RSSBlue Dogs Want Immigration Debate
J.J. Jackson* | February 24, 2008 |
HAI reports House Democratic leaders face growing pressure from their caucus to debate immigration changes this year, despite the politics of the issue and the failure of legislation last summer in the Senate. Some conservative “Blue Dog” Democrats are pressing for debate on a bill (HR 4088) introduced in November that would crack down on illegal immigrants and their employers.
The Blue Dogs are supported by many Republicans, who could decide as soon as this week whether to try to force Democratic leaders’ hands by circulating a discharge petition to bring the bill, sponsored by Congressman Heath Shuler (D-North Carolina) to the floor for a vote.
Discharge petitions are rare and face long odds of succeeding. However, talk of such a move boosts the immigration debate’s profile in an election year, when the issue could be problematic for both parties.
The Blue Dogs and their GOP allies are pitted against Hispanic, liberal and farm-state Democrats who want Congress to at least temporarily legalize millions of working illegal immigrants already in the country — especially students and farmworkers — and expand visa limits to allow the entry of more foreign labor, especially seasonal workers needed this summer.
A discharge petition would require 218 signatures to succeed; the Shuler bill now has 136 cosponsors, up from 89 when it was introduced November 6. Forty-six of the cosponsors are Democrats, including senior Blue Dogs like the group’s co-chairman, Congressman Allen Boyd of Florida, and Science and Technology Committee Chairman, Congressman Bart Gordon of Tennessee.
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