カテゴリーアーカイブ: Immigration

A GOP Minority Is Holding the Party Hostage Over Immigration

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As the Republican leaders in the House of Representatives lick their wounds following their failure on Friday to advance a bill that would fund the Department of Homeland Security for the remainder of the fiscal year – their resistance driven by anger at the administration’s immigration policy – observers are taking stock of the GOP’s tortured relationship with the issue of immigration. 

Its hardliners can’t abide the idea of a compromise that could be described as “amnesty,” and they won’t be moved by pleas from party leaders that their intransigence is doing the GOP short-term damage politically and long-term damage with the growing Hispanic portion of the electorate. 

Related: House Averts DHS Shutdown with 7-Day Sending Extension 

“For most of this year,” Rachel Morris wrote in Washington Monthly, “the Republican Party has been publicly waging an ugly internal fight over immigration. Like the president—and, polls show, most Americans—a bipartisan coalition in the Senate supports comprehensive reform. But House Republicans, fearful of their inflamed base, won’t budge from an enforcement-only measure.” 

Oh, wait. Sorry. Morris wrote that in October. Of 2006. 

Yes, that’s really how long this has been going on and, in fact, one could argue that things are actually worse today than they were when her article was published eight and a half years ago. 

In 2015, House Republicans don’t even have an immigration bill to argue about. The closest they have come is the current fight over the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill, which Republicans are trying to load up with riders that would block enforcement of the president’s executive actions lifting the threat of deportation from millions of illegal immigrants. 

Related: It’s Rand Paul at the Top of the CPAC Straw Poll; Scott Walker a Close Second 

Those millions of immigrants, members of both parties generally admit, aren’t going to be deported anyway. Of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., the five million or so Obama would allow to come out of the shadows are the lowest priority for an already overloaded enforcement system. 

So, they are staying, regardless of the president’s executive order. The fight, in large part, seems to be over admitting that reality. And because the DHS funding bill has become the current loyalty test that the Republican base applies to its candidates, it has been taking up rather a lot of the oxygen in GOP policy discussions lately. That is particularly true among some GOP presidential hopefuls who have taken compromise positions on the issue in the past, most of whom could not be backpedalling harder or faster. 

On Sunday morning, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who has quickly vaulted close to the top of the early running for the Republican nomination, turned 180 degrees from a position he had advocated as recently as 2013 when he told a newspaper reporter that offering illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship made sense. 

Related: Obama’s Immigration Setback Is a Gift to GOP 

“My view has changed,” Walker said when confronted with the statement by Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace. “I’m flat-out saying it. Candidates can say that.” 

He told Wallace, “I don’t believe in amnesty, and part of the reason why I’ve made that a firm position is I look at the way this president has mishandled that issue. I think the better approach is to enforce the laws and to give employers – job creators – the tools…to make sure the law is being upheld going forward.” 

Last week at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio was forced to ritually disown his former stance on immigration in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity. Hannity reminded Rubio that he had admitted to “regretting” his support of a comprehensive immigration reform plan that allowed a path to legality for some immigrants. 

Rubio readily agreed, and launched into full-throated appeal for ever more border enforcement. It turned out to be the beginning of a trend. 

Related: Obama’s Immigration Order Blocked by Federal Judge 

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who has been criticized by fellow Republicans for supporting such things as in-state university tuition for illegals, used his time on stage at CPAC to talk tough about immigration border enforcement as well. He touted his decision to send 1,000 National Guard troops to the Texas-Mexico border last year, steering far clear of his more moderate policies while serving as governor. 

Rubio and Perry alike used the alleged deficiency of current border enforcement as an excuse to forestall any discussion of substantive immigration reform. 

To his credit, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush walked into the lion’s den last and did admit at least one part of the obvious truth. “The simple fact is, there is no plan to deport 11 million people,” he told the CPAC audience. “We should give them a path to legal status, where they work, where they don’t receive government benefits, they don’t break the law, they learn English, and they make a contribution to our society.” 

He quickly pivoted to a denunciation of the president’s executive orders and a call for more border enforcement. Bush suggested that the unaccompanied minors who came to the U.S. in droves last year ought to have been turned back at the border. 

His past comments on the issue suggest he really believes there ought to have been a system in place to return them safely to their families, but at CPAC, the comment was left hanging without elaboration. 

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Monkey Cage: Opposition to immigration reform is a winning strategy for Republicans

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(Jose Luis Magana/Reuters)

Some Republicans are so opposed to immigration reform that they are willing to withhold funding for Department of Homeland Security just to fight back against President Obama’s executive order on immigration. To many observers, this in politically foolish. In their minds, the country’s increasing racial diversity makes it risky to oppose immigration reform.

This argument makes some sense. Immigrants and other minorities tend to care a lot about immigration and they tend to favor the Democratic Party on the issue. Recent polls indicate that Latino approval of President Obama went up markedly after he issued his executive order on immigration.

So why don’t Republicans get it? The answer is that Republicans’ opposition to immigration reform actually represents a winning strategy, not a losing one. Here’s why.

Republicans win or lose largely depending on white voters. Whites still make up the vast majority of voters – some 75 percent in 2014 – and whites tend to favor the Republican Party by large margins. Republican congressional candidates garnered 60 percent of the white vote in 2014. All told, 89 percent of all Republican votes in 2014 came from white voters. Put simply, the Republican Party doesn’t really need the minority vote.

Moreover, whites also increasingly care about immigration. A new book by Marisa Abrajano and myself reveals the significant impact immigration has had on white party politics.

We find that white views on immigration are correlated with their partisan identity and their electoral choices. In the last midterm, for example, 75 percent of Americans who felt that most illegal immigrants should be deported voted for Republican candidates. By contrast, only 35 percent of those who favored a chance for undocumented immigrants to apply for legal status favored Republicans. As I show in research with Michael Rivera, the relationship between attitudes on immigration and white vote choice holds even after accounting for the other factors that we think affect how people vote.

But does this correlation imply causation? To answer that more difficult question, we looked to see if attitudes on immigration at one point in time predicted changes in partisanship later on. The answer is yes. To be sure, the effect is not large — but even small individual shifts in partisanship, once repeated over the course of decades, can become massive electoral shifts over time.

In another study, Marisa Abrajano, Hans Hassell, and I showed that reporting on immigration was associated with shifts in the overall share of white Democrats and white Republicans in the electorate. It does, and to a startling degree. The more media coverage of immigration is negative, the larger the share of white Republicans in the electorate.

By any measure, fears of immigration are driving many white Americans to the Republican Party.  And, indeed, the Republican strategy on immigration appears to have been successful. Republicans now control the House and the Senate, the governor’s office in 31 states, and two-thirds of the state legislatures. They are winning the political war.

But what about the future? Isn’t a Republican Party demise all but inevitable when whites lose their majority status toward the middle of this century? The short answer is probably not.

Turnout is one factor. Low Latino and Asian American turnout means that whites will likely still be a majority of voters long after they cease to be a majority of the national population.

An even bigger factor is that the ties of racial and ethnic minorities to the Democratic Party are tenuous. Research by Taeku Lee and myself shows that most Latinos and Asian Americans don’t feel like they fit into either party. In national surveys, those who refuse to answer a question about party identification, those who claim that they do not think in partisan terms, and independents make up the clear majority of both groups. All told, 56 percent of Latinos and 57 percent of Asian-American identify as nonpartisans.

Even among blacks, there are signs of ambivalence. Almost 30 percent of blacks feel that the Democratic Party does not work hard for black interests.

Add to all of this the fact that voters of all racial stripes tend to have short memories and it is clear that the Republican Party can continue its anti-immigration stance well into the future. Republicans will probably relent and agree to fund the Department of Homeland Security but don’t look for them to relent on immigration anytime soon.

Zoltan L. Hajnal is a professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego, and a co-author of “White Backlash: Immigration, Race, and American politics.”

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Immigration to Britain rises in pre-election blow to PM Cameron

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* Net immigration rose 40 percent in year to Sept

* Govt had pledged to slash numbers moving to Britain

* Anti-immigration UKIP has risen in polls (Adds Cameron’s spokeswoman, poll, graphic)

By Kylie MacLellan

LONDON, Feb 26 (Reuters) – The number of people moving to Britain surged last year, an embarrassment for Prime Minister David Cameron, whose Conservatives had pledged to cut net annual migration to the tens of thousands, close to a national election.

Official data published on Thursday showed a net 298,000 people moved to Britain in the year to September 2014, a 40 percent rise from the previous 12 months and more than when the Conservative-led coalition government took power in 2010.

With polls showing the Conservatives neck-and-neck with the opposition Labour party ahead of the May 7 vote and immigration one of voters’ top concerns, the rise is awkward for Cameron. His party is also under pressure from the UK Independence Party (UKIP), which favours strong curbs on immigration.

Both Labour and UKIP said Cameron’s immigration pledge was now “in tatters.”

“This government’s policy is fatally holed beneath the water line and is sinking fast,” said UKIP migration spokesman Steven Woolfe, describing the numbers as “absolutely staggering.”

A ComRes poll for ITV on Thursday showed UKIP was by far the most trusted party to control immigration, and 40 percent of Britons said immigration had a negative impact on the economy.

A spokeswoman for Cameron said the figures were “disappointing” but that the government had taken several steps to tackle the levels of migration and the prime minister did not regret making the promise.

“He thinks it is in the interests of our country, that we will have a better, stronger country if we had lower net migration,” she said.

Cameron, who has pledged to re-negotiate Britain’s ties with the EU ahead of a 2017 membership referendum if re-elected, has set out plans to restrict EU migrants’ access to welfare benefit payments in a bid to make it less attractive to come to Britain.

Releasing its final migration data before the election, Britain’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the number of EU citizens coming to Britain increased by 43,000 to 251,000 during the period.

The number of immigrants from Romania and Bulgaria, whose restrictions on working in Britain were removed on Jan. 1 last year, was 37,000, up from 24,000 over the same period in 2013.

With British economic growth outpacing most of the EU it has become an increasingly appealing destination for those seeking work. The ONS said that between October and December 2014 employment of EU nationals in Britain was 269,000 higher than a year earlier.

(Editing by Andrew Osborn and Catherine Evans)

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Obama defends immigration policy in Telemundo town hall

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Washington (CNN)President Barack Obama called out Republicans in Congress for “holding hostage” funding for the Department of Homeland Security, while challenging Americans to change the political environment that has caused immigration reform to stall during a town hall meeting on Wednesday.

The agency in charge of implementing immigration policy, among other duties, is scheduled to run out of funding Friday if the GOP-controlled Congress can’t agree to a funding bill.

READ: DHS impasse down to the wire in Congress

Judge blocks Obama's order on immigration Judge blocks Obama's order on immigration

“Instead of trying to hold hostage funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which is so important for our national security, fund that and let’s get on with actually passing comprehensive immigration reform,” Obama said at the event, aired on Telemundo and MSNBC, and hosted by José Díaz-Balart, an anchor on both channels.

The meeting was announced in the days following a ruling last week from a federal district court judge that temporarily blocked Obama’s executive action on immigration.The White House said it was a chance for the President to reach the Hispanic community, taking questions from online and members of the audience.

During the event, the President called on voters to make immigration reform a successful social movement — and a key issue in the next presidential election.

    “Every major social movement, every bit of progress in this country, whether it’s been the workers’ rights movement or the civil rights movement or the women’s rights movement, every single bit of that progress had required us to fight and to push and you make progress,” Obama said. “You don’t get everything right away, and then you push some more.”

    The President also defended the legality of his executive action, but said that passing comprehensive reform in Congress should be the end goal. When asked about the failure of Congress to pass legislation he laid the blame squarely on the GOP.

    “You do a disservice when you suggest that no one was doing anything, then you don’t know who was fighting for and against you,” Obama said. “The Democratic Party has been consistent. A few Republicans have supported it but let’s be clear the reason why we don’t have a bill is because [House Speaker] John Boehner wouldn’t call a vote.”

    Obama offered praise for 2016 Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush.

    “I appreciate Mr. Bush being concerned about immigration reform,” he said. “I would suggest that what he do is talk to the speaker of the House and the members of his party.”

    Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin is considered a possible Republican candidate, but he told CNN that his priority is to first help the GOP capture the Senate in next November's midterms.Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin is considered a possible Republican candidate, but he told CNN that his priority is to first help the GOP capture the Senate in next November's midterms.
    Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican rising star from Florida, was swept into office in 2010 on the back of tea party fervor. But his support of comprehensive immigration reform, which passed the Senate but has stalled in the House, has led some in his party to sour on his prospects. Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican rising star from Florida, was swept into office in 2010 on the back of tea party fervor. But his support of comprehensive immigration reform, which passed the Senate but has stalled in the House, has led some in his party to sour on his prospects.
    Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has said his decision to run for the Republican nomination will be based on two things -- his family and whether he can lift America's spirit. His father and brother formerly served as President. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has said his decision to run for the Republican nomination will be based on two things -- his family and whether he can lift America's spirit. His father and brother formerly served as President.
    Hillary Clinton continues to have an overwhelming lead over other possible 2016 Democratic presidential candidates. Although the former first lady and secretary of state has not said whether she'll run, a group of PACs and advocacy organizations have begun the process of raising money and aiding a hypothetical campaign. Hillary Clinton continues to have an overwhelming lead over other possible 2016 Democratic presidential candidates. Although the former first lady and secretary of state has not said whether she'll run, a group of PACs and advocacy organizations have begun the process of raising money and aiding a hypothetical campaign.
    Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said recently it's too early to announce whether he'll run. Jindal has said he wants to focus on "winning the war of ideas" before making a decision on his presidential ambitions.Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said recently it's too early to announce whether he'll run. Jindal has said he wants to focus on "winning the war of ideas" before making a decision on his presidential ambitions.
    Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee member Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., asserts an objection to Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., a Democratic sponsor of the long-stalled Keystone XL pipeline bill, as the committee met to advance the controversial project, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2015, on Capitol Hill in Washington.Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee member Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., asserts an objection to Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., a Democratic sponsor of the long-stalled Keystone XL pipeline bill, as the committee met to advance the controversial project, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2015, on Capitol Hill in Washington.
    Former US Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., gestures during a talk at the AP Day at the Capitol in Richmond, Va., Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2014. Former US Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., gestures during a talk at the AP Day at the Capitol in Richmond, Va., Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2014.
    Vice President Joe Biden has twice before made unsuccessful bids for the Oval Office -- in 1988 and 2008. A former senator known for his foreign policy and national security expertise, Biden made the rounds on the morning shows recently and said he thinks he'd "make a good President." Vice President Joe Biden has twice before made unsuccessful bids for the Oval Office -- in 1988 and 2008. A former senator known for his foreign policy and national security expertise, Biden made the rounds on the morning shows recently and said he thinks he'd "make a good President."
    New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has fallen out of the top spot among potential Republican presidential candidates with a political scandal roiling his administration.New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has fallen out of the top spot among potential Republican presidential candidates with a political scandal roiling his administration.
    Rep. Paul Ryan, a former 2012 vice presidential candidate and fiscally conservative budget hawk, says he's "keeping my options open" for a possible presidential run but is not focused on it.Rep. Paul Ryan, a former 2012 vice presidential candidate and fiscally conservative budget hawk, says he's "keeping my options open" for a possible presidential run but is not focused on it.
    Sen. Rand Paul has said that he was seriously considering a run for president in 2016. If the tea party favorite decides to jump in, he likely will have to address previous controversies that include comments on civil rights, a plagiarism allegation, and his assertion the top NSA official lied to Congress about surveillance.Sen. Rand Paul has said that he was seriously considering a run for president in 2016. If the tea party favorite decides to jump in, he likely will have to address previous controversies that include comments on civil rights, a plagiarism allegation, and his assertion the top NSA official lied to Congress about surveillance.
    Texas Sen. Ted Cruz plans to travel to states that factor into the early nomination process. The first-term Republican and tea party darling is considered a gifted orator and smart politician. He is best known in the Senate for his marathon filibuster over defunding Obamacare.Texas Sen. Ted Cruz plans to travel to states that factor into the early nomination process. The first-term Republican and tea party darling is considered a gifted orator and smart politician. He is best known in the Senate for his marathon filibuster over defunding Obamacare.
    Maryland Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley released a "buzzy" political video in November 2013 in tandem with visits to New Hampshire. He also headlined a Democratic Party event in South Carolina, which holds the first southern primary. Maryland Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley released a "buzzy" political video in November 2013 in tandem with visits to New Hampshire. He also headlined a Democratic Party event in South Carolina, which holds the first southern primary.
    Republican Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced in 2013 that he would not be seeking re-election, leading to speculation he might mount a second White House bid. Republican Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced in 2013 that he would not be seeking re-election, leading to speculation he might mount a second White House bid.
    Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, a social conservative, gave Mitt Romney his toughest challenge in the nomination fight last time out and has made trips recently to early voting states, including Iowa and South Carolina. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, a social conservative, gave Mitt Romney his toughest challenge in the nomination fight last time out and has made trips recently to early voting states, including Iowa and South Carolina.
    Political observers expect New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to yield to Hillary Clinton should she run in 2016, fearing there wouldn't be room in the race for two Democrats from the Empire State. Should she not jump in, Cuomo would then be a potential candidate.Political observers expect New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to yield to Hillary Clinton should she run in 2016, fearing there wouldn't be room in the race for two Democrats from the Empire State. Should she not jump in, Cuomo would then be a potential candidate.
    13 Scott Walker 101704 Marco Rubio 101714 Jeb Bush 101701 Hillary Clinton 201610 Bobby Jindal 101701 Bernie Sanders 011501 Jim Webb 0115 RESTRICTED03 Joe Biden 101702 chris christie05 Paul Ryan 101706 Rand Paul 101707 Ted Cruz 101708 Martin O'Malley 101709 Rick Perry 101711 Rick Santorum 101712 Andrew Cuomo 1017

    One question for Obama came from a young veteran, Eric Narvaez, who said he was medically discharged from the military after fighting in Afghanistan.

    “I come back home and only to find out that I’m fighting another war with my mother, tryin’ to keep her here,” he said.

    Obama told him he was confident the veteran’s mother would qualify for the executive action program that the judge has blocked.

    The question illustrated the personal nature of the event, with many of the questions coming from people whose lives would be deeply affected by the executive actions Obama has championed.

    The White House has repeatedly said it has the authority to utilize “prosecutorial discretion” when deporting undocumented immigrants, focusing law enforcement efforts on those who represent a danger to society. When asked about Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers who don’t adhere to this policy, Obama said there would be consequences for those who don’t follow orders.

    But the event also showed the complex nature of the issue and much of the President’s time was spent explaining the limits of his own power.

    “In order for us to get absolute certainty that it’s gonna be permanent and not just temporary, that it doesn’t just last during my administration and then get reversed by the next president, is we’ve gotta pass a bill,” Obama said. “It means that, for the next set of presidential candidates … when they start asking for votes, the first question should be, ‘Do you really intend to deport 11 million people?’”

    Obama told the audience, when it comes to voting, staying home is not an option.

    “Everybody here and everybody watching also has responsibilities, and one of those responsibilities is voting for people who advocate on behalf of the things that you care about,” he said.

    Looking ahead to 2016 and beyond, he called on young people in the audience to look to the future.

    “At some point there’s gonna be a President Rodriguez or there’s gonna be a President Chin,” Obama said drawing applause. “The country is a nation of immigrants and ultimately it will reflect who we are and its politics will reflect who we are. And that’s not something to be afraid of.”

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Obama defends immigration policy in Telemundo town hall
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Will John Boehner Back Down on Immigration?

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The most ominous development in the congressional showdown over homeland security funding and immigration came on Wednesday morning, when Speaker John Boehner made an odd admission to his House Republican troops: He hadn’t spoken to Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, in more than two weeks.

Funding for the Department of Homeland Security expires at midnight on Friday, but even as that deadline approached, the two top Republicans in Congress hadn’t exchanged a word, much less agreed on a plan to resolve the impasse. A day earlier, McConnell had signaled he would cave to Democratic demands that he bring up a straight-forward spending bill for DHS, stripped of the offending House-passed immigration provisions that had caused the standoff in the first place. Boehner’s disclosure, made in a private GOP meeting and quickly passed on to reporters, was a way of showing angry House conservatives that he had played no part in McConnell’s scheme.

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See also

How Republicans Made Their Own Security-Funding Mess

What Happens If Homeland Security Shuts Down

Could it all be an exaggerated, good-cop-bad-cop routine? Sure. Aides to Boehner and McConnell have always insisted they work exceedingly well together, better even than previous GOP leadership pairs (most notably, Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole in the mid-1990s). And when Boehner spoke to reporters on Wednesday, he noted that their staffs had been in contact, so it’s not as if the speaker is ignorant of his Senate counterpart’s machinations. Politically, the newly-elevated McConnell is in a stronger position within his conference than Boehner, who won re-election despite some two dozen GOP defections last month.

Yet the whole episode reeks of the one thing McConnell promised to fix when Republicans assumed the majority: dysfunction. “There’s trouble in paradise,” remarked Dick Durbin, the second-ranking Senate Democrat, when he was asked about the lack of communication between Boehner and McConnell. Most Republicans have realized for weeks that the party would eventually have to fold, or at least punt, on the DHS funding fight. McConnell simply decided to move first, and end the standoff. As a token to conservatives, he announced the Senate would also advance a separate bill reversing President Obama’s immigration actions. Split off from the DHS measure, though, that vote would be largely symbolic. Some Republicans had hoped that a Texas federal judge’s ruling to block the president’s policy would resolve the impasse in Congress, but conservatives say it merely emboldens them to stand their ground.

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Senate Democrats, understandably suspicious of the GOP’s motives, initially balked at McConnell’s offer to have a clean vote and demanded Boehner’s assurance that it would pass the House in time to avert a partial DHS shutdown. But after the speaker refused, Minority Leader Harry Reid relented, and Democrats dropped their filibuster of the House bill.

“Republicans are blamed for anything that makes people unhappy.”

With the Senate now moving toward passage of a clean DHS measure ahead of Friday’s deadline, the crucial decision once again falls to Boehner: Does he risk the wrath of conservatives by bringing up a spending bill that does nothing to stop Obama? Or does he try to fashion a stopgap measure that keeps the department fully functioning and buys Republicans a few more weeks? “If they send back a clean DHS bill, I don’t see us passing it,” Representative John Fleming, a Louisiana conservative, told me on Wednesday. “Our base wants us to fight.”

Recommended: ‘What ISIS Really Wants’: The Response

Fleming predicted Boehner would pay a “huge political price” if he buckled to Democrats after vowing the House would fight Obama’s immigration move “tooth and nail.” Yet party leaders are well aware of polls showing that the public would blame the GOP if DHS shut down, just as voters faulted Republicans when the entire federal government shuttered in 2013. It’s a reminder conservatives like Fleming are tired of hearing. “Republicans are blamed for anything that makes people unhappy,” he said.

This article was originally published at http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/02/will-republicans-back-down-on-immigration/386093/?UTM_SOURCE=yahoo

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Immigration Street 'fractures' area

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25 February 2015
Last updated at 10:22








Derby Road in SouthamptonFilming took place last year in the Bevois area of Southampton


Residents living in an area of Southampton shown in the controversial programme Immigration Street have said it has left the community “fractured” and fearing a backlash.

The Channel 4 documentary broadcast on Tuesday night – a follow-up to Benefits Street – was filmed in Derby Road.

The programme showed scenes of interviewees being threatened and film crews pelted with eggs and grit.

Resident Ali Begg said he felt “totally disappointed” after watching the show.

Mr Begg said: “There is going to be a lot of backlash mainly on the anti-Muslim and the anti-Islamic stance that they have put up.

“They’ve shown us in a really bad light where they are saying that people are threatening them – but hang on, you provoked that. I’m not saying that’s right but we did say ‘don’t come here’.

“I don’t think it shows a true reflection.”

Ofcom said it had received one complaint about the programme.

A spokesman for the media watchdog said: “Someone got in touch to say it was a poorly made programme. We will assess this complaint before deciding whether to investigate or not.”


Derby Road residents in meetingMany of the residents in the street were against the show

Immigration Street had been due to be a series but was changed to a one hour-long documentary after filming was disrupted by protests.

Pat O’Dell, from Newtown Residents’ Association, said: “It was cleverly edited to bring in the violence. It’s had such an effect on the community.

“It’s caused a fracture in the community and brought mistrust – now we’ve got to work to try and get it back together again.”

Love Productions, the company behind the programme, said the film aimed to capture contemporary life on an ethnically diverse street in Southampton.

Producer Kieran Smith said the film used “ordinary people and their lives to start a debate about immigration”.

“Derby Road is a place that’s been transformed by immigration it’s a place where immigrants still come and make their home,” Mr Smith said.

Hampshire Constabulary said it was stepping up patrols in the area to reassure residents.

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McConnell proposes immigration vote to resolve impasse

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Days from a Homeland Security Department shutdown, Senate Republicans sought a way out Monday by splitting President Barack Obama’s contested immigration measures from the agency’s funding bill.

It was not clear whether the gambit by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would succeed ahead of Friday’s midnight deadline to fund the department or see it shut down. It was far from certain whether it would win any Democratic support, and House conservatives remain firmly opposed to any funding bill for the Homeland Security Department that does not also overturn Obama’s executive actions on immigration.

But with Senate Democrats united against a House-passed bill that funds the agency while blocking the president on immigration, McConnell said it was time for another approach.

“It’s another way to get the Senate unstuck from a Democrat filibuster and move the debate forward,” McConnell said on the Senate floor after a vote to advance the House-passed bill failed 47-46, short of the 60 votes needed. Three previous attempts earlier in the month had yielded similar results.

“This is our colleagues’ chance to do exactly what they led their constituents to believe they’d do: defend the rule of law, without more excuses,” McConnell said in a jab at the handful of Senate Democrats who have voiced opposition to Obama’s executive actions offering work permits and deportation deferrals for millions in the country illegally.

A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, welcomed McConnell’s move, though without predicting its chances of success in the House.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., leaves …

“This vote will highlight the irresponsible hypocrisy of any Senate Democrat who claims to oppose President Obama’s executive overreach on immigration, but refuses to vote to stop it,” said Boehner spokesman Michael Steel.

McConnell left unclear whether a vote overturning Obama’s immigration moves would be followed by a stand-alone vote to fund the Homeland Security Department — an omission not lost on Senate Democrats.

“This proposal doesn’t bring us any closer to actually funding DHS, and Republicans still have no real plan to achieve that goal,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. “It’s a disgrace that ISIS and al-Shabab are fully funded, but thanks to Republican game-playing, the Department of Homeland Security might not be.” ISIS in one acronym for the Islamic State militant group that has taken over much of Iraq and Syria. Over the weekend, a video purported to be released by Somalia’s al-Qaida-linked rebel group al-Shabab urged Muslims to attack shopping malls in Western countries.

McConnell’s move came after Obama warned the nation’s governors that states would feel the economic pain of a Homeland Security shutdown, with tens of thousands of workers in line to be furloughed if the agency shuts down at midnight Friday, and many more forced to work without pay.

“It will have a direct impact on your economy, and it will have a direct impact on America’s national security,” Obama told governors as they visited the White House as part of their annual conference.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, joined by …

Within hours of Republicans securing the Senate majority last November, McConnell vowed there would be no government shutdowns, but the immigration fight threatened to shut down the Homeland Security Department and undermine GOP promises that they would show the nation they could govern.

McConnell’s move seemed aimed at dividing Senate Democrats who have been united against the $39.7 billion House-passed legislation that funds the Homeland Security Department through the Sept. 30 end of the budget year, while also rolling back Obama’s executive actions granting work permits to millions of immigrants in this country illegally.

Aides said McConnell’s bill would target only the executive actions Obama announced in November, not an earlier directive from 2012 that provided protections to hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought illegally to the country as youths.

That could make it more difficult for the handful of moderate Democrats who opposed Obama’s executive actions when he announced them in November to vote against the legislation.

The move came as growing numbers of Senate Republicans called for Congress to jettison the immigration fight and pass a “clean” Homeland Security spending bill without immigration language. In wake of a federal court’s ruling last week stating that Obama had exceeded his authority and putting his immigration policies on hold, several Senate Republicans said the courts were the best place to fight that battle.

President Barack Obama gestures as he finishes speaking …

“Leave it to the courts. I think we have an excellent case before the Supreme Court,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Monday night.

The Obama administration on Monday asked U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen in Brownsville, Texas, to put his ruling on hold and filed a notice of appeal of his ruling to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

House conservatives, by contrast, said the court developments only strengthened their resolve to use the Homeland Security budget to fight Obama on immigration.

“A federal judge has confirmed that what we’ve done is the right thing,” conservative Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio said Monday. “I hope that the U.S. Senate can see the light and do the right thing.”

A short-term extension of current funding levels remained possible, but lawmakers have only a few days to come up with even that partial solution before the agency’s funding expires.

A Homeland Security shutdown would result in some 30,000 administrative and other workers getting furloughed. Some 200,000 others would fall into essential categories and stay on the job at agencies like the Border Patrol, Secret Service and Transportation Security Administration, though mostly without drawing a paycheck until the situation is resolved.

___=

Associated Press writers Andrew Taylor and Charles Babington contributed to this report.

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GOP leader offers immigration vote to try to resolve impasse

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Days from a Homeland Security Department shutdown, Senate Republicans sought a way out Monday by splitting President Barack Obama’s contested immigration measures from the agency’s funding bill.

It was not clear whether the gambit by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would succeed ahead of Friday’s midnight deadline to fund the department or see it shut down. It was far from certain whether it would win any Democratic support, and House conservatives remain firmly opposed to any funding bill for the Homeland Security Department that does not also overturn Obama’s executive actions on immigration.

But with Senate Democrats united against a House-passed bill that funds the agency while blocking the president on immigration, McConnell said it was time for another approach.

“It’s another way to get the Senate unstuck from a Democrat filibuster and move the debate forward,” McConnell said on the Senate floor after a vote to advance the House-passed bill failed 47-46, short of the 60 votes needed. Three previous attempts earlier in the month had yielded similar results.

“This is our colleagues’ chance to do exactly what they led their constituents to believe they’d do: defend the rule of law, without more excuses,” McConnell said in a jab at the handful of Senate Democrats who have voiced opposition to Obama’s executive actions offering work permits and deportation deferrals for millions in the country illegally.

A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, welcomed McConnell’s move, though without predicting its chances of success in the House.

“This vote will highlight the irresponsible hypocrisy of any Senate Democrat who claims to oppose President Obama’s executive overreach on immigration, but refuses to vote to stop it,” said Boehner spokesman Michael Steel.

McConnell left unclear whether a vote overturning Obama’s immigration moves would be followed by a stand-alone vote to fund the Homeland Security Department — an omission not lost on Senate Democrats.

“This proposal doesn’t bring us any closer to actually funding DHS, and Republicans still have no real plan to achieve that goal,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. “It’s a disgrace that ISIS and al-Shabab are fully funded, but thanks to Republican game-playing, the Department of Homeland Security might not be.” ISIS in one acronym for the Islamic State militant group that has taken over much of Iraq and Syria. Over the weekend, a video purported to be released by Somalia’s al-Qaida-linked rebel group al-Shabab urged Muslims to attack shopping malls in Western countries.

McConnell’s move came after Obama warned the nation’s governors that states would feel the economic pain of a Homeland Security shutdown, with tens of thousands of workers in line to be furloughed if the agency shuts down at midnight Friday, and many more forced to work without pay.

“It will have a direct impact on your economy, and it will have a direct impact on America’s national security,” Obama told governors as they visited the White House as part of their annual conference.

Within hours of Republicans securing the Senate majority last November, McConnell vowed there would be no government shutdowns, but the immigration fight threatened to shut down the Homeland Security Department and undermine GOP promises that they would show the nation they could govern.

McConnell’s move seemed aimed at dividing Senate Democrats who have been united against the $39.7 billion House-passed legislation that funds the Homeland Security Department through the Sept. 30 end of the budget year, while also rolling back Obama’s executive actions granting work permits to millions of immigrants in this country illegally.

Aides said McConnell’s bill would target only the executive actions Obama announced in November, not an earlier directive from 2012 that provided protections to hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought illegally to the country as youths.

That could make it more difficult for the handful of moderate Democrats who opposed Obama’s executive actions when he announced them in November to vote against the legislation.

The move came as growing numbers of Senate Republicans called for Congress to jettison the immigration fight and pass a “clean” Homeland Security spending bill without immigration language. In wake of a federal court’s ruling last week stating that Obama had exceeded his authority and putting his immigration policies on hold, several Senate Republicans said the courts were the best place to fight that battle.

“Leave it to the courts. I think we have an excellent case before the Supreme Court,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Monday night.

The Obama administration on Monday asked U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen in Brownsville, Texas, to put his ruling on hold and filed a notice of appeal of his ruling to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

House conservatives, by contrast, said the court developments only strengthened their resolve to use the Homeland Security budget to fight Obama on immigration.

“A federal judge has confirmed that what we’ve done is the right thing,” conservative Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio said Monday. “I hope that the U.S. Senate can see the light and do the right thing.”

A short-term extension of current funding levels remained possible, but lawmakers have only a few days to come up with even that partial solution before the agency’s funding expires.

A Homeland Security shutdown would result in some 30,000 administrative and other workers getting furloughed. Some 200,000 others would fall into essential categories and stay on the job at agencies like the Border Patrol, Secret Service and Transportation Security Administration, though mostly without drawing a paycheck until the situation is resolved.

___=

Associated Press writers Andrew Taylor and Charles Babington contributed to this report.

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Homeland Security Shutdown Nears Amid Immigration Impasse

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(Bloomberg) — The U.S. Senate Republican leader changed strategy in the party’s attempt to block President Barack Obama’s immigration orders and avoid a partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell proposed legislation that separates the immigration issue from funding for the agency after the Senate failed Monday for a fourth time to advance a House-passed bill that linked the two matters. Funding for the department is set to expire Friday.

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McConnell of Kentucky said he was offering the bill as “a way to get the Senate unstuck.”

Republicans have insisted on using a $39.7 billion Homeland Security funding bill to reverse Obama’s decision in November to ease deportation for about 5 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S.

McConnell didn’t outline a strategy for funding the agency, though the immigration vote would clear the way for a separate funding bill sought by Democrats. McConnell has said repeatedly that he wouldn’t let the agency’s funding expire.

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The move distinguishes McConnell’s leadership style from that of House Speaker John Boehner, who has allowed the demands of Tea Party-aligned lawmakers to bring the government to the brink of a shutdown before reaching a compromise. A 16-day partial shutdown in October 2013 was triggered by a dispute over funding Obamacare.

Strategy Tug-of-War

McConnell and Boehner of Ohio have been in a tug-of-war over strategy. Two weeks ago, McConnell declared the Homeland Security bill “clearly stuck in the Senate” and said the next step was up to the House. Boehner, though, insisted “the House did its job” and the Senate must make the next move.

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Boehner’s spokesman Michael Steel said Monday that a separate vote on the November immigration orders “will highlight the irresponsible hypocrisy of any Senate Democrat who claims to oppose President Obama’s executive overreach on immigration, but refuses to vote to stop it.”

The new legislation will put pressure on Senate Democrats including Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Claire McCaskill of Missouri who have been critical of Obama’s immigration orders.

Democrats have been demanding a Homeland Security funding measure that doesn’t address the immigration orders.

“Time is running out, and the money is running out,” Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said Monday. “We can’t run out on homeland security. We’ve got to do our job and help them keep us safe and protect our country.”

Homeland Funding

Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, said McConnell’s proposal “doesn’t bring us any closer to actually funding DHS, and Republicans still have no real plan to achieve that goal.”

Obama told the nation’s governors that a shutdown of the agency will affect the economy and the nation’s security.

“These are folks who, if they don’t have a paycheck, are not going to be able to spend that money in your states,” Obama told members of the National Governors Association at the White House Monday. “It will have a direct impact on your economy, and it will have a direct impact on America’s national security, because their hard work helps to keep us safe.”

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said a shutdown would require 75 percent to 80 percent of his employees, including border patrol agents and members of the Coast Guard, to work without pay. The department would have to furlough 30,000 employees, including much of the headquarters staff.

‘One Step’

“Every day I press the staff at my headquarters to stay one step ahead of groups like ISIL and threats to our aviation security,” Johnson said in a news conference Monday, referring to the terror group Islamic State. “If we shut down, that staff is cut back to a skeleton.”

While Republican leaders were trying to pin the blame on Democrats, some Republicans warned that their party would shoulder the responsibility for any disruptions.

“For God’s sakes, don’t shut down the premier homeland security defense line called the Department of Homeland Security,” Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said Monday on the “Fox & Friends” program. “If we do, as Republicans, we’ll get blamed.”

A new CNN/ORC poll showed that 53 percent of Americans would blame Republicans in Congress for a shutdown, while 30 percent would blame Obama. A majority said a shutdown, even for only a few days, would be a crisis or a major problem.

Boehner, asked in a “Fox News Sunday” interview aired Feb. 15 whether he was prepared to let the department’s funding lapse, said, “Certainly. The House has acted.”

The Senate vote Monday that failed to advance the House bill was 47-46 with 60 required.

Fiscal Year

Congress has funded the rest of the federal government through the end of the fiscal year Sept. 30. The House bill, H.R. 240, would fund the Homeland Security agency through the same period.

During the 16-day partial government shutdown in October 2013, many Homeland Security employees remained on the job because they were considered essential. That includes active Coast Guard members, customs officers, immigration law enforcement officers and airport-screening officials.

Other employees were placed on furlough. The department has estimated that a partial shutdown would affect about 5,500, or 10 percent, of workers in the Transportation Security Administration, mainly in management and administrative jobs.

Delayed Pay

In 2013, about one-third of the government’s 3 million workers who reported for duty weren’t paid until after the shutdown ended.

Separately, the Obama administration Monday asked a Texas judge to suspend an order that forced the White House to delay carrying out its immigration plans during a court challenge by Texas and 25 other states.

The administration gave U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen in Brownsville, Texas, until the close of business Wednesday to act on his own before it goes directly to an appeals court in a bid to temporarily set aside his order.

To contact the reporter on this story: Heidi Przybyla in Washington at hprzybyla@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jodi Schneider at jschneider50@bloomberg.net Laurie Asseo

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