ImmigrationHouse lawmakers disagree on how to move forward on immigration reform
If the sweeping immigration overhaul bill passes the Senate, as now appears likely, House Republicans may be under intense pressure to move quickly on their own bill, so the versions may go to reconciliation. Members of the House, though, say they are in no rush, leaving the fate of immigration reform in doubt. Some analysts note that twice in recent months, when the House failed to come up with its own version of a bill, it passed the Senate version as-is: In January, the House passed the Senate-White House compromise to avert tax increases, and in February it passed the Senate version of the Violence Against Women Act.
House under pressure to act on immigration reform // Source: bigstockphoto.com
If the sweeping immigration overhaul bill passes the Senate, as now appears likely, House Republicans may be under intense pressure to move quickly on their own bill, so the versions may go to reconciliation.
Members of the House, though, say they are in no rush, leaving the fate of immigration reform in doubt. The New York Times reports that even supporters of an immigration reform say that it is unlikely that the passage of a bill in the Senate, expected this Friday, will change the minds of Republicans in the house.
“The House is not going to get logrolled by the Senate,” Representative Paul Ryan(R-Wisconsin) told the Times. “We’ll have a more methodical, patient way of doing this.”
Republican lawmakers are in a tight spot. Political analysts say that if they block immigration legislation, they would further alienate Hispanic voters. If they back an immigration bill which contains a path to citizenship, they risk upsetting some of the GOP core voters.
A recent poll by the National Journal shows that 49 percent of Republican voters said that a lawmaker who backs legislation offering a pathway to citizenship would lose the support of those party voters skeptical about immigration reform.
“If we can’t grow our numbers, particularly among Hispanics, it’s pretty hard to win the White House in 2016,” said Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), one of the authors of the Senate immigration bill. “Don’t get me wrong. Conservatism sells, and after eight years of Obama, people will be looking around for someone new. But it’s hard to sell your economic agenda if they think you’re going to deport their grandmother.”
Some analysts point out that there is an outside chance that divisions in the House may yet lead to the House not coming with its own immigration bill, but instead passing the Senate version as-is. These analysts y note that this has already happened twice recently: In January, the House passed the Senate-White House compromise to avert tax increases and across-the-board spending cuts after House GOP members defeated a more conservative version offered by the Speaker. In February, the Republican version of theViolence Against Women Act, did not gain a majority of votes in the House, and the House passed the Senate version of the measure.
Boehner has planned a meeting on 10 July meeting of House Republicans to discuss the next step. Until then, the House Judiciary Committee will continue to develop a series of piecemeal reforms to the current immigration law.
