By Ashley Parker
March 15, 2013
The
bipartisan group of House members that has been meeting quietly for
nearly four years to discuss an overhaul of the nation’s immigration
system is nearing agreement on a framework, and is briefing their
respective leadership this week.
On
Thursday, the four Democrats in the eight-person group —
Representatives Xavier Becerra of California, Luis V. Gutierrez of
Illinois, Zoe Lofgren of California and John Yarmuth of Kentucky —
briefed Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House Democratic
leader. The Republicans of the group — Representatives John Carter and
Sam Johnson, both of Texas, Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida and Raúl R.
Labrador of Idaho — are likely to meet with Speaker John A. Boehner on
Friday.
“I
think as of last night, they may have an agreement, an agreement in
principle in terms of how we would deal with the question of both legal
immigration and illegal immigration,” Mr. Boehner said in an interview
Thursday.
The
meetings with Mr. Boehner and Ms. Pelosi offer a chance for the working
group to offer a progress update and “take the temperature,” in the
words of one aide, as well as run through any potential traps.
Though
aides and members of the group describe being on the cusp of an
agreement, they will probably wait until after the upcoming Easter
recess at the end of March to introduce their legislation. This decision
seems to be in line with their counterparts in the Senate, who are
further along in their public immigration discussions, but have not yet
released their own legislation and are also likely to do so after the
break.
Mr.
Boehner has repeatedly said that he is planning to wait for the Senate
to move on an immigration overhaul before the House — where the issue is
expected to be a tougher sell — takes up the topic. But he said that he
thinks his own bipartisan group could offer him some help in getting
immigration legislation through the House.
“Nobody talks about the House bipartisan group, because they’ve kept pretty quiet to themselves,” he said.
Mr.
Boehner added: “My goal is to address the issue — how we address it,
what the process looks like, there are absolutely no decisions on that.
But I do believe it’s important that we deal with this in a bipartisan
way, and I’m going to do everything I can to continue to promote that.”
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