DREAM Act Portal Forum - Immigration reform 2013: GOP leaders say House must act

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/0...ans-93969.html

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Top House Republicans might not have a plan yet for immigration reform, but they have a message: doing nothing isn’t an option.

In more than an hour of presentations and comments in a Capitol basement room, leaders ranging from Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said that the chamber cannot sit idly by and allow the rest of Washington to strive to fix the immigration system, while House Republicans sit on their hands.

The message from GOP leaders, delivered behind closed doors but described by multiple sources present to POLITICO, is a bit sharper than it has been previously.

Boehner dubbed the immigration reform conversation “important” and said that while the House will not take up the bipartisan Senate bill that passed in June, the chamber must do something to address a broken system.

Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), harkening back to when President Barack Obama first took office, said Republicans need to propose a counter-offer to the Senate — just like their alternative to the February 2009 stimulus bill.

Ryan — the 2012 vice presidential nominee and a leading House Republican — took to the microphone and said the GOP needs to have a plan to tackle the issue. Immigrants, he said, are important to the country’s economic vitality and economic growth. Ryan has been working the issue behind the scenes in recent months.

Rep. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a conservative rising in prominence, warned the room about the dangers of going into a formal conference negotiation with the Senate. Conservatives are concerned that the House will get jammed into accepting the Senate billin its current form.

This meeting is offering the most in-depth insight into how top Republicans view the immigration debate. And it will let leadership take stock of what kind of bill — if any at all — it has the capacity to squeeze through the GOP-led chamber.

Since the Senate passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill by wide margins last month, House Republicans have the party on their shoulders: if they can’t pass a bill, it could hurt the GOP with Hispanic voters for years to come, and cement the idea that they are a roadblock to bipartisan legislation.

Leadership spoke at the beginning of the meeting, and then turned the floor over to Homeland Security Chairman Mike McCaul of Texas and Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, who have managed smaller pieces of immigration legislation making their way through the House. The two chairmen discussed what has passed through committee — essentially providing a menu of options to the GOP. McCaul briefed the conservative Republican Study Committee Wednesday on his border security bill — just before all Republicans gathered for the full meeting. Most top GOP aides expect that items like border security, followed by a number of other small-bore immigration bills, will eventually head to negotiations with the Senate bill.

The majority of the meeting will be an open mic session, where Republicans sound off on how they think the GOP should handle the issue.

GOP leadership aides expect a mix of pro-reform lawmakers, who want improvements on the Senate bill, and lawmakers staunchly against a new pathway to citizenship for the roughly 11 million immigrants living in the country illegally.

That’s at the guts of the Senate-passed bill — a new way for current undocumented people living in the country to become citizens of the United States. House Republicans also broadly think the Senate bill’s border security provisions were too lax.

There is certainly pressure for House Republicans to pass something. Outside conservative groups and business interests from Silicon Valley have tried to prod the GOP along.

The Wall Street Journal’s conservative editorial board — a voice of institutional conservatism — said Boehner’s responsibility is to silence the voices of the “shrillest anti-immigration Republicans.” The Journal, which supports the pathway to citizenship, says House Republicans should be “willing to debate and vote” on that plan.

“The dumbest strategy is to follow the Steve King anti-immigration caucus and simply let the Senate bill die while further militarizing the border,” the Journal’s editorial page wrote on Wednesday, referring to King, an Iowa Republican. “This may please the loudest voices on talk radio, but it ignores the millions of evangelical Christians, Catholic conservatives, business owners and free-marketers who support reform. The GOP can support a true conservative opportunity society or become a party of closed minds and borders.”