Evangelical leaders shell out $250,000 to support immigration bill

Evangelical Christians are taking to Florida's airwaves in support of immigration reform.

On Thursday, the Evangelical Immigration Table announced a quarter-million-dollar media buy that will include radio ads and billboards in Florida. They're hoping the effort will convince Republican leaders on legislation that provides a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. 

"We’re expecting thousands more to stand up and be counted as advocates of immigration reform," said Dr. Russell Moore, president-elect of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. 

In a media call, spiritual  leaders called immigration reform a "biblical and theological issue."

"Before my political affiliation, I am a Christian," said Rev. Dan Krause, the lead pastor at Chugach Covenant Church in Anchorage. "My values are rooted in that place... I’m completely convinced that God has spoken on this issue. It is our job as Christians and as Christian leaders to love those who are here in Jesus’ name."

The Senate version of the legislation, which is headed to the floor, establishes a 13-year road to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. The bill also creates new opportunities for low-skilled and highly skilled workers to come to the country, and strengthens border security.

The faith-based leaders called the provisions "fair."

Their ads, urging Christians to pray for reform, will air nationally on the Salem Communications Network. There will be additional ads in Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Montana, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.

Florida's share will feature Rev. Dr. David Uth, senior pastor at First Baptist Orlando.

Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas will also see the message plastered on billboards located near a handful of key congressional offices.  

The media buy is part of the Evangelical Immigration Table's #pray4reform campaign.

Another day, another immigration-hardline group pays to bash Marco Rubio in FL

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Floridians for Immigration Enforcement, never big Marco Rubio fans, announced they've put up a billboard near Ocala along I-75 that bashes the Republican Senator for backing an immigration-reform bill that would allow "33 MILLION FOREIGN WORKERS in the next 10 years!"

Immigration-reform supporters say the immigration, especially high-skilled labor, would actually improve the economy.

Meantime, a group of pro-reform pastors, the Evangelical Immigration Table, is putting up a rival billboard near Rubio's office in Jacksonville that reads: "PRAYING FOR IMMIGRANTS. PRAYING FOR CONGRESS." It's also announcing a radio campaign.

On the other side, Californians for Population Stabilization is running spots on Florida TV taking Rubio to task.

Immigrant-bashing "hate" group attacking Rubio: Build fence that "stings people," let "illegals" live "in the shadows."

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Ever hear of the group, Californians for Population Stabilization, which is running Florida ads attacking Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio for backing immigration reform?

Immigrant-rights groups sure have.

"This is a hate group that thinks undocumented children spread disease and filth. Hardliners? They are xenophobic at best," said Kathy Bird Caicedo, with the Florida Immigrant Coalition.

Her evidence: A YouTube video showing ads from CAPS and an interview with its chair, Marilyn DeYoung, who suggests that illegal immigrants aren't screened for whether they're "Communists, drug smugglers," felons or members of Al Qaida.

She also talks about "even the Venezuelans" -- something that wouldn't play well, say, in Doral, home to the United States' largest Venezuelan exile community and homebase of the influential Spanish-language network Univision.

CAPS also gets all environmental, pointing out in one ad that "immigrants produce four times the carbon emissions in the U.S. than they do in their home countries."

"Oh I'm called a racist all the time," DeYoung says in one clip. "That's because they think we dislike them, we dislike illegal immigrants. Well, in a way we do."

"We need to close our borders -- a fence, electric wiring that stings people that they can't get through and  they can't clip," she said. "We're not saying they have to be deported by ICE. Let them live in the United States as illegals in the shadows until they decide to go home."

Immigration-hardline group attacks Marco Rubio in Florida TV spots

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Folks in Brevard County tell us that the hardline group Californians for Population Stablization has begun running at least one of three 30-second spots attacking Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for his help in drafting the Senate's immigration-reform bill.

The spot that's running now, seen on NBC, savages the immigration bill for flooding Florida with workers at a time when joblessness still plagues the land. It's a potent message in the Space Coast for two reasons: It's a very conservative place and unemployment is among the highest in the state.

**Update: The Florida Immigrant Coalition and others call CAPS a "hate group." More here

While the Florida media buys likely aren't big, it's another sign that Rubio -- a 2016 White House hopeful and GOP frontrunner -- faces some conservative blowback in his own backyard for backing immigration reform. And his support for hard-core conservative positions (from voting against an iteration of the Violence Against Women Act to opposing Gulf oil-spill money because it was laden with pork) don't seem to matter as much as adopting a center-right position on immigration reform.

In a statement, Rubio's office disagrees that there's been much blowback because "he was very well received at all the recent GOP dinners he spoke at back in the state, and we continue to get good feedback from our conservative grassroots. There's been a handful of anti-immigration protests, but as your paper has noted, they've been poorly attended.

"I have no objection to you saying that we're getting some backlash from anti-immigration forces, but I'd disagree with characterizing those groups as 'conservative,' since conservatives traditionally support legal immigration, and many of these groups (including the California group running the new ad) do not."

Rubio's not alone. His fellow Republican Senator from Arizona, Jeff Flake, is also targeted with ads that essentially swap out their names and states.

Note: The facts and figures the group uses are controversial and the subject of dispute. Case in point: The finding that the pathway to citizenship (which the ad calls "amnesty") would cost taxpayers $6.3 trillion, according to the Heritage Foundation. That's over 50 years (the ad doesn't note that) and the figure has been bashed as incomplete (and the study had a major PR problem as well). For instance, Harvard Medical School reported today that, from 2002-09, immigrants generated surpluses of $115 billion in the Medicare program while the native-born population generated a deficit of $28 billion.

Here are the spots with the text

When Barack retweeted Jeb: bipartisan immigration-reform effort goes coast to coast

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President Barack Obama, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice all agree: Immigration reform is a must.

"Delaying solutions will only make the problem grow. NOW is the time for immigration reform. Join the #iMarch at http://bit.ly/13KCBor," Bush Tweeted this morning.

The president gave him a retweet.

It's all part of a major bipartisan effort to keep bipartisan immigration reform on track in Congress. A segment of the conservative electorate and the conservative opinion elite, however, want to kill it.

Here's the start of the group's press release:

The Partnership for a New American Economy, Organizing for Action (OFA), and Republicans for Immigration Reform today kicked off the March for Innovation (#iMarch), the largest-ever virtual march on Washington in support of bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform. The March, a two-day event that will end Thursday night, brings together leaders from politics, business, tech, sports, media, and entertainment to create a digital storm across an array of social media to back bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform legislation. (Full list of leaders below.)

Beginning at 8:30 this morning with a Twitter Town Hall led by Mayor Michael Bloomberg that will include Jeb Bush, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and Condoleezza Rice – just a day after the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” immigration bill passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee – top #iMarch supporters will take part in a pass-the-baton style event that will feature a number of online venues and digital tools including Huffington Post Live, Google Hangout, Thunderclap, Twitter Town Halls, Facebook, Reddit, Vine, and others. All of this activity will help drive thousands and thousands of supporters to www.MarchForInnovation.com where they will be able to use social media and digital call tools to urge their elected officials in Washington to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

Download March For Innovation Release (May 22, 2013)

One illegal immigrant's strange almost-pathway to citizenship

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Rene Rivas was about to be deported in the dark of night, at 4 a.m.

But that was last week.

Seven days later, on Monday, the undocumented immigrant was released from an immigration lock-up and allowed to work legally and live openly with his wife and children in Miami for a year.

The roller-coaster story of this 41-year-old construction worker from Durango, Mexico, is anything but common as Congress debates how to handle undocumented immigrants like Rivas.

“It’s rare,” said Rivas’ attorney, Elizabeth Amaran. “But it does happen.”

An essential ingredient: the involvement of U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson.

After Democrat brinksmanship, House group reaches immigration deal

@MarcACaputo& @FrancoOrdonez

A bipartisan U.S. House group hammered out an immigration-reform deal late Thursday after years of closed-door meetings and last-minute brinksmanship from a top Democrat.

The final agreement, which could be drafted into legislation by June 1, came together after California Rep. Xavier Becerra dropped what sources said was a blanket objection to denying immigrants healthcare benefits after they become legalized as part of a pathway to citizenship.

The House members and their aides refused to discuss many particulars, although it’s clear that portions of their bill are more conservative than the plan from the Democratically controlled Senate.

The House plan would call for a citizenship path that last 15 years – two years longer than the Senate version.

But it’s not too conservative, either.

“It’s pretty clear if we’re going to pass legislation, it has to be bipartisan,” Rep. Mario Diaz Balart, R-Miami.

“The reason this has been a long arduous and difficult process – again if I had drafted it myself it would have been different – but the fact is you have to keep both parties on board.”

Cuban-American lawyer group: Grassley amendment bad for Cuban refugees

One of the least-talked about but most-significant aspects of the nation's immigration debate is the outsized influence of Cuban-Americans. Sen. Marco Rubio is helping push the immigration bill with Sen. Bob Menendez and Sen. Ted Cruz is essentially fighting them. In the House, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart is one of the key players.

So perhaps it's little wonder that Cuban refugees, who get a de facto pathway to citizenship by virtue of longstanding U.S. law, will continue to get that special immigration treatment.

Still, there are concerns in the Cuban-American community with the immigration debate. Today, the Cuban American Bar Association wrote a letter voicing its opposition to one of the many amendments to the Senate's immigration bill offered by Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa.

Some key excerpts:

In CABA’s view, one shared by many practitioners and scholars of constitutional and immigration law, “Grassley53” would permit a process contrary to the Supreme Court’s decisions in Zadvydas v. Davis, 588 U.S. 678 (2001), and Clark v. Martinez, 543 U.S. 371 (2005), as well as federal district court rulings. “Grassley53” would allow the Department of Homeland Security to indefinitely detain Cuban refugees, as well as others in similar situations, with final removal orders that cannot be carried out.

Bombshell request to Democrat U.S. Reps at forum: Can you stop dad from being deported at 4 a.m.?

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Carlos Rivas was told to keep it short when he asked the four members of Congress a question. They were hungry and the immigration forum in North Miami was running late.

“My dad, he was two months ago arrested by ICE. I have my family right here: My mom and my three brothers and sisters. We don’t know what to do, pretty much,” Rivas, 18 said.

“He’s about to be deported tomorrow at 4 a.m.” he said. “And I wanted to know what you could do for us because right now, I don’t know, I can’t even go to school because I can’t pay for it. I don’t know. What can you do? Is there any help you can try to give us?”

Rep. Frederica Wilson, the Miami Democrat who hosted the forum, was floored.

“Oh my God,” she said. “You know what time?”

Rivas: “4 a.m. in the morning.”

Wilson: “4 am in the morning? Why are you just telling us? We could have helped you perhaps. It’s too late.”

Someone from the audience of 200 or so citizens chimed in: “It’s never too late.”

Immigration reform: It’s not just about Mexicans.

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Immigration reform: It’s not just about Mexicans.

A group of Democratic members of Congress relayed that message Monday at an immigration forum in North Miami, home to one of the nation’s largest Haitian communities.

“You can’t discuss a new modern immigration system without discussing a new, fairer treatment of Haitians,” said U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, a top House immigration-reform player.

“Immigration reform is not just Mexicans. It’s not just Latinos,” he said before the Haitian Evangelical Baptists Church forum. “Look at the richness of people coming from the Bahamas and Jamaica. And, of course, look at people from Haiti.”

The message was tailor-made for many in the crowd.

After the 2010 earthquake that left tens — if not hundreds — of thousands dead or homeless, thousands of Haitian immigrants flooded the United States.

As a result, U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson represents one of the most-Haitian congressional districts, home to Monday night’s forum.

Right now, none of those recent Haitian immigrants get special consideration in the immigration bill proposed in the Senate, drafted in part by West Miami resident and Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio.

The House has yet to release its bill and Gutierrez won’t discuss its contents.

More here