bringing those bipartisan measures to the floor." The question is why? Is he afraid that a reasonable bipartisan bill will pass? Is he afraid that doing the right thing for Dreamers will tarnish his (not so shiny) image? There is no good excuse for failing to produce good bipartisan legislation.

Wish NYT had also included a list of all Democrats who voted for the discharge petition; I want to know exactly which Democrats voted for this petition so that I can be sure to vote against my Congressional Representative. Perhaps if those young people had not protested while holding the flags of their native countries, their home countries in Mexico and Central America, cut the defiance and arrogance, they would have had more sympathy from this country and the people they wished to support them. Democrats played a bad hand by not signing on to the proposed bill that Goodlatte offered. Shutting down the government for DACA but not protesting for health coverage for all citizens was a fatal flaw in my book. Supreme Court will decide this issue in the future.

The reason passing any sort of immigration legislation through Congress is so vexing is the ghost of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (aka 'amnesty'). The legislation afforded summary legalization to the bulk of the existing illegal alien population in exchange for the rigorous enforcement of newly enacted immigration laws. The Act was supposed to be a 'one time only' amnesty as touted by politicians like Ted Kennedy and Chuck Schumer. Well the illegal immigrants got their amnesty while the promised enforcement never materialized and thus the 11+ million illegal immigrants we have today. We Americans got burned and many of us will not accept another amnesty knowing the outcome will be the same. Some politicians understand this. Politicians like Trump who rode opposition to illegal immigration all the way to the White House.

American citizens should be aware that when the two Bills anticipated by this article are put onto the floor of the House for a vote, it is likely that only one will actually contain the tool that has the ability to stop illegal hiring and therefore illegal immigration, --Mandatory E-Verify. E-Verify is the tool that (because it works) has been slow-walked and relegated to voluntary status for years. If you want Open Borders, as does DNCs’ Keith Ellison and his “I Don’t Believe in Borders” t-shirt, just say so, Then you’ll be on record. If you want to stop illegal hiring, illegal immigration, the tool is not the Border Wall, the tool is Mandatory E-Verify for all employers.

“My concern is if we do nothing, it could cost us our majority. So yes, it’s risky. But it’s the right thing to do.” No, it's not the right thing to do. Rewarding illegal immigration only results in more of it. Our most previous so-called president causing a massive influx from Central America due to his idiocy of protecting the very illegal aliens that are the focus of this article being a case in point. While he enjoys a post-presidency going around the country and world making large sums of money giving speeches, taxpayers at all levels of government continue to pay billions as a result of his soft immigration policies. He and the rest of his party put illegal aliens before actual citizens and the politics of appeasing a constituency (Hispanics) they depend on to be competitive in elections above the rule of law and our security. Comprehensive immigration reform was completed 32 years ago and the federal government sold it to the public as a one time deal that would never happen again due to the enhanced border security measures and sanctions on employers. The results? We went from 5 million illegal aliens then to 11-20 million today. The law was conveniently and purposely not enforced. If congress and the wealthy corporate interests think we forgot, they got another thing coming. Fool us once, shame on them. Fool us twice, shame on us. Throw out of office all those attempting to repeat this insanity. They're not patriots worthy of a place in our government.

According to the Des Moines article, deportees "are held by their [Mexican] captors unless their relatives in the US pay thousands of dollars for their release." Trump and his gang should negotiate deals with the Mexican cartels to get kickbacks for each deportee to pay for the wall that Mexico will build.

There is something profoundly disturbing about a democracy in which the leader of one legislative chamber "desperately" wants to avoid allowing bipartisan immigration legislation to get a vote. If Americans want a functional government, this kind of shenanigan needs to end. It would appear that the sky will fall if bipartisan legislation were actually voted on in this Congress. Instead we'll get to watch two pieces of unpopular legislation get voted down and the conservative pseudo-patriots can claim they "tried" but the Democrats won't cooperate. It's a sickening display of how off the rails this Republican-led Congress is - only a complete moron can sit around crowing about how successful this group of dunces are. On top of it all, you have this lame-duck tool Paul Ryan drowning in his own pool of buffoonery with no clear plan about accomplishing anything. Ryan's retirement can't arrive fast enough.

TRUTHINESS The Obama Administration did not tell the whole truth about who would be eligible for DACA. The president said it would cover those who had been "brought to this country by their parents, sometimes even as infants”. His administration also said DACA had an education requirement. The public got the impression that DACA would apply to young adults who had been brought here by their parents, through no fault of their own, and who had gone on to graduate from high school. Consequently, virtually everyone who applied for DACA met these requirements. What most do not realize is that DACA’s requirements are much looser than publicized. It is not necessary to have arrived as a young child, to have been brought here by one’s parents or other adults, or to have graduated from high school to qualify for DACA. The vast majority of undocumented migrants grew up in rural areas where there was an abbreviated concept of childhood - no one attended school beyond the primary grades, and by age 14, one could be having children of one’s own. Many came to the U.S, with their children in tow. Here in the U.S., we saw these teens as children, but they were not children in their own eyes. They did not come here to enroll in school. They came for economics. Yet, they would pass DACA’s educational requirement if they would just enroll in an English as a Second Language course that could help prepare them for a job or for a job training program. DACA rules are loose.

The more conservative of my friends are sympathetic to the DACA young adults. They protest what they refer to as "chain migration" -the extent of which permits extended family members to accompany these young adults. I am not well informed about who is included, How far does it go? I am quite sympathetic to including parents, sibilings-- would someone explain?

Congratulations to House Republicans for once again confirming that they are indeed the party of exclusion and white privilege. If they had been in charge of immigration in the first half of the 20th Century, America would not have become the economic powerhouse that it is through innovation and entrepreneurial energy. Immigrants have had a huge role in these developments as witness the % of immigrants that are Silicon Valley tech moguls. We are now headed for a brisk backward march lead by the Republican Party to a closed, under educated, bigoted and bankrupt culture that will be bypassed by those countries who embrace an open, progressive and inclusive approach to immigration. They view those seeking better lives as engines for their economies. What a novel approach....just like the U.S. in the early 1900's.

Add Anti-Empathy to the Anti-Science/Anti-Environment/Anti-Healthcare Party.

Republicans see the immigration issue as a huge, ongoing political win. The last thing they want to do is help out the Democratic Party by helping to pass a responsible immigration bill.

Back in the 1960s, when there was such a thing, Eugene McCarthy said that "liberal Republicans go along to shoot the wounded." The same might be said of today's "moderates," except that the war now is a lot more cruel.

No compromise. Illegal is illegal. Only Democrats, liberals and progressives could take the words "illegal aliens" and turn them into "undocumented workers". Why twist the truth with convoluted semantics? To gain voters, that's why.

Shame on you Paul. As always, you are a phoney politician with zero clue on anything. You saw the writing on th wall and decided not to run for your seat. Throughout your career you never did anything to benefit the common people, rather your soul was sold to the crook paymasters. You had a chance to do at least one good act at the end of your career to serve the people by supporting the bipartisan bill. Of course not, you showed your true color. You are a selfish corrupt politician - good ridens, Paul. Our nation will be better off without you.

First they came for the brown people seeking legal asylum at the border and took their children. And the brown citizens and said nothing. Then they came for the Dreamers seeking a path to citizenship. And the brown citizens said nothing. Then they came for . . . .

Paul Ryan is a monster and in his core, when the lights are off he knows it. It's because he's a phony, a liar, and that worse of things, inauthentic. I think it goes back to being a boy who needed government assistance. The shame he feels that he didn't have a dad to look up to. And so he did push ups, chin ups and poured his efforts into physical fitness. Can't you just see him mugging in the mirror with his six-pack abs? But here's the thing he knows in his heart. You can lie to everyone but yourself. He knows he's accomplished nothing other than to immiserate a nation with his feckless leadership. So go ahead Paul, take of your shirt, flex, and hop up and grab that chin up bar - I bet you could twenty this time.

Oh just STOP with the 'open borders" & "they snuck in & broke the law so they should stay nonsense." In case you hadn't notice, if you break the law, you run a very real risk of being 'separated from your family' -as in "go to jail" People who have lawfully immigrated & those who illegally snuck in have already LEFT their families - the people back in their home country If illegals are being deported who irresponsibly had kids born in the US, they can take them with them. As for the kids the illegals snuck in....they need to blame their parents & then do what their parents did. GO to a country where they are starting over without family or contacts (but at least it would be their own country and they would speak the language) Bank robber's kid doesn't keep the money There 7,600,000,000 people in the world - less than 1,800,000 live in countries that are acceptable by US standards (Canada, Europe, Japan, Australia etc) So how many should the US - with its 326,000,000 people -take in from these places with high poverty, crime etc? How many illiterate & uneducated Central American peasant do you all want? Honduras - 17% are illiterate in any language. Average years of schooling - 4 3/4 (not even out of elementary school!) Guatemala - 27% are illiterate. Average years of schooling- 3 1/2 El Salvador - 19% are illiterate. Average years of schooling 5 1/5 Let them flood in & we support them &d all the kids they produce (huge numbers!) for decades.

It's interesting how the NYT has changed DACA to 'migrant youth'. New branding of illegal aliens, same as the old one.

It is the racist Republicans who should have their citizenship revoked and deported.

Two quotations from the article tell us all we need to know about Speaker Ryan and the Trump Party: "Mr. Ryan desperately wanted to avoid bringing those bipartisan measures to the floor." “'Members across the Republican conference have negotiated directly and in good faith with each other [but not with the Democrats] for several weeks....'" If we're going to have a parliamentary system, like the Brits, in which the majority party rules and the opposition merely observes and denounces, we should at least also have a "vote of confidence" occasionally. And a weekly "Question Time", when The Leader has to respond, however maladroitly, would be good, too.

As long as members of Congress put personal political considerations ahead of what is best for the country and its people, little good will be done. Representatives, who are expected to spend 40% of their time raising money for their reelection campaigns, value their continued employment more than the needs of the nation. It’s not a coincidence that elected officials often do their best work once they are either lame ducks or have announced their retirement. Then they only have their own conscience and legislative legacy to answer to. That could be a powerful argument for term limits for members of Congress.

If the "Dreamers" are so intelligent, wonderful and talented - Shouldn't their "Dream" be a return to their native land to create livable and hospitable societies for themselves and their nations? Mexico for one has stated they will welcome them back with open arms- I'm sure El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala would be grateful to receive a U.S. educated and motivated young adults to catapult their 3rd world nations into the 21st century. In other words, "You have snatched the pebble from my hand- now it is time for you to leave."

Speaker Ryan should be ashamed of himself! He is the leader in the House but the Freedom Caucus just like the tea party has scared the Speaker into silence. What is wrong with bringing a clean DACA bill up for a vote, oh that's right it would pass. That's the fear of the freedom caucus that these children would get to stay and heaven forbid get citizenship. The freedom caucus, the very name is repugnant because they don't stand for freedom, and who often times say they are good Christians what nothing to do with these kids, how Christian is that. The Speaker has been weak as a leader and has lost his moral compass by not standing up to the president. Congress was created as a check on the executives power but the Speaker seems to think that he works for the president. He works for his constituency and as the Speaker the American public. Bring a clean DACA bill to the floor, it will pass and the senate will follow and I bet that the president doesn't have the spine to veto it. Be a good Christian and let the children stay.

I'd like the Times to explain why they and most major media outlets call these individuals "moderates." Most of them vote for the same tax and regulatory policies as "non-moderate" Republicans. Many if not most of them voted to eliminate Obamacare without a reasonable alternative. Their "moderate" colleagues in the Senate all vote for exactly the same judges as "non-moderate" Republicans do. They have generally been no more willing to enforce accountability from the Trump administration than "non-moderates," and were no more judicious in their oversight of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama than "non-moderates." What earns them this adjective, with its traditionally positive connotations?

It is morally wrong to hold the Dreamers hostage and not immediately act on granting them a path to citizenship. These are young people who are enrolled at school, serving in the military, volunteering in the community and contributing to the overall good of society. Led by President Trump, the alt-right wing conservatives have inexcusably branded them as criminals and degenerates who do nothing but exhaust the resources of our country. Rather, they are hardworking, tax-paying individuals who are making the most of their shot at the American dream. In fact, the overwhelming majority of "illegal" immigrants make-up hard-working, community-minded families. It is high time to grant them amnesty and invite them to embark on the path to citizenship. We will be a better, stronger country for doing so!

Why should "being brought in through no fault of their own" be the sole criterion for being put on a path to legalization?! Totally random. The absolute antithesis of a merit based immigration system. Here's the only compromise I will support: screen every single Dreamer and accept any who would pass muster as a legal immigrant candidate. Anyone who would be rejected using this screen would continue to be an illegal "immigrant" subject to deportation any time they come to the attention of ICE. Many current DACA enrollees would NOT be acceptable. The eligibility requirements for this program were way too low: Age, any kind of job or school involvement at all, and a criminal record NO WORSE than having one misdemeanor with up to a year in jail, or up to three lesser misdemeanors with up to 90 served for each. We would not accept a legal immigrant candidate with this profile. We most certainly should not legalize an illegal "immigrant" with this profile! No matter how they came in.

As a service to those commenting here, I post a link to a study CNN did showing the composition of the DACA population. What is particularly noteworthy is that they are overwhelmingly Mexican and not very well educated. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that, as a group, they will not be very high earners either. https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/25/politics/daca-dreamers-by-the-numbers-tru...

Constitutional amendment: term limits of 3 four year terms for House and 2 six year terms for Senate. Maybe then Congress will actual perform its legislative role effectively.

The xenophobic party and its retiring speaker are the reason why USA lost its competitiveness.

If the democratic leadership had any brains, which I doubt, they would stop pretending that there is still such a thing as a republican party, if you want to get something done, you negotiate directly with Trump. Ask him what he wants in return for what they want. I would say what he wants starts with the letter W.

I shake my head at your headline, "G.O.P. Moderates....". Why not "Centaurs vote on immigration". Simply put, as far as I can see, there ain't no such thing as a Republican moderate. With Trump, McConnell and the Hastert rule in place, these eyes haven't seen a Republican moderate since the 1970's. Please tell it like it is, NY Times, there are no GOP moderates in Washington. It's sad to say but it's the truth.

A ''deal'' was made to not force votes, where republicans would have had a bright light shone on them (through their positions) that would have led to their losing their seats. It is just that simple. If there was a straight up and down vote on all matters of government (instead of the backroom deals now where some are allowed to vote nay, when their seat is safe), then the electorate would actually know where people stood. I would venture a guess that if that ever came to be, then republicans would never be in the majority ever again.

There are only two sides to the immigration debate: Those who want open borders and those who want secure borders. Open border advocates want free access for millions of aliens to flood into this country, unchecked. Secure border advocates want to remove incentives for those crossing our borders illegally in an effort to try and prevent yet another 20 million aliens from living and working in this country ten years down the road.

So much for a bi-partisan government. Not only did the modern GOP totally block anything Obama, they now are blocking anything moderate. Guess they hold all the weapons, and we, the American people (and the majority) are being held hostage to legislation that will define us for decades to come...and, by the way, takes us on paths that are a far distance from the Constitution that this party has claimed as the (misguided) basis for their policies.

What a comment. After Herculean efforts congress manages not to vote on the dream act that at least 216 members wanted to vote on.

It all seems so heartless, how these politicians can ruin a life by simply not voting , by passing laws that condemn some individuals while giving favor to others. Heartless and unfair as the AG separates families in the name of immigration enforcement. Throwing out people that simply want to work and raise their families in peace away from the brutality they left behind. Currently the United States is at full employment, lowest unemployment , so obviously immigrants are NOT taking all the jobs, are not causing strain on the system, that's nonsense and an inexcusable excuse for the behavior we see coming from Washington.

Republicans need to show the courage to put forward a bill and vote on the issue of immigration. They were elected to represent the people of the United States not the Trump regime.

Once again, the GOP, particularly the conservative wing, puts itself among the most heartless and uncaring supposed representatives. Most Americans support DACA, and these self-serving, out of touch, biased congresspersons don't care that they are going against the beliefs of their constituents. When future generations look back at this period in history, they will be appalled at the arrogance of our "leaders." Between the GOP on DACA and the behavior of our buffoon-in-chief, we will appear to be enamored of ruthless bullies.

There is no such thing as a "GOP moderate." If you caucus with the GOP then you support tearing children from their families, you support foreign powers sabotaging US elections, you support undermining American federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies for political gain, and you support an authoritarian president. Either caucus with the only real remaining American political party or clam up about being "moderate." You are fooling no one.

No doubt Paul knows exactly what his marching orders are from his billionaire backers. Apparently some in the GOP have doubts that the huge media blitz of their bonkers backers’ propaganda machine can overcome the voters’ displeasure over DACA and ICE. Hope that they are correct in this thinking.

The Freedom Caucus has been an incredibly corrosive force and has ruined Congressional politics. The people who vote for them should look beyond their own lives, but they never will. Our country has become so small.

Ryan is an incompetent bigot. He should leave office and never run again. He has betrayed Wisconsin’s poor.