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NYT: Boehner is Said to Back Changes on Immigration

Quote:

Aides to Mr. Boehner said this week that he was committed to what he calls “step by step” moves to revise immigration laws, which they have declined to specify.

But other House Republicans, who see an immigration overhaul as essential to wooing the Hispanic voters crucial to the party’s fortunes in the 2016 presidential election, said they could move on separate bills that would fast-track legalization for agricultural laborers, increase the number of visas for high-tech workers and provide an opportunity for young immigrants who came to the country illegally as children to become American citizens.

Although the legislation would fall far short of the demands being made by immigration activists, it could provide the beginnings of a deal.

Quote:

The most likely legislative approach, according to lawmakers, White House officials and activists, is a push to pass legislation in the House by May or June — after most Republican lawmakers are through with their primary campaigns — with the goal of reaching a compromise that Mr. Obama could sign before the 2014 midterm election campaigns intensify next fall.

“That’s our first window,” said Jim Wallis, the president of Sojourners, a Christian social justice organization in Washington that is working to change the immigration laws. “We are organizing, mobilizing, getting ready here. I do really think that we have a real chance at this in the first half of the year.”

If a comprehensive overhaul is not completed by summer, strategists say they could make another push during a lame-duck session at the end of the year, after the November elections. If it did not happen then, lawmakers could wait until 2015, although advocates would have to start again in the Senate because the legislation would expire at the end of 2014.

The piecemeal approach is ok I think, but the centerpiece of border security plus legalization for nonDreamer undocumented need to stay together. If they pass border security/Agjobs/DREAM etc. without regular undocumented legalization then there's no incentive for Republicans to fix the statuses of regular undocumented people later on.

Also, from the article, it looks like the first bite at the apple will be in the late spring, early summer.