U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth said she “has some optimism” that Congress
can pass immigration reform despite House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH,8)
announcing on Wednesday that House Republicans will not conference the
recent Senate bill.
In
a town hall meeting via teleconference Thursday evening, Duckworth told
Progress Illinois that the amount of the support for the issue may
overcome congressional Republican resistance to comprehensive
immigration reform, although she conceded that it will not be easy to
accomplish.
“It is not just Democrats who want this, I have spoken
with chambers of commerce and businesses that want to see comprehensive
immigration reform,” Duckworth said. “Where we are now won’t work. I
think we have an opportunity before the next election, but it’s going to
be a tough road.”
While U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam (R, IL-6)
attended a town hall meeting in Naperville on Wednesday, a group of
protesters, upset with the congressman’s opposition to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and several immigration
reform proposals, held a demonstration outside.
Roskam,
the protesters allege, has not offered any concrete solutions to fix
the nation’s broken immigration and health care systems, but instead has
only blocked solutions based on partisanship.
“Democracy can’t survive on just standing in the way,” said John Gaudette, organizing director for Citizen Action Illinois,
who helped organize the protest. “If he’s taking the opposing stance,
he needs to tell us what works and come up with an alternative plan.”
U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock (R-IL,18) was questioned about his stance on immigration reform during a recent town hall meeting in Heyworth, Illinois and his answers may provide a glimpse of what is to come after the August recess.
When asked if he was in favor of a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants living in the states, the congressman, who said the current system "is broken", seemed open to supporting a comprehensive immigration reform plan that includes such a provision.
It appears that U.S. Rep. Bobby Schilling (R-Colona) is taking his cues from Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney when it comes to the public outcry surrounding Sensata Technologies' plan to close down the plant and ship 170 jobs to China — just ignoreit.
At a town hall meeting yesterday, Schilling couldn't take the heat when Sensata workers showed up to discuss the issue, so he ran out of the kitchen — or in this case the meeting.
U.S. Rep Joe Walsh (R-McHenry) is under fire, again, for the happenings at one of his town hall meetings.
This time, the controversial Tea Party congressman sat by as a supporter accused President Barack Obama of "sedition", saying the country is losing its freedom because elected officials, including the president, are allegedly falsely representing themselves and their ideologies to get into office.