Boehner, Undeterred, Moves Forward on Immigration
On Tuesday, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell told reporters immigration is just not in the cards in 2014. Last Thursday, rank-and-file House members sent a loud message that President Obama is not the partner for legislation, spooking even top proponent Paul Ryan...
However, since the GOP retreat last week, Boehner has just kept marching along...
“I wouldn't be surprised” if immigration legislation came to the House floor as early as this spring, one well-connected GOP member said....
"What has surprised me is how few people in House Republican caucus have stood up and opposed the policy," said Frank Sharry, founder and executive director of America's Voice and one of the nation's leading proponents for immigration reform. "Now maybe the concern about timing, and Obama's trustworthiness are excuses, ways to get to 'no' without seeming to be in league with the hard-liners. For us, watching it from our somewhat distant perspective, it's the dog that didn't bark," he continued...
For example, the push back from conservatives has caused significant tremors of doubt within Boehner's leadership team...
After raising serious doubts about whether immigration could come to the floor this year in a Sunday television interview, Ryan was more optimistic in remarks to reporters Tuesday.
“It wasn't really bad,” Ryan said about the immigration showdown in Cambridge, MD. “The substance of our document people really appreciated. It's just, like I said, the lawlessness of the White House makes us lose confidence that the President will enforce the laws,” Ryan said...
The issue is complicated because some of the lawmakers who spoke in favor of the substance of the principles were not in favor of moving forward on legislation. In many cases, members only implied their stance on the underlying question rather than explicitly stating it. They also mostly only had one minute to speak each.
Still, conservative heavyweights like Reps. Tom Price and Jeb Hensarling came out strongly against moving forward, and the result of the meeting seemed to change Ryan's tone in the days afterward....
Senator Marco Rubio, another Gang of Eight member, was more pessimistic. Asked if the House should move forward in 2014, Rubio said, “That's not my role to give them advice on. They're working on what is a very difficult issue. The resistance they're running into is a lack of confidence that this president and the federal government will enforce the security measures no matter what they're written as.”
