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Articles by Stephen Dinan

** FILE ** Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, responds to questions and offers remarks during an interview in Washington on Wednesday, July 6, 2011. (Rod Lamkey Jr./The Washington Times)

Immigration reform bill clears committee hurdles, heads to full Senate

The Senate immigration bill cleared the Judiciary Committee on a bipartisan vote Tuesday night, ducking — for now — big fights on guns, gay rights and how broadly the legalization is drawn, and leaving the 867-page overhaul mostly unscathed by conservative attacks.

May 21, 2013
The exterior of the Internal Revenue Service building in Washington is seen here on March 22, 2013. (Associated Press) **FILE**

Group sues over IRS, demands agency approve application

True the Vote — one of the conservative groups the IRS subjected to special scrutiny in its application for tax-exempt status — sued the federal government on Tuesday, demanding the tax agency approve its application that has now been pending for three years.

May 21, 2013
Senate Judiciary Committee members (from left) Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican, Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, and Patrick J. Leahy, Vermont Democrat, confer Monday on the landmark immigration bill. (Associated Press)

Senate panel OKs tax-welfare benefits for newly legal immigrants

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted Monday to allow illegal immigrants who get legal status to begin collecting tax-welfare payments, as the panel spent a fourth day working through amendments to the massive immigration bill and party-line splits began to emerge.

May 20, 2013
Sen. Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican, introduced an amendment to the immigration bill that would prevent changes to the asylum or refugee systems until after an audit of what went wrong in Boston. (Associated Press)

Rethinking immigration rules for asylum after Boston

The Boston Marathon bombing hasn't derailed the immigration debate, but it has sent lawmakers back to the drawing board on some key provisions, including changes to the asylum system that the two suspects in the bombing used to come to the U.S.

May 19, 2013
Illegal immigrants easily step over a fallen barbed-wire fence between Mexico and the United States near the town of Sasabe, Mexico, in 2004. The number of apprehensions of illegal border-crossers is down while the number of deaths in the desert is high. (Associated Press)

Non-deportation rate drops — to 99.2 percent

The Homeland Security Department has granted legal status to 99.2 percent of all illegal immigrants who have applied under President Obama's new non-deportation policy for young adults, according to the latest numbers released Friday.

May 18, 2013
**FILE** House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican, speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 15, 2013. (Associated Press)

House GOP issues subpoena in Benghazi investigation

The chairman of the House oversight committee on Friday subpoenaed the senior diplomat who ran the State Department's investigation into the Benghazi attack, saying lawmakers deserve to be able to depose him before he testifies publicly.

May 17, 2013
**FILE** Protesters hold signs outside a U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform field hearing on a National Labor Relations Board complaint against Boeing Co., in North Charleston, S.C., on June 17, 2011. (Associated Press)

2nd court invalidates Obama’s recess pick for NLRB

A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that President Obama violated the Constitution when he made a recess appointment to the National Labor Relations Board, marking the second panel to rebuke the administration and making the issue even more likely to draw Supreme Court scrutiny.

May 16, 2013
**FILE** Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents take a suspect into custody on March 30, 2012, as part of a nationwide immigration sweep in Chula Vista, Calif. (Associated Press)

Feds gave witness protection to terrorists

The federal government gave witness protection to known and suspected terrorists and the U.S. Marshals Service even lost track of two of those people, according to a report Thursday from the Justice Department's auditor that exposes the previously hidden side of the witness program.

May 16, 2013
**FILE** In this photo proved by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an unidentified immigrant is taken into custody in Dallas on Sept. 8, 2012. (Associated Press/ICE)

Final tally: DHS released 622 criminals as part of sequester

Two key senators said Thursday that Homeland Security officials should face discipline for their role earlier this year in releasing 622 criminal immigrants, including 32 with multiple felony convictions, in a move the Obama administration initially blamed on the budget sequester cuts.

May 16, 2013
"It is pretty unanimous that you have to address border security. This will put some real metrics to that. Take that out of the hands of the secretary of Homeland Security, and be more objective."

Securing border driving House’s immigration efforts

Even as the Senate is pushing its massive immigration bill, the House is beginning to move pieces of the puzzle through its committees with a vote Wednesday to force the Obama administration to stiffen border security.

May 15, 2013
**FILE** Sen. Marco Rubio, Florida Republican, speaks Feb. 7, 2013, with The Associated Press in his Capitol Hill office in Washington. (Associated Press)

Rubio lists amendments to sweeten immigration bill

Sen. Marco Rubio's office circulated a list this month of ways to toughen security in the immigration bill he helped negotiate, including potential amendments to cut down on chain migration, to require newly legal immigrants to show financial self-sufficiency and to build 700 miles of double-tier fencing along the border.

May 15, 2013

‘Sequester’ cuts force halt to California oil, gas lease sales

The Obama administration this month canceled onshore oil and gas lease sales in California for the rest of this year, blaming the "sequester" budget cuts — but acknowledging they were breaking yet another federal law that requires them to hold the sales.

May 14, 2013
**FILE** Copies of President Obama's budget plan for fiscal year 2014 are distributed to Senate staff on Capitol Hill in Washington on April 10, 2013. (Associated Press)

Federal deficit to drop well below $1 trillion

The federal deficit this year will be $642 billion, according to an estimate Tuesday from the Congressional Budget Office that marks the first time President Obama will have overseen a deficit of less than $1 trillion.

May 14, 2013
The Senate's bipartisan "Gang of Eight" holds a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on Thursday, April 18, 2013. In front from left to right are Sen. Marco Rubio, Florida Republican; Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat; Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican; and Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican. The legislation would dramatically remake the U.S. immigration system by ushering in new visa programs for low- and high-skilled workers, requiring a tough new focus on border security, instituting a new requirement for all employers to check the legal status of their workers, and installing a path to citizenship for 11 million immigrants in the country illegally. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Crumbling coalition? First cracks in immigration deal emerge

Senators fended off changes to the immigration bill in committee on Tuesday, but the first cracks emerged in the carefully crafted compromise between business groups and labor unions, leaving even some supporters frustrated at the defensive votes they had to cast.

May 14, 2013
** FILE ** A road lined with vehicle barriers marking the U.S-Mexico border in New Mexico is the spartan territory for Border Patrol agents. (Associated Press)

Obama pressed to halt deportations as immigration debated

Immigration rights groups see such good prospects for legalizing illegal immigrants this year that President Obama should go ahead and halt deportations right now, saying it's unfair to kick people out just ahead of possible legalization.

May 13, 2013