RNC Chairman Meets Immigration Group, Sides Differ on Outcome (Promises AMNESTY)
RNC Chairman Meets Immigration Group, Sides Differ on Outcome
So what exactly happened when the chairman of the Republican National Committee met with immigration activists Wednesday? According to a news release put out by the activists, he said he would try and recruit Republican support for comprehensive immigration legislation.
The RNC says he made no such commitment. The immigration activist who led the meeting said he did, but then backpedaled after being signaled by a staffer that he may have gone too far.
Everyone agrees that Michael Steele, RNC chairman, met with a group of activists from the Fair Immigration Reform Movement. Afterwards, FIRM put out a statement implying that Steele was firmly in their camp. The statement said that the activists “walked away with a commitment from Steele to work with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and the party’s leadership to enlist another Republican senator’s support for comprehensive and bipartisan immigration reform.”
Graham is working with Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer on an immigration bill, but has made it clear that he wants at least one other Republican on board before they introduce it. So far, that Republican has been hard to find. So news that Steele was helping with the recruitment was notable. And, from the other end of the political spectrum, it’s significant given the deep opposition among many Republicans to comprehensive legislation, which will surely include a path to citizenship for people who came to the U.S. illegally.
So did Steele walk into another sticky political mess?
No, the RNC said. Asked about the statement, RNC spokesman Doug Heye said “none of it is right” and said the meeting was an opportunity to listen to concerns and discuss the GOP’s “strong support of legal immigration.”
“Any claim that the RNC made any policy commitments is a clear misrepresentation,” Heye said in an email. He declined to answer further questions about the meeting.
Mary Moreno of the Center for Community Change, who released the original statement, referred Washington Wire to two of the activists who were in the room.
Pramila Jayapal, executive director of OneAmerica, the largest immigrant rights coalition in Washington state, said that Steele committed himself to a “holistic bipartisan consensus on immigration reform” and said he believes the Republican party should be “reaching out.” She said he said he would call Graham and work with the party leadership to “determine where things are in immigration reform.” But she said he stopped short of promising to recruit other Republicans.
But the second activist said he did in fact make that offer. Joshua Hoyt, executive director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, said Steele went through a list of possible Republicans in the Senate who might sign on to the effort, said he would try to recruit another sponsor and agreed with the activists on their goal of getting legislation introduced by April 30.
But Hoyt said that midway through the meeting, an RNC staffer signaled to Steele that he should “walk back what he had said.” After that, Hoyt said, Steele said he emphasized that he could not “get ahead” of Republican Senate leaders.
Moreno said the group stands by its statement.
