House Democrats ready to give immigration bill another shot.

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Leading The News
House Democrats ready to give immigration bill another shot
By Jared Allen and J. Taylor Rushing
Posted: 03/24/09 06:43 PM [ET]
House Democrats are laying the groundwork for another major
immigration debate later this year, despite the risk that it could
prove politically destructive for their party.

Moving broad legislation that would put millions of illegal immigrants
on a path to citizenship seemed politically impossible until fairly
recently and may still end up too hot for Congress to touch.

Yet Obama sent a signal this month to Hispanic Democrats that he is
still committed to the cause and that he plans to host a White House
immigration summit before the end of May. That has bolstered the hopes
of the legislation’s biggest advocates on Capitol Hill.

“In a sense we’ve been given the green light to have more robust
discussions about this,” House Democratic Caucus Vice Chairman Xavier
Becerra (D-Calif.) said.

“The signal was clear to Congress that we can be instrumental in
getting things going,” Becerra said of the March 18 meeting with
Obama. “Now, from the practical side, the question is, How do we set
the table to move this forward?”

Drafting the legislation may end up being the easiest part. Finding
enough support when the economy has near-double-digit unemployment and
violence across the U.S.-Mexico border dominates the airwaves is
likely to make legalizing millions of illegal immigrants a hard sell.

“If you’d picked any issue that’s not on the front-burner right now,
you’ve picked it,” said Sen. Jon Kyl (Ariz.), who was among those
Republicans who backed the failed proposal in the 110th Congress.
“Nobody’s thinking about it because we’ve got all these emergencies on
our hands. Let’s get these emergencies resolved and then we can turn
to other things.”

Nonetheless, Becerra is optimistic. He said the most immediate task is
to formulate a strategy for legislation ahead of Obama’s summit, and
to begin discussions with Republicans who joined with Democrats in
2007 to support the legislation that crumbled under the weight of
conservative backlash.

One of those key Republicans, Rep. Jeff Flake (Ariz.), said he would
be on board, perhaps again teaming up with Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-
Ill.), the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’s (CHC)
immigration task force, to sponsor the House version of the
comprehensive bill.

“I expect to be pushing for it,” Flake said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who did not bring the issue up
last Congress, appears to be throwing more support behind the
initiative this time. Pelosi recently became one of the first non-
Hispanic members to attend a CHC forum on the human cost of workplace
immigration raids, a practice she called “un-American” in its current
implementation.

“What I said was separating parents from their children — ICE
[Immigration and Customs Enforcement] raids that separate parents from
their children in the middle of the night — are un-American, and I
stand by that,” the Speaker reiterated last week.

But Pelosi later added that she was hopeful that a comprehensive
immigration bill could be considered by the House this year.

To supporters of comprehensive reform, moving a bill in 2009 is not
just preferable, but a political necessity.

“That’s not what you do in an election year,” Flake said. “You’ve got
to do it in an off-year.”

But many believe reviving the issue is a losing strategy for
Democrats, and for Obama.

“You know, as a Republican, I would love to see them try and jam it
through this year,” said Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), who has worked on
immigration bills with more enforcement-minded, conservative Democrats
in the past. “Politically, I don’t think there’s a worse issue for
them to jump on right now.”

Brady and many other Republicans said that, throughout large swaths of
the country, the dynamics have not changed since the failed effort of
2007 — when conservative talk radio hosts helped kill the legislation
by persuading their listeners to jam phone lines on Capitol Hill with
calls objecting to the legislation.

Far more than the House, the Senate will determine whether the
political wherewithal exists for passing — or even debating — a major
immigration overhaul this year.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is supportive of the so-
called comprehensive immigration reform bill, according to a Reid
spokesman, and Reid has said he hopes to pass a bill before the end of
the year.

“He believes it is important that we move quickly to pass reform to
fix our broken immigration system that is tough on people who break
the law and practical to implement,” said spokesman Jim Manley. “The
bottom line is, he is ready to move a bill when a bill is ready for
him to move.”

Between the health problems of Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), the
retirement of Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) and the tough reelection
campaign facing Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) — just to name a few
obstacles — questions remain about who could carry the immigration
torch in the upper chamber, even if there were momentum for it.

At the same time, the growing number of House Democrats from
conservative districts could complicate even that chamber’s efforts.

Rep. John Barrow (D-Ga.), a Blue Dog Democrat who has been the subject
of fierce attacks from the Republican reelection arm over his party’s
immigration platform, is skeptical. He’d prefer to see legislation
with more enforcement measures.

“It all depends on what their proposal includes,” Barrow said. “As
I’ve said in the past, what we should be doing is focusing on
[employment verification] and securing the borders. And I think the
rest will take care of itself.”