Source:
NPRThe situation has encouraged some activists to engage in civil disobedience, with a promise of more, to draw attention to their frustration over the lack of congressional action and the administration's continued enforcement of deportation efforts some see as draconian. (On Wednesday, Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois and Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana called on the White House to stop the deportations of young people eligible for a path to citizenship through college or the military.)
Meanwhile,
Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican who in the past co-sponsored legislation that included a path to citizenship, on Monday called the Arizona bill "a very important step forward." This week,
he proposed a plan with fellow Arizona GOP Sen. Jon Kyl that focuses on bolstering security on the Mexican border. Their proposal includes the deployment of 3,000 more border patrol agents in Arizona by 2015, and funding to help local law enforcement officials in the battle against drug and human smuggling.
But the McCain-Kyl proposal also might force Obama's hand -- and that of Democratic leaders who have watched the dying fortunes of bipartisan legislation sponsored by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York. (Kyl has promised a GOP filibuster of the bill.) "
Given that McCain and Kyl have laid out their vision of immigration reform, it would be a little awkward for the Democrats not to have their own vision," says Angela Kelly of the Center for American Progress. "I suspect they'll have something, but I would hope that it would be done in the spirit of inviting Republicans to their table."
Last month, 200,000 supporters of an immigration overhaul rallied in Washington on the same day that 2,000 members of the Tea Party movement demonstrated outside the U.S. Capitol during the health care vote. Media coverage focused almost exclusively on the Tea Partiers, which infuriated advocates of an overhaul.
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