Republicans: "Deport 'Em!"

So this is what Republicans think of as "immigration reform."

Last night, nihilistic vandals, a.k.a. the Republican House of Representatives, passed a bill that can best be summed up as "Deport!  Deport!  Deport!"

The vote marks the third time in the 113th Congress that House Republicans have passed legislation that would, effectively, require the deportation of so-called Dreamers. They are the only immigration-related bills that have been allowed votes in the full House in 2013 or 2014. 

"This, in all honesty and candor, is one of the most mean-spirited and anti-immigrant pieces of legislation I've seen in all of my years in the Congress," said Rep. John Conyers (MI), the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee.  [snip]

"Where are our hearts?" said Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), a civil rights hero, in a fiery floor speech. "Where are our souls?" 

You won't find any hearts and souls on the other side of the aisle, Rep. Lewis.  They need to pay dearly for this.

Bishop Eusebio Elizondo of Seattle, who heads the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' immigration policy group, called the Republican bill  “a low point for our country. It eviscerates American values of justice and due process and stains our record as a defender of human rights globally.”

Of course, the bill is dead on arrival in the Senate;  but the drooling crackpots in the House Republican caucus were fully aware of that.  They're playing to their nativist, racist base while trying to force President Obama into executive actions that they will doubtless find "impeachable offenses."  Just watch.

Where Reforms Go To Die

Now that the Senate has voted 68 - 32 on an immigration reform package, attention turns to the Rethug-controlled House, where Weeper of the House John "Mr. Tangerine Man" Boehner has already dismissed the Senate bill out of hand, and won't consider a bill that the majority of House Rethugs don't support.  The reason:  the strong tea bagger caucus that dominates the Rethug majority.   Immigration reform, which the Rethuglicans need to get on the right side of for national political reasons, will be almost impossible to pass thanks to nativist / racist tea bagger resistance.

Some optimists are pinning their hopes for reform on the Democratic minority and a handful of Rethugs getting together to pass a discharge petition, which would bring an immigration reform bill to the floor for a vote.  As this piece in TPM notes, however, that's a long shot at best, as few if any Rethugs of a "moderate" persuasion on immigration will buck their leadership and vote with the Dems.  (Though there are some significant Rethuglican interests that support reform and will be pressuring Mr. Tangerine Man.)  So it looks like we're in to a "stall" pattern as House Rethuglicans try to figure out how to blame their obstruction of reform on the Dems and Obama.