Frank Keating, the head of the American Bankers Assn. and a former Republican governor, is calling on his party to pass comprehensive immigration reform and lend their support to the bipartisan Senate immigration bill. According to him, it's what GOP party hero Ronald Reagan would do.
On Monday, Keating published an op-ed entitled "What Would Reagan Do?" in the LA Times arguing that if Reagan were alive today, he would agree that "it's time to open the doors" as a strategy to boost the economy.
Keating bashed conservatives who refuse to support the Senate legislation, which is back by President Obama and aims to provides a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million people undocumented residents in the U.S.
Instead, GOP lawmakers have advocated for taking a piecemeal approach that would increase high-tech visas, revamp farm labor programs and strengthen border security, reports the LA Times.
"Unfortunately, too many conservatives - though they aspire to walk in Reagan's footsteps - have forgotten that immigration reform is the most Republican of causes," wrote Keating, who served as governor of Oklahoma from 1994-2002.
Keating added that the U.S. needs immigrants of "all skill levels to help build the 21st century economy." Keating's editorial was released just as reports surfaced that President Obama is courting top U.S. executives to help his effort to pass immigration reform.
He recently had a meeting with McDonald's Don Thompson and Marriott's Arne Sorenson, whose companies depend on low-skilled inexpensive labor.
Before the meeting, the White House said that "common-sense" reform would in part cut the deficit by nearly $850 billion in the first 20 years and grow the economy by about $1.4 trillion over the same period.
In response, Republicans like Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions condemned the president
"Many of the same corporations demanding more immigrant workers are laying off American workers," Sessions told FoxNews.com. "House Republicans should tell the White House simply: We work for the American people, not this group of CEOs."
Other congressional members wrote a letter earlier this year warning the Congressional Black Caucus that granting legal status to illegal immigrants "will likely disproportionately harm lower-skilled African-Americans by making it more difficult for them to obtain employment and depressing their wages when they do obtain employment."
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