POLITICO (Article by Scott Wong): Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions says Congress must first “end the lawlessness” by illegal immigrants. Arizona Sen. John McCain still wants his protégé, Marco Rubio, to roll out his version of the pro-immigrant DREAM Act, though the ambitious freshman senator has all but ruled out doing so anytime soon.
And Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) concedes he flat-out doesn’t know what his party’s next step on immigration will be.
Congressional Republicans are everywhere and nowhere on immigration. Pulled between their get-tough conservative base and the reality that adopting such a hard line could cost them dearly with Hispanics in November, they’re doing the “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” equivalent of phoning a friend — party standard-bearer Mitt Romney — for help.
But Romney, so far, doesn’t seem to have a clear answer, either.
The presumptive GOP presidential nominee has provided little guidance to Republicans on Capitol Hill when it comes to dealing with the thorny immigration issue. His ambiguity was on full display after the Supreme Court ruled 5-3 to toss out three pieces of the Arizona immigration law but uphold the controversial “show me your papers” provision despised by Hispanic activists.
In a statement and again at a campaign stop in Virginia Tuesday, Romney said he backed states’ rights to enact immigration policies and attacked Obama for failing to fix the broken immigration system. But he didn’t say whether he agreed or disagreed with the high court.
“The Supreme Court had to step in because states had to step in. States looking to find a way to solve the problem he didn’t address, tried to address it in their own ways. … ” Romney said. “What we’re left with is a bit of a muddle. But what we know is the president failed to lead.”
Taking their cues from Romney, House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell have refused to weigh in on the ruling — with McConnell punting a reporter’s question Tuesday to border-state Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas.).
Romney has also pledged to veto the Democratic DREAM Act but has been mostly mum about Rubio’s yet-to-be-unveiled legislation.
“Clearly, at this point, with the presidential campaign picking up, I think that the Republicans would look to any leadership that might come from [Romney] on that,” Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) told POLITICO. “Any positions Gov. Romney might want to promote would be something that would be followed up on by Republicans.”
Sessions, a Judiciary Committee member, said Romney needs to make “crystal clear” that he would use all federal resources to strengthen border enforcement and “end the illegality.” Only at that point should he address the estimated 11 million undocumented people now living in the U.S., Sessions said.
“I wish he would be more succinct — that’s all he really needs to say,” the former Alabama attorney general said.
Lawmakers in both parties agree there’s little hope for an immigration deal this year given the gridlocked state of Congress ahead of the November elections. But Democrats have been emboldened by Obama’s use of executive powers this month to halt deportations of young undocumented immigrants who go to college or join the military — a move that seems to have undercut Rubio’s similar DREAM Act proposal.
Top Democrats have contrasted Obama’s unilateral action with Romney’s flailing on the immigration issue. During the primary, as Romney worked to shore up his right flank, he pushed for tougher enforcement policies that would urge millions of illegal immigrants to “self-deport.” Now the all-but-inevitable nominee, he has toned down the anti-immigrant talk as he moves to court Hispanics and independents.
“He’s all over the place on immigration. … He doesn’t have a compass yet,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told POLITICO in a brief interview Tuesday. “He’s running around trying to satisfy the tea party and the rest of America. I would almost bet it doesn’t instill a lot of confidence.”
Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul declined to directly respond to the criticism, instead pointing to the candidate’s immigration speech last week in Florida to a large gathering of Latino officials. There, Romney dismissed Obama’s move as a “stopgap” solution and nothing more than election-year pandering, saying he would “replace and supersede” the order with his long-term immigration strategy.
But he and his aides have been less forthcoming about whether Romney would repeal the action.
His broader blueprint includes granting green cards to foreign students who receive advanced degrees in the U.S.; giving young illegal immigrants brought to the country as children a chance at citizenship if they serve in the military; and cutting red tape that delays temporary visas for agricultural workers and applications for legal immigrants trying to reunite with their family members.
But to curb illegal immigration, Romney has vowed to complete a high-tech fence along the border, ensure there’s enough manpower on the front lines and develop an effective employment verification system, known as E-Verify.
“Romney is between a rock and a hard place,” said Frank Sharry, executive director of the pro-immigration advocacy group America’s Voice. “He doesn’t want to alienate the far right, and he doesn’t want to lose support among Latinos.”
McCain, the 2008 GOP presidential nominee who himself has wrestled with the immigration issue during recent campaigns, told reporters he’d like to see Rubio press forward with his narrower DREAM Act plan, which the Arizona senator termed the “Achieve Act.”
“I think there is a majority of us who understand this is a humanitarian issue, a compassionate issue, and we’ve got to resolve it,” McCain said.
Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants and a prospect to become Romney’s running mate, said Tuesday he wasn’t even aware his legislation had a name yet. He said he’ll spend this week gauging the temperature of his 47-member Senate GOP caucus to see if there’s any interest in moving forward with his plan.
But he’s acutely aware that Obama’s executive action effectively killed any momentum behind his three-month-old effort.
“Whether the environment is right for it or not, we’ll see. I think the president’s decision is going to make it harder in the short term to get something done — I hope I’m wrong — but that’s my sense,” Rubio told POLITICO just outside the Senate chamber. “I still think it’s as important an issue as I did before, but when you politicize something like that, you make it harder to happen.”
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