Wall Street Journal:
By Laura Meckler
March 26, 2014
Democrats,
frustrated by House inaction on immigration, filed a “discharge
petition” Wednesday aimed at forcing the Republican majority to bring
legislation to the floor.
Most agree the tactic won’t work, but supporters hope it will amp up
pressure on the GOP.
A
discharge petition is a way to force a floor vote on a particular piece
of legislation. In this case, the petition seeks to dislodge the
comprehensive Democratic immigration
bill, which mostly mirrors the bill passed by the Senate last year. If
Democrats get 218 signatures—a majority of the House—then a floor vote
is eventually guaranteed.
The
problem is that reaching that threshold requires more than a dozen
Republicans to defy their leadership and sign a Democratic petition.
Even the three Republicans
who are co-sponsoring the Democratic bill have said they won’t sign the
petition.
Still,
the move is seen as a way to make it more difficult for lawmakers to
say they support an immigration overhaul if they don’t sign the
petition.
On
Wednesday, Democrats emphasized the urgency of aiding more than 11
million people in the U.S. illegally; under the legislation, they would
get the chance for citizenship.
“We’re
here for a purpose,” said Rep. Xavier Becerra (D., Calif.) “It’s been
273 days since our colleagues in the Senate passed comprehensive
immigration reform. Every
single day, about a thousand people are separated from their families
and are deported from our country.”
House
Speaker John Boehner of Ohio has said he wants to act on immigration,
and early this year he put forward a set of principles to guide GOP
legislation. But a week
later, he said it would be difficult to move forward, and the issue is
widely viewed as stuck.
Some
are still hoping for action this summer after most GOP primaries are
over, which could make it politically easier for some House Republicans
to debate the issue.
Boehner
spokesman Michael Steel responded to the discharge petition by pointing
to comments from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) about
its prospects for
success.
“We’ll
never get to 218 (signatures) on the discharge petition,” she said in
an interview earlier this month on Sirius XM. Mr. Steel replied: “We
agree with Rep. Pelosi.”
In
her interview, Ms. Pelosi added that the discharge petition can help
add pressure on the issue. A Democratic leadership aide added that in
past cases, the House majority
has brought legislation to the floor that was subject of a discharge
petition, even though it did not reach the requisite threshold.
Typically,
though, the move fails. Democrats are trying to use a discharge
petition to force a vote on raising the minimum wage, for instance, but
that shows no sign of
success.
Separately
Wednesday, there was a bit of bipartisan action on immigration. Reps.
Steve Pearce (R., N.M.) and Beto O’Rourke (D., Texas) introduced
legislation that seeks
to address complaints about the U.S. Border Patrol from both their
districts. The bill would add training and establish an ombudsman for
citizen complaints, an aide said.
In
an interview, Mr. Pearce said he’s found many people excited about the
fact that a Democrat and a Republican can find common ground on any
aspect of the difficult immigration
issue. He said people have told him: “Thank goodness Washington is
finally finding people can work across party lines.”
But
he said he cannot support the Democratic bill or an idea put forth by
Mr. Boehner that would give people in the country illegally a legal
status and then in certain
cases, the chance for citizenship. “It tells the people waiting in
their country to do it right that they are foolish,” he said.
He
added that he cannot support any bill that has a citizenship option in
it, and said he will not support any immigration legislation at all
unless the Senate and the
White House agree that they will not try and amend the House bill to
add such citizenship provisions later.
“What we need is reassurance they’re not going to put amnesty in a bill we pass and then send it back to us,” he said.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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