Immigration Reform

Two realities shape the debate over immigration reform: No bill is likely to pass without the expressed support of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), but even Rubio's endorsement may not be enough to assure passage. For Rubio, the political stakes of both sides of the equation are huge. Immigration reform is one of President Obama's most important second-term priorities, but for now the president has been relegated to a secondary role in the debate. Because his views are anathema to conservatives, the less he says about the bill, the...

VISA BATTLE: Wrangling over efforts to increase the number of visas for high-tech foreign workers has strained a bipartisan deal in the Senate on immigration reform, showcased the power of big labor and splintered a once-chummy group of elite tech leaders hoping to make inroads in Washington. CHEAP LABOR?: Technology companies cite a shortfall in the number of Americans skilled in computer programming and engineering. But unions and some Democrats see the push by Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg to...

THE BACKLASH has begun against immigration reform, specifically the provision that would legalize the status of 11 million undocumented immigrants and ultimately give these people a shot at citizenship. Led by conservative Republicans and whipped into a froth by right-wing radio talk-show hosts, opponents of reform are banking on derailing the measure with a strategy of delay and dismemberment. The focus of these efforts is the House, where many Republican backbenchers remain unsold on immigration reform despite the...

CHICAGO — The U.S. Census Bureau released its November voting data and one thing is clear: The so-called Latino Sleeping Giant is still snoozing — fewer than half of all eligible Hispanics turned out to vote in 2012. After nearly a year of breathless reports about how Latinos were going to trip over themselves to get to the polls and vote against Mitt Romney's hard-line immigration stance — remember Time magazine's Spanish-language cover "Yo Decido"? — the reality is less dramatic.

When Ronald Reagan signed a comprehensive immigration overhaul in 1986, he confidently predicted: "Future generations of Americans will be thankful for our efforts to humanely regain control of our borders and thereby preserve the value of one of the most sacred possessions of our people — American citizenship. " More than a quarter-century later, however, that law has not turned out to be the triumph that Reagan envisioned. Instead, those on both sides of the immigration debate see it as a cautionary lesson.

Here's a running transcript of President Obama's remarks at an event in Las Vegas where he is calling for broad changes to the nation's immigration laws. Remarks are being updated as they become available. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Thank you. (APPLAUSE) Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. (APPLAUSE) Thank you. It is good to be back in Las Vegas. (APPLAUSE) And it is good to be among so many good friends. Let -- let me start off by thanking everybody at Del Sol High...

In its opening bid for comprehensive immigration reform, the Senate's "Gang of Eight" has included a series of provisions meant to attract more highly educated and entrepreneurial foreigners to the United States. The group's proposal, formally filed Wednesday , features a new class of start-up visa for foreign entrepreneurs and would increase significantly the number of H1-B visas (those offered to highly skilled individuals) available to immigrants with advanced degrees, particularly...

Conservative champions of opening the flow of legal immigration into the United States are invoking economics in hopes of winning Republican lawmakers' support — specifically, the idea that more immigration will increase growth and cut the federal budget deficit. The American Action Forum, a conservative think tank, will release an analysis on Tuesday that projects that an overhaul of immigration laws could boost gross domestic product growth by a percentage point each year over the...

THE UNITED STATES has invested tens of billions of dollars in the past decade alone to foil illegal immigration — tightening the border, accelerating deportations, deputizing local police — while doing precious little to stop employers from hiring undocumented immigrants. That is fixable — by means of a universal national identity card — and must be fixed as part of any sensible overhaul of the nation's immigration system. Critics of immigration reform are right that the last big attempt to fix the system, in...

Think back to the battle over health-care reform. Can you imagine that Republicans, upon hearing that President Obama was about to offer his own proposals, would want to rush ahead of him to put their own marker down — and take positions close to his? That's the comparison to keep in mind to understand the extraordinary transformation of Beltway politics on immigration reform. Until Obama was reelected, party competition translated into Republican efforts to block virtually everything the president wanted to accomplish.

Disputes over a controversial oil pipeline have seeped into the debate over immigration reform , weakening a once-united lobbying front by technology executives in Silicon Valley. Elon Musk, one of the nation's leading proponents of "green" technology and clean energy, has split off from the political action committee he helped build with the group's leader, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Launched in March, the group's mission is to pursue immigration and education changes...

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's political support group is joining with a Republican pro-immigration organization and an effort run by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to try to boost support for a comprehensive immigration bill. Organizing for Action, a grassroots group run by Obama loyalists that grew out of his 2012 re-election campaign, will co-sponsor a "virtual march on Washington" planned for next week aimed at getting people to use social media platforms to register their...

It has been only a month since Mark Zuckerberg , Facebook's co-founder and chief executive, pulled together an impressive roster of tech executives to advocate for immigration reform through FWD.us , a nonprofit lobbying organization. But the group is already losing some of its star power. Some environmental groups are complaining that FWD.us has funded television ads supporting politicians who back construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline and proposals to drill for oil...

Two realities shape the debate over immigration reform: No bill is likely to pass without the expressed support of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), but even Rubio's endorsement may not be enough to assure passage. For Rubio, the political stakes of both sides of the equation are huge. Immigration reform is one of President Obama's most important second-term priorities, but for now the president has been relegated to a secondary role in the debate. Because his views are anathema to conservatives, the less he says...

Six years ago, a Heritage Foundation report helped kill immigration reform. Now the conservative think tank is on the defensive, facing attacks from conservatives over a similar report and questions about the study's co-author. In 2006 and 2007, senior research fellow Robert Rector wrote two reports that helped kill immigration reform the following year — one predicting a flood of 100 million new legal immigrants over the next 20 years, the other again finding that reform would swell the...

WASHINGTON — More than two dozen conservative leaders have signed on to a statement supporting action to overhaul the nation's immigration laws and calling legislation pending in the Senate an "important starting point. " In a statement being released Thursday, the officials say: "Simply opposing immigration reform should not be the conservative response to this problem. We believe conservatives should be leading the way on this issue by supporting legislation that upholds...

It has been only a month since Mark Zuckerberg , Facebook's co-founder and chief executive, pulled together an impressive roster of tech executives to advocate for immigration reform through FWD.us , a nonprofit lobbying organization. But the group is already losing some of its star power. Some environmental groups are complaining that FWD.us has funded television ads supporting politicians who back construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline and proposals to drill for oil in the Arctic...

The Obama administration recently signaled interest in beginning a discussion on comprehensive immigration reform before year's end. It might seem that a severe economic downtown is not the best time for a major legislative initiative on immigration. But starting this conversation now makes sense for several reasons. First, the level of undocumented migration into the United States has dropped because of the downturn; consider the significant reduction in the number of would-be crossers apprehended at the southwest border.

Enough with this "enough" business. Latest to the question of whether a person is sufficiently identifiable as belonging to a particular demographic is Ted Cruz — the conservative Texas senator who happens to be of Hispanic descent. But is he Hispanic enough? For what, his family taco recipe? Before you send in the sensitivity police, permit me to finish, por favor . The suggestion that Cruz might not qualify as a representative Hispanic comes from a fellow Hispanic, former U.N. ambassador and New Mexico governor Bill...