By David Nakamura,
Published: January 24
Recent signals
from House Republican leaders that they will pursue their own vision of
immigration reform have presented the White House with an opening to achieve a
major legislative deal this year that has eluded lawmakers for decades.
Speaker John A.
Boehner (R-Ohio) is expected to release a brief outline of immigration principles to his caucus as soon as
its annual retreat next week. The goals would include strengthening border
security and creating new visas for foreign workers, while providing a path
toward legalizing the status of the nation’s 11 million to 12 million
undocumented immigrants, according to people briefed on the deliberations.
Obama administration
officials and congressional Democrats expressed optimism that new momentum in
the House could yield results after months in which the issue languished in the
lower chamber. But they cautioned that it is far too early to determine whether
a compromise could be reached between the House and Senate, which approved a bipartisan plan to overhaul border-control laws
last June.
“It’s a very
big deal, and there’s a path here that could get it done,” Cecilia Munoz, the
White House’s director of domestic policy, said of the potential for an
immigration agreement.
White House
officials view immigration as the best chance President Obama has to pass a
major piece of domestic legislation in his final three years in office, largely
because some GOP leaders believe their party must broaden its appeal to Latinos
and Asian Americans. Obama won reelection in 2012 with the support of more than
70 percent of those voters.
At the same
time, the president is facing mounting pressure from immigration advocates to
halt deportations, which are on pace to soon top the 2 million mark during
his tenure — more than the George W. Bush administration deported in eight
years.
Five House
Democrats from Obama’s home state of Illinois, led by Rep. Luis V. Gutiérrez,
announced they will each bring an immigration advocate as their guest to the
president’s State of the Union speech in the House chamber Tuesday. The
AFL-CIO, which has supported Obama’s immigration push, called on him to use the
speech to announce administrative action “to ease the deportation crisis that
is wrecking workforces, families and communities.”
But White House
aides and Democratic allies said that Obama is mindful of the challenge Boehner
faces in coalescing his caucus around an immigration plan and that the
president is unlikely to harshly criticize House Republicans or make unilateral
demands. Instead, he is expected to highlight the economic benefits of immigration reform,
tying it to his broader goal of boosting the middle class and framing the
debate in a light that might appeal to Capitol Hill conservatives.
“The White
House understands that the House is moving in a positive direction, and they’re
playing this very smart. They’re not going to be heavy-handed,” said Sen.
Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), a key architect of the Senate’s immigration bill.
Carlos
Gutierrez, a commerce secretary during the George W. Bush administration who is
leading a GOP immigration reform group, said he is “encouraged” by signals from
the House.
“They’re coming
up with principles, and both parties are saying the right thing,” Gutierrez
said during an immigration discussion in Washington on Friday that also
included former New York mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (I), Michigan Gov. Rick
Snyder (R) and U.S. Chamber of Commerce Vice President Randel Johnson. “This is
the right time, and we hope that they seize the moment.”
The next steps
are largely up to Boehner, who has continued to insist that the House will pursue small-scale immigration bills
that independently address many of the major components of the Senate’s comprehensive
plan.
Democrats and
immigration advocates said they are cautiously optimistic that Boehner and
other House leaders are serious about trying to get bills onto the House floor
for a vote in late spring, after the filing period for most of the Republican
primaries in congressional races.
The question,
however, is what Republicans are prepared to propose on the critical question
of how to treat immigrants who entered the country unlawfully.
Last year,
House committees approved five bills to increase border security, add visas for
high-skilled foreign workers and agricultural workers, and improve verification
systems to ensure companies do not hire undocumented immigrants.
Majority Leader
Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), chair of the House
Judiciary Committee, have said they are working on a proposal called the Kids
Act, which would offer a path to legal status and, potentially, citizenship for
young immigrants brought to the country by their parents as children. That
population is estimated to be up to 1.7 million.
House
Republicans have not said how they would address the remaining undocumented
immigrants, but Boehner’s “principles” are expected to call for trying to find
a way to legalize their status under conditions that could include paying taxes
and fines, learning English and ensuring the federal government meets increased
border-security benchmarks.
The crux of the
issue for Democrats is how many of those immigrants would be able to earn
citizenship. The Senate plan would put undocumented immigrants on a path to
achieving legal status, known as a green card, within 10 years and citizenship
three years later. Federal agencies have estimated that 7 million to
8 million immigrants would reach that goal.
But that number
could be reduced significantly under the House proposals, immigration advocates
said.
Obama and
congressional Democrats have said they want as many immigrants as possible to
have a chance at an “earned path” to citizenship.
“The question
is, are Democrats willing to kill legalization without a special path to
citizenship?” said Alfonso Aguilar, executive director of the Latino
Partnership for Conservative Principles, which supports immigration reform.
Aguilar pointed
to a Pew Hispanic Center poll last month that which
found 61 percent of immigrant Latinos believe ending deportations is more important
than a path to citizenship.
If Democrats
oppose a Republican offer to legalize most undocumented immigrants under the
belief that Latino voters will blame the GOP, Aguilar said, “that could
backfire.”
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