Schumer-Graham Immigration Reform Plan May Have Found 2nd GOP Supporter in Cornyn

By • 3/19/10 • Categorized as Immigration News,Immigration Reform

Texas Sen. Jon Cornyn may be the 2nd GOP supporter for the immigration reform bill - Photo: Sen. Cornyn's Office

Texas Sen. Jon Cornyn may be the 2nd GOP supporter for the immigration reform bill. (Photo: Sen. Cornyn's Office)

Apparently under pressure from immigration reform advocates who will march Sunday on the Capitol, Sens. Chuck Schumer (D.-N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R.-S.C.) published their blueprint for an immigration reform bill on Thursday and President Barack Obama quickly expressed his support for it.

Shortly before, in a little noticed bit of news, the initiative may have found a much-sought-after second GOP senator to support it.  Despite widespread opposition among Republicans, Sen. Jon Cornyn (R.-Texas) said he was committed to finding “common ground” on the issue, according to a Spanish-language media outlet.

As expected, the Schumer-Graham plan has a stronger focus on enforcement of border security and hiring practices than the one introduced in the House by U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D.-Ill.) in December.

In a op-ed in The Washington Post, the senators wrote:

Our plan has four pillars: requiring biometric Social Security cards to ensure that illegal workers cannot get jobs; fulfilling and strengthening our commitments on border security and interior enforcement; creating a process for admitting temporary workers; and implementing a tough but fair path to legalization for those already here.

Despite the public gestures, which may be followed Friday by additional announcements from the administration, according to an activist, doubts persist on Capitol Hill on the overhaul’s chances of passing this year. Graham himself warned that Republicans would not support it if Obama and the Democrats pass health care reform using a controversial parliamentary maneuver.

One of the key to-do’s emerging from last week’s meeting between Obama and the two senators was finding another Republican who would support the bill.

Earlier Thursday, Senator Cornyn told Spanish-language wire service Agencia EFE that he was committed to finding “common ground” towards a comprehensive immigration reform bill.

“The problem is there’s no bill yet, there’s no written proposal. I want to see the proposal, see what’s in there… but it won’t happen without leadership from President Obama,” Cornyn said. (This is a re-translation of his remarks, which were reported in Spanish.)

Cornyn told EFE he has discussed the issue with Schumer and said he was ready to work to resolve their disagreements over the propsed bill.

The wire service interviewed Cornyn after he took part in a U.S.-Mexico legislative conference on border issues, during which he said that “the status quo (on immigration) is simply unacceptable.”

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    • Kolosochek

      “The problem is there’s no bill yet, there’s no written proposal. I want to see the proposal, see what’s in there… but it won’t happen without leadership from President Obama,” Cornyn said.

      I thought that Graham and Schumer have wrote a bill by now. They were at it for a year. May be they need to outsource bill writing to China, then it will be done.

    • Feet in Two Worlds

      Dear Kolosochek,

      You’re right. Cornyn would probably have made a different statement after the Schumer-Graham plan was published on The Washington Post‘s site a few hours later. Then again, their op-ed only presents a blueprint, the actual bill has not been made public yet.

      D. Graglia
      Feet in Two Worlds

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    • william

      These politicians who support these criminials should be DEPORTED with them ! What kind of INSANE Gov. REWARDS criminials for their CRIME !!! They are truley a DISGRACE to all Americans !

    • MadMommy

      Only when the American voting public sees enforcement of existing laws, will they consider legislation to help illegal immigrants who want to stay here. The biggest problem is lack of assimilation by the illegal residents. Instead they expect Americans to change for them. Press one for English is always requested now. If you want to get a job, better learn Spanish, bi-lingual is required for most jobs these days.

      Our kids endure overcrowding. Our schools are bursting with students of illegal immigrants. Instead of illegal immigrants coming to the United States, they have brought all the problems of Mexico here. The very problems they wanted to escape are brought with them. This is turning our middle class neighborhoods into Mexican barrios. It’s not fair to American taxpayers who have lost their communities to Mexican intruders to ask them to give them more. They’ve taken too much already. Send them home to ask for their rights as Mexican nationals, don’t just hand them the rights Americans have fought for all these years. They haven’t earned them.

    • Raja reddy

      I am from India and I want my nation to kick out the Muslims from my country. We have given them their country in 1947 and given then 1/3 of our most fertile and resource rich land to less than 1/4 (of the then population) but half of them stayed back and now they are such a big head ache bcuz US supports them.

      US should create a separate nation for these spanish within its borders ,may be texas florida and parts of california or grant them legal status. Personally I suggest the spnanish should fight a civil war for a separate nation within US. That is only fair given the way US has been supporting the breaking up of nations for its gain for half a century now.

      The world wouldnt let it happen if US tries to punish these 10 million people. If such a thing happens US should first take responsibility for all its misdeeds and send military to get countries like india to get rid of the
      more than 300 million illegal muslims staying in india.

    • Chris in Virginia

      To William and MadMommy, read the description of the bill that is available through the link before you start with the knee-jerk reactions to the problem, and see if you can articulate your concerns in terms of what the bill intends to do. Specifically, what do you have against the bill’s tenets? Part of the problem is this incoherent, emotional opposition to things that is partisan-based and devoid of rationality. That does not fix anything, it just polarizes people into opposing camps, and nobody wins.

      To Feet In Two Worlds, there is of course no actual bill yet, there is an outline and blueprint and a request for cosigners like Cronyn. This is how bills start. They are the result of collaboration and negotiation. Once they have something that senators and representatives feel they can sponsor, i.e., put their names to, they will introduce the bill. But it is not like they come out of some Senator’s office perfectly formed, and the general public starts to read and critique them.

      To Raja Reddy, that is a pretty interesting piece of revisionist history, since it manages to go through the litany of resentments and conclude with blaming it all on the US without mentioning Britain once. In fact, the US has had not a thing to do with the conflict between Pakistan and India. Britain controlled India and when India became independent, it was supposed to be divided into two parts with areas consisting of 75% or more Muslims becoming Pakistan and the rest going to India. This did not include Kashmir, which decided to remain independent of both. The result was two wars between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, with Pakistan controlling 37% while India controlled 63%. The third war between Pakistan and India was over property that Pakistan seized and tried to give away. You sound like some disgruntled teenager who blames everything on their parents.