WASHINGTON — Conservative radio host Laura Ingraham is on a crusade to prevent immigration reform talks between the Senate and the House.
For more than a month, she has tried to pressure House Republican lawmakers appearing on her show — “dozens,” by her own estimate — into acquiescing to her current obsession: the rejection of any conference committee with the Senate on comprehensive immigration legislation.
Ingraham has made a routine of asking House Republican guests, “Will you go to conference on immigration, yes or no?” Even interviews about health care or the government shutdown have ended with her grilling guests about their immigration stance and asking them for a commitment not to go to conference. Ingraham repeatedly warns that a bill coming out of conference could include a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants — a proposal she rails against on her show.
The Senate
passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill in June by a 68-32 vote, including 14 Republican “ayes.” Despite that bipartisan credential, the legislation was dead on arrival in the House. But GOP House leaders have said they will attempt to pass narrower measures to address some immigration issues. If anything is passed, a Senate-House conference committee could be created to find common ground between the two chambers’ bills.
“It’s a political death wish to push for this immigration reform,” Ingraham told Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) on Monday after the congresswoman did not outright commit to rejecting a conference committee. Ingraham added that providing a path to citizenship would only enlarge the liberal-leaning electorate, telling Blackburn that “you guys are going to give Obama exactly what he needs, and Hillary in 2016.”
President Barack Obama has signaled that immigration reform is a major priority in his second term and has tried to
rally support around the Senate’s comprehensive bill.
Ingraham has tried to rally support against it. She insists that any effort to push immigration reform under Obama is doomed to harm Republicans.
“There is no debating that the people coming into the country, especially the people who have been here illegally, tend to be more liberal in their economic views and increasingly in their social views,” Ingraham said while interviewing Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) in late October.
Several of Ingraham’s guests have agreed with her vehement opposition to conference.
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) told Ingraham last week that he declined the president’s invitation to discuss immigration at the White House because he “
saw it as a political trap.” McCaul, chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, said he has
advised Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) that the House should avoid conference with the Senate on this issue.
Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho)
told Ingraham earlier in October that he thinks “it would be crazy for Republicans to pass immigration reform and go to a conference.”
Other guests, like Blackburn, have been more cautious and equivocal.
“What you all really are for is comprehensive immigration reform,” Ingraham told Blackburn after the congresswoman suggested the House take a step-by-step approach. “You think this a gateway issue to the Latino vote. That’s what I surmise here.”
Last week, Ingraham chided Rep. Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.) for waffling.
“Where do you come out on the issue of going to conference? And we have a cliché-free zone here on the program, so just don’t bother saying, ‘The system’s broken’ or ‘People need to come out of the shadows’ or ‘We’re not going to deport 12 million people,'” Ingraham said. “Just tell us, on the issue of conference: Yes or no?”
When Salmon gave her an unclear answer, Ingraham pressed him further. “We’ve had dozens of your colleagues on, and we’ve gotten a crystal-clear answer from them in the end,” she said.
Later,
Ingraham’s staff blog skewered Salmon, saying he “did nothing but waffle, waver, and walk back comments in his discussion with Laura on immigration reform — revealing his naiveté to both the political realities facing the House, and the market realities which confront struggling American workers.”
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) came on the show to discuss the Obamacare rollout in late October, but couldn’t escape Ingraham’s preferred topic.
“Don’t waste another second on this immigration law as long as you have these people in office — that’s my point,” she said, arguing that reform should wait for a Republican president.
Chaffetz said he liked the piecemeal bills that have come out of committee in the House and would like to see those become law. He said he didn’t want to go to conference until he received direction from Boehner.
“You’re opening a window — just a crack — for going to conference,” Ingraham responded, adding that she thinks the House’s multiple small bills will add up to the comprehensive reform she opposes. “This piece-by-piece approach is a Trojan horse.”
November 11th, 2013 @ 7:06 am
Why are those who swore solemn oaths to up-hold OUR laws not doing this?
Why are those who flatly refuse to enforce OUR immigation laws not being impeached and punished?
—
Saudi police clash with foreign workers after visa raids.
Authorities this year said they would no longer turn a blind eye to foreign workers breaking visa rules by working for companies that had not sponsored their entry into the world’s top oil exporter.
The intention is to end a black market for cheap imported workers, cut the foreign labor force, reduce the flow of remittances to other countries and make more private sector jobs available for saudi citizens.
https://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/09/us-saudi-foreignworkers-idUSBRE9A80EO20131109
November 11th, 2013 @ 7:28 am
Laura is an attorney. She had many opportunities to speak up about justice. She is 5 years late. Where has she been.
Another hypocrite.
Dr Taitz is the only attorney who never quit!
Stay safe.
November 11th, 2013 @ 9:25 am
WE, are WITH you, Laura! Our Prayers are With you. We Pray and we need YOU.
Thank you.
Jeanmarie D’Azzo
November 11th, 2013 @ 10:33 am
Okay, I’ve noticed (again) that Rubio has been on his tv commercial promoting amnesty for all these illegals! That’s disgusting!
He keeps babbling about how this will be such a hard-core, conservative measure, to not allow these illegals to get away with anything!
Hey, Rub(e): guess what? They already have gotten away with way too much already! Where the hell have you been for the past (5) years?
He tells us of all the hoops illegals will have to jump through, in order to become LEGAL citizens! OMG!
The only thing you (Rube) should be doing is to stand up for America and stop being so damned compassionate with our resources for people who are illegal to be here! And you chain-gang of 8 socialists need to pay attention to what Americans are trying to convey to you.
November 11th, 2013 @ 10:38 am
It is interesting that Laura speaks Russian too.
She is one of America’s most savvy political commentators and analysts.
November 11th, 2013 @ 11:54 am
As to Laura there is the old saying ‘Better late than never’.
November 11th, 2013 @ 12:34 pm
I never heard of her speaking Russian, where did she learn Russian?
November 11th, 2013 @ 12:56 pm
She probably learned to speak Russian in college.
University: BA Russian and English, Dartmouth College (1985) https://www.nndb.com/people/002/000055834/
In July 2009 she adopted a 13-month-old boy, Michael Dmitri, and two years later in June 2011 she announced the adoption of her third child, 13-month-old Nikolai Peter. Both of the boys were from Russia, a nation where Ingraham had spent considerable time earlier. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Ingraham
The pundit, who spent a college semester in Russia, https://voices.washingtonpost.com/reliable-source/2009/07/love_etc_67.html
November 11th, 2013 @ 5:02 pm
Why don’t you go on her show? I’m sure she’d love to have you. It would be so cute to see you two jabbering away in Russian!
November 11th, 2013 @ 6:17 pm
Laura has mentioned in various interviews also that she speaks Russian. She may also speak Polish as she is of Polish descent.
November 12th, 2013 @ 12:29 pm
Hugh:
“jabbering” or ELUCIDATING? Surely the latter and never the former.
November 12th, 2013 @ 9:08 pm
Laura was always, smartly, spot on topic when I used to listen to her by radio two or three years ago but she worked hard to avoid the president’s ineligibility for office. Hopefully she’ll become an even stronger ally.
November 12th, 2013 @ 9:11 pm
Laura was always, smartly, spot on topic when I used to listen to her by radio two or three years ago but she worked hard to avoid the president’s ineligibility for office. Hopefully she’ll become an even stronger ally.
June 7th, 2014 @ 3:37 pm
So, now look at what is happening here a year later.. there are thousands of these migrants sitting in rooms, along the borders, and anywhere that they can stash them, with no idea what to do with hundreds of children, while AZ and TX are being overwhelmed
with bodies. Who knows how many of those bodies are criminals and perverts like Obama?
Holder intends to take money meant for border security to hire lawyers to defend the potential deportation of these people.
My thinking is to cart them up, humanely, of course, and transport them to the streets of Washington D.C., preferably as close to the White House as they can be dropped off.
Let D.C. deal with this craziness.
Every single action of Obama’s is off- the- wall, and yet he remains there in his looney little world, like Drew Peterson, the murderer, UNTOUCHED.
This farce cannot on much longer without something volatile happening, and it won’t be pretty.
We were always so smug,
(and rightfully so, after all we have the Constitution, etc.)
in our trust in our government; we felt some approval of our presidents; we were dismayed at the third world countries who had to fight and rebel physically against their tyrants/dictators, in order to win THEIR freedom from oppression.
Now we have the same tenacious tentacles, slithering in from the lower depths of Hades, issuing mandates and snubbing his nose at America. How did this happen?
Because he was a person of color, with the right words to mesmerize the stupid sheep, those that lacked the common sense to question the background of a strange person from somewhere “out there.”
It is enough to make one wonder when the nightmare will end and we all wake up to find it was a long, bad dream.
September 6th, 2014 @ 11:45 am
Millions of people would love to have that sculpted abs look – flat, hard belly
with zero fat around the middle – and terrific six pack abs.
Oatmeal is also a significant source of dietary
fiber. Insulin also effects leptin and a whole other cascade
of hormones related to fat loss.