Wall Street Journal
By Laura Meckler and Kristina Peterson
October 24, 2013
WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama renewed his push Thursday for a broad immigration overhaul, pressuring the House to pass legislation this year.
"The American people support this," Mr. Obama said. "Now it's up to Republicans in the House to decide whether reform becomes a reality or not."
Acknowledging the highly polarized politics in Washington, Mr. Obama argued that the legislation is in the Republican Party's political interests as much as it is for Democrats. He noted that former President George W. Bush and many Senate Republicans have supported the legislation.
"I'm not running for office again. I just believe it's the right thing to do," he said. "I also believe that good policy is good politics in this instance."
House Republicans responded Thursday by reiterating their intent to consider immigration in smaller chunks, rather than try to pass a sweeping bill, as the Senate did in late June.
House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) has been "clear that the House will not consider any massive, Obamacare-style legislation that no one understands," his spokesman Brendan Buck said in a statement after the Obama speech. "Instead, the House is committed to a common sense, step-by-step approach that gives Americans confidence that reform is done the right way."
House committees have approved five immigration bills so far, with lawmakers still working to draft others. But House leaders have yet to say when they would bring any to the floor and it isn't yet clear if Republicans will offer any bills likely to garner Democratic support on the thorniest pieces of an overhaul. And with legislative time scarce, it would require heavy lifting to reconcile any bills the House passes this year with a sweeping bill that passed the Senate in June. After that, any compromise measure might be even harder to push through the House.
Some Republicans have said the bitter fight with the White House over the government shutdown makes it harder for them to work together, but Mr. Obama spun recent events in the opposite direction, saying it was time to show Americans that Washington can get something done.
The president made clear again that he supports a pathway to "earned citizenship" for the nearly 12 million people in the U.S. illegally, something he's long supported and which the Senate bill included.
National GOP leaders have urged congressional Republicans to support an immigration overhaul in the hopes of broadening the party's appeal to a wider swath of voters, including the growing Hispanic population.
But most House Republicans hail from conservative districts where their biggest threat to re-election could come from a challenger in a GOP primary election. That could make it harder for some Republicans to back the most controversial measures, particularly those granting some kind of legal status to illegal immigrants already in the U.S.
Many Republicans are wary of any bill that could be interpreted as rewarding people with legal status or citizenship after they broke U.S. laws to enter the country—and to a lesser extent, some are wary of granting citizenship to people who appear more likely to back Democrats for office.
House Republicans have been noncommittal about how to handle people who are in the U.S. illegally.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R., Va.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has said he would consider letting illegal immigrants qualify for legal permanent residence, or green cards, which could then lead to citizenship.
Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R., Fla.) and a small group of other lawmakers are working on a bill that would offer illegal immigrants a way to "get right with the law" while addressing their problematic legal status, he said. Mr. Diaz-Balart has said in the past that Republicans he talks to could support legalization and even citizenship as long as there was no "special path" unavailable to others, an idea that lines up with the Goodlatte concept.
In addition, Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) is also working on a proposal that would offer temporary legal status to qualifying illegal immigrants.
Mr. Issa's bill, which is still being drafted, is expected to call for temporary legal status for some illegal immigrants already living in the U.S. for around six years, his spokesman said. The exact qualification for the program is still being worked out, but immigrants would likely qualify if they were gainfully employed and could show they weren't a drain to government resources.
Once granted the temporary status, immigrants could tap existing channels to seek longer-term ways to stay in the U.S., such as through visas for agricultural or high-tech workers. At the end of the temporary period, those without approval to remain in the U.S. would have to return to their home countries. Mr. Issa could introduce the bill as soon as next week, his office said.
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