The only declared candidate from the left can’t get the left to stop dreaming about Elizabeth Warren. “We’re certainly not saying that Warren shouldn’t run.”

Alex Wong / Getty

WASHINGTON — The only public, organized, progressive effort to support Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign is being run by two people who really, really, really want Elizabeth Warren to run.

At least that effort will actually promise the independent Vermont senator their actual grassroots support. Other well-known groups on the left like MoveOn and the Vermont-based Democracy For America aren't going that far.

Hours after Sanders officially declared his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination — and declared war on every progressive bogeyman in the process, including the billionaires he said have bought and sold the Republican Party and the media he says has eliminated any substance from politics — he is still second to a politician who has said dozens and dozens and dozens of times she's not interested in running for president.

At 12:45 p.m. on Thursday, moments after Sanders stepped away from his first presidential campaign press conference, a group of former Occupy Wall Street leaders launched "The People For Bernie Sanders," a grassroots effort to build support for Sanders' message through social media campaigns and "gatherings" across the country in the Vermont senator's name.

The group is led by Winnie Wong, a former OWS leader from New York, and Charles Lenchner, who was also a senior member of OWS. Lenchner also happens to be the co-founder of Ready For Warren, one of several organized efforts by the left to cajole the Massachusetts Democrat in to running for president. Wong is the co-founder of another: Artists For Warren, the celebrity-studded grassroots Warren wooing effort that also counts actor Mark Ruffalo as a co-founder. Artists for Warren is associated with MoveOn, which is also pushing Warren to run.

And as they try to build support for Sanders, Lenchner and Wong remain very, very ready for Warren.

"It isn't an either/or scenario," Wong told BuzzFeed News in an interview. "We're certainly not saying that Warren shouldn't run."

Pressed on who The People For Bernie Sanders would support if Warren got in and they were forced to pick, Wong said that was the wrong question.

"I don't know if the allegiance would fall like that," she said, noting that the signers of the open letter on the People For Bernie Sanders website aren't representing specific organizations and aren't necessarily marching in lockstep. "If she enters the race, it means another person who would enter the debate."

The pressure on Warren to run won't stop just because Sanders is actually running for president.

"We're absolutely behind the idea of Elizabeth Warren entering the race also," she said. "At this time, we feel that the progressive alternative in the race is Bernie Sanders."

It's certainly not difficult to imagine a progressive voter who wants Warren to run for president being excited at the prospect of Sanders' run. Sanders, after all, was Warren before it was cool. In his brief press conference Thursday, and in the umpteen media appearances he sat for before and after it, Sanders clearly and without hesitation — or a script, in the case of the press conference — offered a full-throated defense of progressive ideals, from efforts to combat climate change to creating a more accessible higher education system in the style of Western Europe. (Sanders singled out Germany as a model to follow in his press conference.) Above all, his message was about taking on the billionaires he says have corrupted American politics and are sucking the life out of the middle class. It was vintage Sanders, and it sounded quite a lot like Warren.

But there are certain practicalities to presidential politics that may make the "date Bernie, marry Elizabeth" model of progressive organizing evident in the opening day of the Sanders campaign at the very least uncomfortable. There are finite resources, both financial and chronological, on the left. Sanders is well aware he needs to tap into those resources heavily if he wants to change the tenor of the Democratic race.

"Let me say this, and I say this to you honestly. One of the hesitancies I had when deciding whether to run or not was obviously dealing with money," Sanders told the press outside the Senate Thursday. "I'm not going to get money from the Koch brothers and I'm not going to raise money from billionaires. I'm going to have to raise my campaign contributions through BernieSanders.com. Small, individual contributions. That's how I'm going to do it. But I seriously wonder — and it's not just Bernie Sanders — I wonder now, in this day and age, if it's possible for any candidate who is not a billionaire or who is not beholden to the billionaire class to be able to run successful campaigns."

But for now, the left, even the most overtly Sanders-supporting left, is still fixated on Warren. Democracy For America, formed out of the remnants of Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign, welcomed Sanders into the race Wednesday night, praised him for his service in the progressive cause, but kept their focus on Warren. (Dean has split from the group on 2016 and is supporting Hillary Clinton.) MoveOn did basically the same thing.

DFA is staying close to Sanders, but so far it has no plans to help him with the all-important grassroots fundraising he needs to keep his nascent presidential bid competitive. DFA communications director Neil Sroka said the group is working with Sanders on an anti-Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal campaign and is "going to look for other ways to connect him with our members going forward."

"Bernie loves DFA members and DFA members love Bernie," Sroka told BuzzFeed News in an email.

An email sent to Sanders' presidential campaign about DFA and MoveOn's support for Warren and what it means for Sanders' effort went unresponded to Thursday.

Other potential candidates are vying for the left's support versus Clinton as well. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley has attempted to pin the progressive alternative badge on his chest with full-throated opposition to President Obama's trade deals and sideswipes at Clinton. But O'Malley, like Warren, is not officially a candidate for president, though that's expected to change for him at least by the end of May.

Until Sanders can win the organized left away from its Warren daydreams, he may struggle to become anything more than a campaign sideshow. But his campaign is new, and his two-day media blitz may serve to remind progressives of his bona fides. As he walked away from his press conference, BuzzFeed News shouted a question to him about raising grassroots money without the support of organized progressive grassroots groups like DFA or MoveOn.

Sanders ignored the question.

A staffer, surrounded by press as he walked with Sanders back to the Senate, said only, "We'll figure it out."

“…when you’re sitting there on the bench and there’s no one in America that believes you can find any other way except in favor of same-sex marriage then I think their judgement’s gonna be forever challenged by history…”

Darren McCollester / Getty Images

Rep. Steve King of Iowa says that two liberal Supreme Court justices should recuse themselves from the landmark same-sex marriage case currently before court because they officiated a same-sex wedding.

King, speaking to a local radio host, said they would be "forever challenged by history" if they did not.

"That's their call to do that," King told Mickelson in the Morning on Tuesday. "If I were they, I would. I think they've already -- when you're sitting there on the bench and there's no one in America that believes you can find any other way except in favor of same-sex marriage, then I think their judgement's gonna be forever challenged by history and that'd be appropriate for them at that point. If it were me I would recuse myself."

"Of course, I wouldn't have conducted same-sex marriages as a justice and cast those kind of aspersions on a decision that was likely to come before that court."

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan have presided over weddings for same-sex couples in the past..

Earlier this week, the Louisiana House of Representatives passed a resolution imploring Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan to withdraw from the case because "they have engaged in public conduct suggestive of bias." A spokeswoman for Louisiana's Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal told BuzzFeed News that it was fair to question the justices' bias.

Here's the audio:

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The University of Chicago won.

Win McNamee / Getty Images

The University of Chicago has won a bid to build Barack Obama's presidential library and an announcement is expected to come the week after next, multiple outlets reported on Thursday night.

The development is a major victory for the city of Chicago and its mayor, former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who engaged in a months-long battle to fend off other bids, including an attractive one by Columbia University in New York, Obama's alma mater.

News that Chicago was successful in drawing the Obama library and museum, came in the form of a phone call from the president and Democratic leaders last Friday, according to a CBS Chicago report. On the call, Obama thanked them for passing legislation in Springfield that effectively removed any of the last remaining obstacles to building the library on public park land. House Speaker Mike Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton were present, according to the report.

The University of Chicago's bid revolved around two sites — one at Washington Park and the other at Jackson Park. It is not immediately clear which site will be the location of the library.

Cassandra J. Francis, the former CEO of Friends of the Parks, one of the most vocal critics to building the library on park land was an advocate to build on another site. Francis stepped down earlier this month. Francis could not be reached for comment.

The report said Obama won't have further involvement in the project until he's out of office. By January 2017, his main focus will likely be on fundraising; the library is expected to cost a half-billion dollars, while officials say the library will create close to 2,000 permanent jobs and drive millions of dollars to Chicago's South Side.

The Obama foundation did not immediately reply to an email requesting comment.

“Nothing you say or read to me am I going to believe, frankly, until I see with my own eyes the context, okay?”

TIM SLOAN / Getty Images

On Wednesday, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor accused the state of Oklahoma of lying numerous times in their briefs about the drugs they use to execute death-row inmates.

At issue in the case is whether midazolam, the drug of choice for Oklahoma and several other states, is capable of anesthetizing inmates before they are given painful and lethal drugs. Experts say Oklahoma's third drug, for example, feels like liquid fire.

"I am substantially disturbed that in your brief you made factual statements that were not supported by those sources [you cited, and were] in fact directly contradicted," Sotomayor told Oklahoma Solicitor General Patrick Wyrick. "So nothing you say or read to me am I going to believe, frankly, until I see with my own eyes the context, okay?"

Sotomayor said she found "many" examples of Oklahoma playing fast and loose with the facts, but said she would list out three. (She actually only listed two examples before the arguments shifted to another topic.)

The problem: Pharmacology experts say midazolam is not capable of general anesthesia. Oklahoma quotes the drug's label as saying midazolam's "[a]nticipated effects range from mild sedation to deep levels of sedation virtually equivalent to a state of general anesthesia where the patient may require external support of vital functions."

That quotation is on the label; the issue, as Sotomayor pointed out, is what comes before it. The quotation is actually in a section that's talking about what would happen when midazolam is paired with other drugs:

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The claim could be used by Chief Justice John Roberts to strike down bans on same-sex couples’ marriages. The argument isn’t new, though, having appeared throughout the past decades of marriage fights — since the 1970s.

At Tuesday's marriage arguments, Chief Justice John Roberts made a brief comment that launched speculation he could join Justice Anthony Kennedy and the more liberal justices in voting against bans on same-sex couples' marriages.

Roberts notably disagreed with the court's 2013 ruling that struck down the Defense of Marriage Act.

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / Getty Images

What did Roberts say? He asked the attorney for Michigan about sex discrimination.

"That theory had gotten only slight attention in scores of lawsuits challenging bans on same-sex marriage," Liptak wrote, adding that it is "unlikely to serve as the central rationale" for a Supreme Court opinion striking down the marriage bans.

Whelan goes on to call the argument "badly confused and incompatible with Roberts' vaunted commitment to judicial restraint."

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After a shout-out in Clinton’s speech, Utah Sen. Mike Lee tells BuzzFeed News that conservatives have solutions for the issues surrounding Baltimore.

Darren McCollester / Getty

Republican Sen. Mike Lee told BuzzFeed News Thursday he welcomed Hillary Clinton's high-profile support for his efforts to overhaul criminal sentencing guidelines — and said he was encouraged by prominent Democrats' evolving views on criminal justice policy.

With violence enveloping Baltimore and demonstrators filling the streets to protest police brutality in the wake of Freddie Gray's death, Clinton delivered a sharply worded speech Wednesday calling for an end to the "era of mass incarceration." The Democratic presidential frontrunner proceeded to hail a "growing bipartisan movement" taking shape around these issues — and specifically name-checked Lee and Sen. Rand Paul as examples of conservatives joining the cause.

"Now, of course it is not enough just to agree and give speeches about it," she said. "We actually have to work together to get the job done."

Lee, a leading figure in the tea party movement, said he was "pleased" by the candidate's praise.

"I didn't necessarily start the day out thinking I was going to get a shout-out from Hillary Clinton," he said, adding, "The Smarter Sentencing Act is a really good bill. We need to pass it."

But Lee also noted that the new coalition of aisle-crossers Clinton highlighted is not just composed of Republicans who have seen the light — it also includes plenty of Democrats who are changing their positions, including Clinton herself.

On the issue of criminal sentencing, for example, Lee has drafted legislation with liberal Sen. Dick Durbin that would soften and in some cases eliminate federally mandated sentences for various types of drug offenders. But while Lee said the bill has been applauded by "prominent liberal Democrats and some prominent conservative Republicans," many old-guard moderates in both parties have been resistant.

He said Democrats like Clinton have "absolutely" evolved on the issue, and some are only now conceding "that the one-size-fits-all mandatory minimum approach ... is not one that can be treated as though it's etched in stone."

Lee's comments echo those of his libertarian-leaning Senate colleague. On Wednesday Paul's presidential campaign released a statement arguing that Hillary Clinton is "trying to undo some of the harm inflicted by the Clinton administration" and "emulating proposals introduced by Senator Rand Paul over the last several years." The release cheekily added, "We welcome her to the fight."

Of course, America's left wing has long led the charge against tough-on-crime policies and aggressive policing tactics, which they argued had a ruinous effect on minority communities. But centrist Democrats like the Clintons looking to win national elections rarely aligned themselves with the left on these issues in the '80s and '90s. In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed a law that imposed harsher criminal sentences, expanded the death penalty, and allotted funds for more jails. Four years later, the first lady championed those policies in an op-ed, arguing for "tough measures that punish criminal behavior" and insisting that "young people who break the law are held accountable."

As a senator Clinton went on to co-sponsor legislation aimed at addressing racial profiling and strengthening ties between police and inner-city communities. And by 2008, as a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, she railed against the GOP for their silence on these issues.

"You don't hear the Republicans talking about any of this," she said at the time. "You don't hear them talking about the disgrace of a criminal justice system that incarcerates so many more African Americans proportionately than whites."

But the political landscape has shifted considerably since then — while Clinton, serving as secretary of state, was withdrawn from domestic policy debates. Within the Republican Party, an ascendant libertarian movement has joined forces with certain elements of the religious right to advocate for an approach to criminal justice they say is more focused on efficacy, cost efficiency, and compassion.

The ideas have not yet fully taken hold in the GOP, where candidates have long benefited politically from their party's reputation for cracking down on criminals. And just this week, a noisy chorus of talk-radio conservatives has used racially charged rhetoric to deride the "thugs" behind the unrest in Baltimore. But among the movement's policy wonks, legislative efforts like Lee's are increasingly popular.

Meanwhile, Lee contended that conservatives should see validation in the images coming out of Baltimore. For example, local faith leaders have reportedly played a key role in easing tensions and quelling violence in recent days — evidence, he said, that public policy should be geared toward strengthening churches and other private institutions with local credibility.

"I think it's impossible for me to look at what's happening there and not see the importance of civil society," Lee said.

And in the now-famous footage of Baltimore mother Toya Graham indignantly dragging her teenage son off the chaotic streets, Lee saw the importance of fortifying families — a consistent emphasis in policymaking by social conservatives like himself.

"Moms are awesome," Lee said, adding that his own mother would have done the same thing to him in that position. "I'm not sure I know a mom who wouldn't."

The former Arkansas governor’s new video features footage of men filmed just before their execution by ISIS.

Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee released a new video Friday ahead of his expected presidential announcement. The video, "Nailed Shut," contrasts his administration with the Clintons'.

The video also features b-roll from a 55-minute ISIS propaganda video, "Flames of War," which was professionally made and features graphic content that includes the mass execution of a group of men who fall into a ditch.

The b-roll is featured in the video as Huckabee talks about the differences between good and evil and how he would lead with "moral clarity" in a dangerous world.

Huckabee's not the first Republican candidate to use the footage in a video; last year, an ad from then Senate candidate Tom Cotton about his military experience and national security issues also used the footage as b-roll.

Huckabee is expected to announce his presidential campaign May 5 in his hometown of Hope, Arkansas.

Here's Huckabee's video with the Islamic State footage:

youtube.com

And here's the trailer for Flames of War, which features much of the same footage Huckabee uses. The full Flames of War video is available online.

youtube.com

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“Nobody gets confirmed. Nada. Nobody. None. I don’t care how good of a person you are. You’re not gonna get it.” The Senate, not the House, confirms presidential appointments.

Ross D. Franklin / Associated Press

Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar last week said even though Republicans cannot impeach President Obama, they can refuse to confirm any of his appointments.

Speaking in Parker, Arizona, Gosar, a Republican serving in Congress since 2011, said that all people appointed by Obama should be blocked, no matter "how good of a person you are."

"You may not be able to impeach a president," he said. "But boy I tell you what: remember, we have the right of advise and confer. Nobody gets confirmed. Nada. Nobody. None. I don't care how good of a person you are. You're not gonna get it."

The House of Representatives does not confirm presidential appointments. That power rests solely with the Senate.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who does have the ability to block Obama's nominees, has repeatedly said the upper chamber would continue to confirm nominees.

Gosar, a Republican, had been telling his audience to imagine what it would be like if Obama went down as the president who "vetoed the most bills."

"Imagine this. Just imagine this," the Congressman said. "Barack Obama goes down as the president who vetoed the most bills and in the succeeding election cost his party another election."

He went on to say that Democrats who lost in the 2014 midterm elections had failed to pass bills and, further, that Obama and Senator Harry Reid had caused the Democratic losses.

"Do you know why the gentleman, Begich, lost in Alaska?" Gosar asked, referring to Mark Begich, the former U.S. Senator. "Not one amendment, not one bill got passed or offered by him in six years. I had fifty of them. Ones that passed. Kay Hagan: not even a post office. Harry Reid and Barack Obama cost them that election."

Later, after making the argument that Republicans should refuse to confirm anybody, Gosar waved what appeared to be a pocket-sized edition of the United States Constitution.

"This is about this," he said. "I'm here to win."

He proceeded to make a reference to the work of renowned Chinese military philosopher Sun Tzu.

"The Sun Tzu book I talked to you about always states, know your adversaries' strengths and your strengths and you'll never lose. Don't play to your weaknesses; play to your strengths always. Always play to an enemy's weaknesses, never their strengths."

Gosar concluded by suggesting that politicians "have a conversation with America, heaven forbid" and describing himself as "some little guy" who spoke in New York City.

"Explain to the American people what you're putting out there. Have a conversation with America, heaven forbid," he said. "This isn't rocket science. Talk plain language. This is your backdoor. If some little guy who represents District 4 can speak in New York City--I did."

The congressman was in Parker as part of his "Solutions Tour."

Here's the video:

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The claim that ISIS camps are present on the U.S.-Mexican border has been refuted by the State Department, the director of the FBI, the National Security Council, and others.

Matt York / AP

Republican Rep. Matt Salmon of Arizona said "we know" that there are ISIS camps in Mexico within eight miles of the United States.

Salmon made the claim on Sean Hannity's radio program during a discussion about a drug tunnel found in Naco, Arizona.

"And we don't have a clue, have they done any investigation to determine whether foreign agents of terrorism have used the tunnel to get into the United States. We know there are ISIS camps...," Salmon told Hannity in response to a a question about if the tunnel had been tested for biological or chemical weapons.

"Eight miles," interjected Hannity.

"That's right, within 8 miles," said Salmon. "Do we know that any of them didn't come across? Now, the president grandstands, he did during the discussion about Homeland Security when we were trying to defund his illegal amnesty plan. He grandstanded about how we were jeopardizing national security, and is this the way they conduct national security? On a wink and a nod? And they either knew about it, which one of their folks says they did, and order people not to be near it, for reasons I can only assume, and they're not the best of assumptions."

"Or they didn't know about it and they found out on this drug bust, and when they did find out about it, they're not letting anybody know if they've done any forensics, and if they have done forensics, what they found out."

The claim that there are ISIS camps in Mexico seems to have originated from a report by the conservative watchdog Judicial Watch, which cited anonymous sources as saying that ISIS is operating a camp around eight miles from the U.S. border near Ciudad Juárez.

The claim has been denied by the Mexican Embassy in Washington D.C., the Texas Department of Public Safety, and the National Security Council, according to the fact-checking site Politifact, which rated the claim "false."

The U.S. State Department called the claim "unfounded."

Several days ago FBI Director James Comey called the claim "nonsense, not true" when visiting El Paso.

"I know since there's been a lot of attention to this in the media that has reached my eyes and ears in Washington," Comey said. "The media reports on if there is an ISIL camp across the border here in El Paso? Nonsense. Not true. It frustrates me a little bit because my folks have to run out such things, because we do run out every tip to make sure there isn't something to it. There is nothing to it."

Salmon said the lack of answers about the tunnel frustrated him as a member of Congress because it was hard to do oversight.

"Now how in the world is a member of Congress who's supposed to do oversight, how in the world are we supposed to make intelligent decisions about where we're spending our money and whether it's the right place and we're doing the right things if we can't even get answers to basic things like did they bring a weapon of mass destruction through that tunnel," added Salmon.

Salmon raised the concerns in a letter to Homeland Security chief Jeh Johnson posted on his website.

Last year, Arizona Rep. Trent Franks claimed, "it is true, that we know that ISIS is present in Ciudad Juarez or they were within the last few week." The Department of Homeland Security said then that this claim was not credible.

A spokesman for Salmon didn't return a request for comment on his source for the Islamic State camps claim.

Here's the audio:

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Jim Cole / AP

COLUMBIA, South Carolina — South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham appeared to stop just short of announcing a presidential run at an event in Columbia on Friday attended by local Republicans.

Speaking at the South Carolina Republican Party’s annual Silver Elephant dinner, Graham hinted strongly that he might go ahead with the presidential bid he’s been semi-publicly flirting with for months.

“As to where we go and what I do and what happens in the coming weeks and months, get ready,” Graham said at the end of his address to the several hundred people, including most of the main political dignitaries in the state, gathered at the dinner. “Get ready for a debate that’s been long overdue in the party,” he said, a veiled knock on Rand Paul, with whom Graham vehemently disagrees on foreign policy and national security. Graham's aides have signaled that his anti-Rand Paul stance would be the focus of a potential campaign.

“Get ready for a voice that understands you can’t save America without somebody willing to sacrifice and die for America,” Graham said. “To our enemies, get ready, because there’s a new way of doing business coming. For our friends, get ready for the America you used to know.”

“To Iowa and new Hampshire, hello,” Graham said. “To South Carolina, you have my heart, thank you very much.”

Graham has been coyly floating a presidential run, and even started a PAC dedicated to “testing the waters” for the race called Security Through Strength. Attendees at the Silver Elephant dinner could pick up a fact sheet titled “What You May Have Missed About Senator Graham’s ‘Testing The Waters’ Effort” listing clips praising Graham from national publications and early primary state outlets at the registration desk along with a program of Friday’s event. Graham has been traveling to the early primary states, and he held a fundraiser for his PAC in March that was attended by Republican casino magnate and mega-donor Sheldon Adelson, along with several leading hawkish foreign policy-focused Republicans.

But Graham's run, if it happens, could be more aimed at showcasing his foreign policy philosophy and strengthening its position in the party than at really becoming the nominee.

Nati Harnik / AP

COLUMBIA, South Carolina — Former Senator Rick Santorum, a longtime culture warrior known for his conservative views on marriage equality and other social issues, said on Saturday than he believes Bruce Jenner when he says he's a woman.

"If he says he's a woman, then he's a woman," Santorum, who is weighing running for president again in 2016, said in response to a question from BuzzFeed News during a roundtable with reporters at the South Carolina Republican Party's convention. "My responsibility as a human being is to love and accept everybody. Not to criticize people for who they are. I can criticize, and I do, for what people do, for their behavior. But as far as for who they are, you have to respect everybody, and these are obviously complex issues for businesses, for society, and I think we have to look at it in a way that is compassionate and respectful of everybody."

"So these are tough issues. I haven't got into the whole issue, and I don't think the federal government should get into the whole issue of bathrooms," Santorum said after being asked whether he thinks Jenner should be able to use women's public restrooms. "I think those are things that the business community and local agencies and organizations should deal with."

Jenner, the former Olympic decathlete and stepfather of the Kardashians, came out as a trans woman in a high-profile interview with Diane Sawyer last weekend.

Santorum has traditionally hewed to, and in fact stood out for, his traditional social conservative views on LGBT issues. Santorum famously said in 2003, "In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That's not to pick on homosexuality. It's not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be." This led to a contest held by sex columnist Dan Savage to define "santorum" as the byproduct of a sex act, which for a time topped Santorum's Google results.

Bush’s spokesperson told BuzzFeed News on Twitter that the former Florida governor’s preferred position is earned legal status, not a pathway to citizenship.

Darren McCollester / Getty Images

Permanent residency in this context, however, should not lead to citizenship. It is absolutely vital to the integrity of our immigration system that actions have consequences — in this case, that those who violated the laws can remain but cannot obtain the cherished fruits of citizenship. ... A grant of citizenship is an undeserving reward for conduct that we cannot afford to encourage.

Later, during a brief exchange with reporters, Mr. Bush said he could also be supportive of a path to citizenship for people in the country illegally – as he did at one time – but said there currently isn't sufficient political support for it.

"If you could get a consensus done, where you could have a bill done and it was 15 years [to achieve citizenship] as the Senate Gang of Eight did, I'd be supportive of that," Mr. Bush said, referring to the comprehensive immigration legislation the Senate passed in 2013.

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“No one should ever confuse me with a partisan; I’m clearly an ideologue,” says Thomas Massie, the libertarian, gun-rights stalwart, MIT grad who is a surprising bipartisan.

T.J. Kirkpatrick / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — Shortly after Thomas Massie arrived in Congress, the freshman Republican sought out Zoe Lofgren — a liberal from California — on the House floor.

He wanted to know if electric car company Tesla was in her district because he proudly owned one and he charged his car solar panels at his home.

Tesla isn't in Lofgren's district (it's just outside of it), but the conversation left her baffled. Massie is from a deeply conservative Kentucky district.

"I thought well, that's interesting, let me find out some more about this guy," Lofgren recalled.

The pair struck up an unlikely friendship after Lofgren pitched him on several technology bills she'd been working on. They've continued to be some of the loudest (and at times effective) voices in Congress on curbing surveillance programs.

Increasingly, in fact, Massie has become a go-to member of the Republican conference for Democratic members looking for a GOP member to sponsor legislation on everything from surveillance, to industrial hemp, to cell-phone unlocking legislation. Some Democrats have also teamed up with him on a raw-milk bill he recently introduced in Congress. These are the areas that typically unite libertarians and liberals in Congress but Massie, a self-described "crunchy con," arrived in the House with the reputation for being the kind of Tea Party Republican liberals revile. He's an ardent supporter of gun rights and has several times introduced legislation to undo some of the District of Columbia's gun laws. He regularly votes against government spending and has a near perfect voting score from both FreedomWorks and Heritage Action.

But his early opposition to surveillance programs have drawn him accolades from the Democratic side of the aisle, as has his willingness to buck his party leadership. And as the House and Senate attempt to re-authorize portions of the PATRIOT Act in the coming month, Massie plans on being at the center of that debate — again with a Democrat. He recently introducing a bill with Wisconsin Democrat Mark Pocan to repeal that 2001 law passed in the wake of 9/11 and overhaul many of the NSA's surveillance programs.

"Sometimes people can confuse partisans with ideologues," Massie said in an interview. "Here's the difference between a partisan and an ideologue: An ideologue reads the bill, every word, period and section; a partisan reads the whip recommendation."

"No one should ever confuse me with a partisan; I'm clearly an ideologue. That means if something I care about lines up with something a Democrat cares about there's nothing that gets in the way of us working together," he said.

Massie is not particularly well-liked by Republican leadership. He's twice voted against John Boehner for speaker. He's at the center of a group of Republicans that tends to infuriate his conference leadership and won't hesitate to vote against their priorities if he doesn't agree with them. He's proud of all of that and smiles broadly when he notes that he'll "never be the guy on a conference committee or a committee chairman."

Massie does things differently in the House, perhaps because his path to politics was pretty unique: He graduated from MIT with degrees in engineering, started a technology company, sold that company, and moved back to Kentucky with his wife, Rhonda, where they now live entirely off-the-grid on a cattle farm. He was elected in 2012 special election out of a seven-way primary in a heavily Republican district and has been the thorn in the side Boehner and his allies ever since.

That hasn't stopped Democrats from believing that he's sometimes their best option for getting their legislation through the House. Last June, Lofgren convinced Massie to take on the role as lead sponsor of an amendment to a major defense bill that would to end so called "back door" searches by the NSA.

Massie understood that his standing with leadership might have hurt her case more than it would help it, so he tried to convince four other Republicans to take the lead sponsorship role. When they all declined, he decided to do it. Lofgren and others had done the lion's share of work on the amendment but she said she truly believed it needed to be a bipartisan bill in order to get traction on the floor.

"He had the guts to put his name on it. Afterward, he said, 'I feel bad because you did the work on it,' but he had the guts to put his name on it," she said.

In a late night vote, the amendment ended up passing with a veto-proof majority.

"That was really the highwater mark for me," Massie said. "Our feeling with that bill was it had to have a Republican sponsor as the primary sponsor. I hope that I'm never in the minority but I say to my Democrat friends, 'If I'm ever in the minority, please put your name on one of my bills so that it has a snowball's chance in hell of passing.'"

It's incredibly unlikely some of Massie's legislation — particularly his bill with Pocan to repeal the PATRIOT Act — would ever pass the House, let alone get through the Senate. But putting Massie's name on a bill could have other benefits: Massie is able to tout the legislation in places Democrats won't go. FreedomWorks has been supportive of Massie's work on surveillance, as has pundit Glenn Beck.

"The outside groups are very interested in what I'm doing. There's an ad on Glenn Beck's show everyday that FreedomWorks is running about [the surveillance state repeal act]," he said. "I don't think a Democrat could go to FreedomWorks and say, hey can you promote my bill? I didn't ask them to promote it but it makes it easier for those groups to support something like this when there's a Republican like me on the bill."

"I mentioned Mark Pocan and Zoe Lofgren on Glenn Beck's show last week and it was in a nice way, but I thought, man, I'm going to get them in trouble," he said laughing.

The neurosurgeon-turned-conservative-figure will formally announce his candidacy for president on Monday in Detroit, but disclosed the news in a TV interview on Sunday.

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Dr. Ben Carson, the neurosurgeon famed for his separation of conjoined twins and other high-risk procedures, is running for president.

He has long been expected to announce his candidacy for the Republican nomination on Monday in Detroit, his hometown, but in an apparent accident, disclosed the news a day early in a TV interview.

"I'm announcing my candidacy for president of the United States," Carson said in an interview with WKRC-TV, a Cincinnati television station.

Though popular within the Republican Party, Carson will face long odds in a crowded field for the nomination, populated by sitting senators and governors, and especially those like Sen. Ted Cruz and former Gov. Mike Huckabee, who will make a concerted pitch to socially conservative voters. His appeal, though, is real: A true social conservative unafraid to articulate his views (even when deeply controversial, particularly on the issues of gay rights), Carson has an undeniably aspirational story of significant accomplishment.

Carson rose from poverty to become one of the top neurosurgeons in the United States, penning a popular memoir and other books. In 2013, his speech at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington helped shift his trajectory from apolitical doctor to conservative figure.

LINK: Could Running For President Destroy Ben Carson’s Legacy?

LINK: Ben Carson Asks For Tolerance From The LGBT Community

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Clinton will meet with DREAMers as well as undocumented parents who would benefit from Obama’s 2014 executive actions held up in court, Tuesday in Nevada.

Jim Cole / AP

Just days before Hillary Clinton announced her campaign for president, her political director Amanda Renteria was working the phone, talking to Hispanic business leaders as well as national immigration advocates.

One of the calls was with Erika Andiola, a high-profile DREAMer activist who spoke with Renteria about what she wants to see from the campaign so the community she represents knows Clinton is serious about changing immigration policy, Andiola said.

Clinton's first 2016 foray into proving her immigration bonafides to activists will begin on Tuesday at a roundtable event at Rancho High School in Las Vegas, where she is expected to affirm her support for a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, say she supports the president's executive actions, and call out the Republican field for their shortcomings on the issue, sources familiar with the event told BuzzFeed News.

Clinton will meet with DREAMers, undocumented youth brought to the country as children, who have benefitted from Obama's 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which gives them work authorization for two years and protects them from deportation, as well as undocumented parents of U.S. citizens who would benefit from Obama's 2014 executive actions, which are currently on hold pending legal proceedings.

The publicly announced event, her first in Nevada, the third state in the Democratic nominating process, will come after a private meeting with 12 local Hispanic leaders and activists, and before a fundraiser at the home of Brian Greenspun, who runs the Greenspun Media Group (which includes the Las Vegas Sun, Las Vegas Weekly, and Las Vegas Magazine).

BuzzFeed News spoke with nearly a dozen national immigration leaders about what they want to hear as Clinton begins rolling out an immigration platform.

The varied group — which included establishment leaders close to Democrats, DREAMers and undocumented workers, and leaders with ties to the faith and business communities — were nearly unanimous in their belief that while the ultimate goal is a legislative overhaul, Clinton must go further if she hopes to create a contrast between her campaign and Republicans like Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, who are also calling for changes to immigration law.

"I want to hear, 'In my first year, immigration reform is getting done and it's getting done well,'" said Angelica Salas, from the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), who often visited with the White House during the 2014 run up to the executive actions.

Janet Murguia, president of National Council of La Raza (NCLR), who made waves last year after calling Obama the "deporter-in-chief," said that until Congress acts, the Latino community expects the next president to not only commit to making immigration legislation a priority, but to "expending political capital to achieve immigration reform."

"For us, it means placing it at the top of her legislative agenda, working with Congress to broaden pathways for people to work and providing an accessible path to citizenship for longterm residents," she said.

Activists echoed Murguia's thoughts, and said they learned their lessons from Obama — who campaigned on making immigration a top priority in 2008 and 2012, but was unable to get it done. This is why Clinton should lean into the issue, they argue. They are ultimately hoping for the type of emphatic attention she devoted to criminal justice issues last week, and the signal that the issue will be a campaign priority, in a speech at Columbia University.

"What would get me to put a Hillary sticker on my car is if she said the president's executive actions didn't go far enough and didn't exercise the totality of discretion," said one activist whose organization has hit Clinton for her public comments on immigration.

Two sources familiar with Tuesday's event told BuzzFeed News that Clinton will stress support for a legislative overhaul and a path to citizenship and will ask students about how DACA is working — what is good about the program and what could be done better. But she may also ask about what more a president could do if Congress once again fails to pass legislation, suggesting that she is open to further executive action on immigration, which would delight activists who have seen legislation die in Congress too often to be excited about general calls for "immigration reform" from candidates.

"If she needs to act on her own or continue that program she's keeping those options available to her," said Andres Ramirez, a 20-year Nevada Democratic strategist.

And Clinton's early plan to meet with undocumented immigrants already checks a box activists have called for.

"She should meet with undocumented people, look them straight in the eye and tell them 'I'm not going to deport you,'" said Pablo Alvarado, executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON). "And tell them 'I'm going to go beyond DACA and DAPA.'"

Republicans like Bush and Rubio have laid out positions further from other candidates in their party. At a meeting with Hispanic evangelicals in Houston, Texas last week, Bush said he supports earned legal status for undocumented immigrants.

Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, which works with business, law enforcement, and faith leaders, was at the conference in Houston last week. Noorani told BuzzFeed News that pastors and evangelicals have been active on the issue of family detention, something also repeatedly mentioned by other immigrant leaders.

"One of the programs that is one of the Obama administration's scars is their return to using family detention," Noorani said.

He said at their core, conservative faith communities are about family and they're against detaining families "in the middle of nowhere." And on the law enforcement side, they feel like they're caught in the middle between an "overzealous federal government focused on enforcement" and a community that wants to be able to trust its local police chief.

Here, Cristina Jiménez, managing director of United We Dream (UWD), said she hopes Clinton makes the connection between wanting to end the "era of mass incarceration" as she said last week and detentions that impact immigrants.

"This is the same system that is funneling immigrants and families into detention," she said.

Andiola, whose organization, the Arizona-based Dream Action Coalition, is releasing a memo Monday detailing what it wants from presidential candidates, said in her state embattled Sheriff Joe Arpaio still coordinates with immigration authorities, something activists want to see end. She wants to hear Clinton speak out on this issue, as well.

A source familiar with Clinton's message Tuesday said she will use it as an opportunity to lay out the areas like a pathway to citizenship and support for Obama's executive actions where Republicans "either have not or can not go because of their party's politics."

"From day one, this campaign has taken our outreach to the Latino community as a top priority from senior staff to junior organizers," Renteria told BuzzFeed News in an email. "Hillary Clinton has a lifelong record as a champion on issues important to the Latino community and she's been hearing ideas from folks involved in the immigration battle to figure out what are the next steps for the nation."

The RNC mobilized on the Nevada event Sunday night, arguing that Clinton is a flip-flopper who now supports licenses for undocumented immigrants after opposing them in what is considered a high-profile 2008 misstep.

Frank Sharry, who has worked closely with Democrats and the Obama administration on immigration for years said he had been worried that Clinton comes from a time in Democratic Party politics when immigration was used as a wedge issue, dividing Democrats and mobilizing conservatives. He also pointed to her early comments last year when she was confronted by Andiola in Iowa about immigration and said Americans need to "elect more Democrats," as well as when Clinton angered activists by saying the Central American children who crossed the border last summer should be given love but many should ultimately be sent back.

"It was like, 'Oh, god, we're going to party like it's 1996,'" he said.

Sharry was encouraged when she tweeted her support for Obama's executive actions and her change on supporting driver's licenses, however. He said she should lean in to immigration after the failure in the 2014 midterms, where Democrats like Mark Udall have been criticized for avoiding immigration. "This is now an issue that wedges Republicans and mobilizes Democrats," he said.

Eddie Escobedo Jr., the son of longtime Latino activist and Clinton supporter, Eddie Escobedo, who died in 2010, will be at the private event with Hispanic leaders Tuesday, as well as the fundraiser later in the day. When his 21-year-old son died suddenly three months ago, Clinton sent him a handwritten note.

For his part, he said he will carry a message that her support for a pathway to citizenship is good, along with her support for the executive actions. But he also echoed other activists who want to see the legal immigration system fixed, something that has personally come into focus for him. His sister-in-law did everything the right way, he said, but has been on a waiting list for five years and expects to wait another six years.

NDLON's Alvarado said that for years Democrats have been able to use immigration as an issue to bash Republicans, but Clinton should position herself to seize the opportunity to get it done.

"This is the moment for Hillary to be clear and come forward and decide if she wants the issue or the accomplishment," he said. "She can start right now shaping that legacy and I think it would be a great legacy for her to end deportations and make sure the 11 million undocumented have a path to equality, full rights, and citizenship to its full extent."

The former Hewlett-Packard CEO announced her intentions Monday morning on ABC’s Good Morning America.

Scott Olson / Getty Images

"I think I'm the best person for the job because I understand how economy actually works," Fiorina said during an interview on ABC's Good Morning America.

Although she is considered a longshot candidate, Fiorina has positioned herself as a foil to Hillary Clinton, often attacking the Democratic candidate for her track record as secretary of state and on social issues. The line of attack has been warmly received in the Republican Party, and it is likely that Fiorina will be the only female candidate in the Republican field.

The 2016 bid follows Fiorina's one, unsuccessful effort in 2010, when she ran against incumbent Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer in California.

Fiorina is perhaps best known for serving as CEO of Hewlett-Packard in the late '90s and early 2000s. She has championed her record there, saying it shows she has the kind of executive experience needed to run the country. Her tenure there receives mixed reviews: Some at HP viewed her as a polarizing figure whose time as CEO was marked by layoffs and poor decisions; others have defended her record as a CEO trying to lead a company in desperate need of a transformation. She resigned from HP in 2005.

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Guy Benson

Courtesy of Guy Benson

WASHINGTON — Guy Benson — the baby-faced, fast-talking Fox News contributor who is the political editor at Townhall.com — has something to say.

“Guy here,” he writes in his forthcoming book. “So, I’m gay.”

This is not the main point of the book, however, not at all. Benson’s sexual orientation is given little fanfare — “a footnote in a 316-page book,” as he put it — in End of Discussion: How the Left's Outrage Industry Shuts Down Debate, Manipulates Voters, and Makes America Less Free (and Fun), which Benson co-authored with Mary Katharine Ham, a fellow Fox contributor.

If his book and job titles don’t make things absolutely clear, Benson is a gay conservative. He’s also someone who says he cares much more about “a nuclearized Iran” and “the failures of Obamacare” than most gay issues. And while he said he doesn’t think it especially matters that he’s coming out, Benson was sitting down for an interview on precisely that topic. Rather than wait for the book’s release, he decided to come out publicly before then, sitting down with BuzzFeed News recently to discuss the book, the Republican Party, and his life.

“Gay rights is not something that dominates my attentions — or my passions — and that may seem incongruous, that may seem counterintuitive to a lot of people,” he said, “but the issues that I care about most undergird the reasons why I’m a conservative and have been forever and will be a conservative moving forward.”

The book will be published as the debate over religious liberty protections continues to dominate the presidential conversation around gay issues, something that Benson and Ham are aware of and tackle in the book. (The chapter of the book in which Benson comes out is titled, “Bake Me a Cake, Bigots.”)

Many conservatives have argued there must be a legal process for exemption from laws on the basis of religious belief. For his part, Benson argued that exact space between existence and participation is what has helped accelerate acceptance for marriages. The idea that same-sex couples’ marriages wouldn’t affect straight couples’ marriages was “a very effective argument that won over a lot of people,” he said.

“I’m for civil marriage, I’m for nondiscrimination laws — but I think there should be broad carve-outs for religious organizations, in particular, and narrow carve-outs for closely held businesses that serve the wedding industry,” he said.

As the religious liberty debate has gained traction, proponents of the religious liberty side of the debate have faced pushback — sometimes against specific individuals or their businesses — leading many conservatives to argue, more broadly, that internet culture is too quick to punish dissenters. Ham and Benson address that issue in their book, as well.

“I think a lot of gay people have felt for generations, obviously, that they have not been treated fairly, and I don’t think that coming to a point of social harmony and then pushing further in this almost vengeful, ‘Let’s get ‘em,’ hounding people out of jobs … [I]t’s not productive, it’s not good for the country,” he said.

The issue that most animated Benson, though, over the course of the 45-minute interview was the accusation sometimes made that gay Republicans must be self-hating people.

“I think that’s extraordinarily closed-minded and betrays a lack of imagination, at the very least,” he said.

Then, he let out an extended soliloquy in defense of what is likely to be seen as a part of his public persona now.

“A free-thinking, free citizen of a free country is not obliged to be confined to a bedazzled ideological straitjacket because that’s how they ‘ought’ to think and ‘ought’ to vote and ‘ought’ to rank their priorities,” he said. “It’s not true, it shouldn’t be true, and I think part of liberty and tolerance and coexistence is understanding that, ‘Hey, I might have something in common with this person over here, and they have every right under the sun to disagree with me on this whole panoply of public policy questions over here.’ And if their views on those things lead them to another conclusion about how they exercise their right to vote, to jump to the conclusion that that is borne of some secret, deep-seated self-loathing is just lazy and boring.

“And false.”

Benson knows there will be some conservatives, as well, who question him now. To them, he said he would just direct them to all that he’s written and said since he was in college at Northwestern University. “I do my best to shrug it off and just go on living my life.”

And, despite the disagreements Benson likely will have with some gay liberals, he acknowledges the importance of the progress that has been made on gay rights.

“I do not lose sight of how historically fortunate I am to be living in this country in this era, given who I am,” he said. As for his own path, he explained, “This is the final stage for me, personally, on this journey, where I have been incredibly fortunate to have been able to undertake each step of this process completely on my own terms.”

And now, he felt that it was time to let people know that his voice — already a part of the political discussion — was that of a gay man.

“Because we’re writing about it in the book, I did not want to cede control of that information to someone else,” he explained. He wanted to talk about this himself, rather than someone else, because he didn’t want it “to seem as though I was hiding or being untruthful or ashamed — and that hasn’t been my mentality at all. So, for a number of reasons, it seemed like the time had arrived and this is how we did it.”

It’s also, he acknowledged, a key time for his party on LGBT issues. Most notably, the Supreme Court will soon rule on a set of marriage and marriage-recognition cases, and is expected to rule bans on those marriages unconstitutional. “I think the party is in a state of flux, with deep disagreements — rooted in many cases, but not all, generationally — and that is a political dilemma at the moment,” he said.

Benson also acknowledged the base of the party largely remains opposed to issues like marriage equality, which he and Ham both support. And he noted the political reasons for why that opposition remains the default in the Republican Party. “You need that base, you need your core voters to turn out to win elections,” he said, adding that “the vast majority” of those who oppose marriage rights for same-sex couples “are not bigots.”

On the other end, he said, “You also, if you’re the party, have to look to the future and worry about this type of issue being one of those threshold issues for a lot of young people, where it is a barrier to entry to the party” — people who would otherwise consider Republican candidates but won’t “so long as their party is discriminating against my brother, who’s gay, or my dear friend who is gay.”

Calling that “a real obstacle,” Benson said, “I don’t think there’s a quick fix to that.” He added that he’s been watching the responses to the “would you attend a same-sex wedding” question, calling the affirmative answers from some candidates “a softening, without conceding the policy question.”

Benson distanced himself, slightly, from those obstacles — but left the door open for more involvement going forward.

“Look, I’m as fascinated as anyone to see how it plays out. I don’t feel like I’m going to become particularly activist on any of this stuff,” he said. “From time to time—” he stopped. “We’ll see.”

The ad, which plays on the famous “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” commercial, was run during Walker’s 2008 race for Milwaukee county executive, a race he won. It notably features Walker wearing a fake mustache and glasses to play his alter ego. The ad attempted to dispel attacks made by his opponent, Lena Taylor, as inaccurate caricatures.

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This is the best presidential announcement!

This gospel choir, Selected of God, sang a medley of songs, including Eminem's "Lose Yourself."

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LINK: Could Running For President Destroy Ben Carson’s Legacy?

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As the Wisconsin governor takes a conservative hardline on immigration, his past statements come under scrutiny.

Scott Bauer / ASSOCIATED PRESS

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a likely 2016 candidate for president who has positioned himself as an opponent of so-called "amnesty" for undocumented immigrants, wrote in 2006 blog posts uncovered by BuzzFeed News that he supported fellow Wisconsinite's Paul Ryan's position on immigration policy.

In the past, Republican Rep. Ryan has been a supporter of a comprehensive approach to changing immigration law and has supported a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

A review by BuzzFeed News of Walker's old campaign website has found blog posts written by Walker saying his stance on immigration mirrored Ryan's.

"As for the issue of immigration, I commented on it in my post on Monday. In particular, I support Paul Ryan's position on immigration reform," Walker wrote in a blog post responding to a question on immigration.

Walker wrote in a previous post that he was most impressed by a speech Ryan gave at a Republican event where he spoke of the assimilation of immigrants into American culture.

"Ryan mentioned that his family learned the language and the culture," Walker wrote. "Sure, they still cook corned beef and cabbage and honor other Irish traditions, but they learned about American culture. I agree, being a melting pot means respecting ethnic backgrounds, but melting together in the principles that make America great."

Ryan co-sponsored in the House the companion bill to the McCain-Kennedy Senate bill, which included a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. He was one of the few members to do so.

Ryan wrote on his website at the time that the guest-worker provision in the Senate bill could provide a "earned pathway to citizenship" for immigrants who met certain requirements.

Not all of immigration legislation Ryan supported during this time included the "pathway to citizenship." Ryan also supported the House's "Border Protection, Anti-terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005" from immigration-hardliner Jim Sensenbrenner which would have made it easier to deport undocumented immigrants.

As Milwaukee county executive Walker signed a 2006 resolution in support of the McCain-Kennedy Senate bill, which included a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. The Huffington Post found last week that Walker had also signed off on a campaign to lobby Congress to support the bill.

A Walker aide told BuzzFeed News that Walker has said "amnesty is not the answer" and that he has cited President Obama's executive actions on immigration as a driving force behind his current position.

"Governor Walker has clearly and repeatedly stated that President Obama's unconstitutional executive action and the collateral damage it has had on his fellow governors has made it evident that our priorities must be repealing the executive action, securing the border, and enforcing the laws on the books while implementing a workable e-verify system. Then we can address fixing our legal immigration system and deal with those here illegally. Amnesty is not the answer."

Walker earlier this year said flat out that he had changed his mind on immigration policy when he was pressed by Fox News' Chris Wallace about past 2013 comments in support of comprehensive immigration legislation and a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

"My view has changed, I'm flat out saying it. Candidates can say that, sometimes they don't," Walker said. "I look at the problems we've experienced over the last few years. I talked to governors on the border and others out there, I've talked to people all across America, and the concerns I have is that we need to secure the border. We ultimately need to put in place a system that works, a legal immigration system that works."

A Walker aide also pointed to Ryan's current position on undocumented immigrants. Ryan says "no amnesty should be provided," but also supports citizenship as an option for those currently here, saying, "we shouldn't prevent them from ever earning citizenship."