Immigration Resurfaces in Tough Talk by Speaker

New York Times

By Ashley Parker and Michael D. Shear

April 25, 2014

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/26/us/politics/immigration-resurfaces-in-tough-talk-by-speaker.html?_r=0

WASHINGTON — Speculation about Speaker John A. Boehner’s intentions in overhauling the nation’s immigration laws intensified Friday after he mocked the most conservative House members for thwarting his attempts to fix the system, shore up the borders and address the legal status of the country’s 11 million illegal immigrants.

For Mr. Boehner of Ohio, who expressed his frustrations at a Rotary Club luncheon in Ohio on Thursday, it was the latest in a series of bracing comments that White House officials and activists said could be an indication that he was willing to buck opposition in his own party and move ahead on immigration.

Steven C. LaTourette, a Republican former congressman from Ohio who is close to Mr. Boehner, said the speaker’s comments meant he was ready to either push forward on immigration or was preparing for retirement.

Mr. Boehner may have become “finally unchained and has basically had enough of this stuff and is going to be John Boehner again, which would be great for the party and great for the country,” Mr. LaTourette said. “Or this condo he bought down in Florida is going to be occupied sooner than anyone thought.”

The Senate, with bipartisan support, passed a broad immigration bill last June, which included a path to citizenship for the 11 million illegal immigrants already in this country. But the measure stalled in the Republican-controlled House, where many conservatives dismissed the bill as providing “amnesty.”

Mr. Boehner and his leadership team released a one-page set of guiding principles on immigration in January, which also included a lengthy path to legal status for such immigrants, but he was forced to abandon the guidelines just a week later in the face of conservative opposition.

But in recent weeks, Mr. Boehner’s exasperation has become increasingly pronounced. At a recent fund-raiser in Las Vegas, in comments first reported by The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Boehner told guests that he was “hellbent” on dealing with the issue this year. And on Thursday, back in his home district, Mr. Boehner allowed what seemed to be his private sentiments to spill into public view as he poked fun at some of his most conservative members.

“Here’s the attitude: ‘Oooh, don’t make me do this. Oooh, this is too hard,’ ” Mr. Boehner said in a high-pitched voice, his faced scrunched up like a child’s.

“We get elected to make choices,” he added, in comments first reported by The Cincinnati Enquirer. “We get elected to solve problems, and it’s remarkable to me how many of my colleagues just don’t want to.”

His aides were quick to reject the idea that Mr. Boehner was ready to change strategies. He still opposed, they said, a broad overhaul embraced by President Obama and a bipartisan group in the Senate.

“The speaker continues to believe we need step-by-step efforts to fix our broken immigration system, but given the American people and Congress’s lack of trust that the president will enforce the law, it’s difficult to see how we make progress,” said Michael Steel, a spokesman for Mr. Boehner. As for the mockery, he added, “The speaker often says you only tease the ones you love.”

House Republicans, including Mr. Boehner, hoped to pass a series of narrow but related bills. But they also said that Mr. Obama’s repeated changes to the Affordable Care Act, as well as his State of the Union promise to use executive actions to circumvent Congress, have eroded trust and made any immigration deal with Republicans increasingly difficult.

Privately, Republicans also said that a broad immigration deal was unlikely in a midterm election year, and that the issue was too big and unwieldy to push through in the lame duck session after the November elections. Democrats pointed to a small window of opportunity — in June and July — when a deal could be reached, but they warned that it was rapidly closing, and that Republicans had not made any serious effort to work with them on a compromise.

Mr. Boehner’s comments did nothing to endear him to his party’s conservative wing, which he has battled on a number of other fronts, including the “fiscal cliff” deal and the government shutdown last year. Representative Raúl R. Labrador, an Idaho Republican who frequently criticizes Mr. Boehner, said in a statement that he was “disappointed” in Mr. Boehner’s remarks.

“The problem is Obama, not House Republicans,” he said. “Speaker Boehner should have made that point instead of criticizing the people he is supposed to be leading.” 

Representative Steve King, Republican of Iowa, said Mr. Boehner’s recent actions have offered a “drip, drip, drip” of signals to his party’s conservative base, and “each one of these weakens his hand.”

Immigration advocates said they needed to see action from the speaker, not just tough talk. “He’s acting like he’s not the speaker of the House of Representatives,” said Lynn Tramonte, deputy director of America’s Voice, a pro-immigration group. “There’s nobody higher than him in that body who can decide what bills get put on the floor and what votes to take.”

White House officials declined to comment on the speaker’s remarks. In recent months, Mr. Obama and his aides have been careful to give Mr. Boehner — who they believe is personally committed to overhauling the immigration system — a wide berth in dealing with his members.

But even as he waits for Mr. Boehner to act, the president is under increasing pressure to slow the steady stream of deportations. Last month, Mr. Obama promised that Jeh C. Johnson, the secretary of Homeland Security, would review the deportation policy to make it more humane.

That review could be finished within weeks, several administration officials said. Mr. Johnson is considered likely to focus on ways to minimize the deportation of immigrants who have settled in the nation’s interior and have committed no other crimes. Such a proposal could reduce the likelihood of deportation for tens of thousands.

Any recommendation like that could anger House conservatives and make the speaker’s job more difficult.

But a proposal to change enforcement priorities is not likely to satisfy most immigration activists either; they want the president to end most deportations until a legislative overhaul is enacted.

Kevin Madden, a Republican strategist who once served as Mr. Boehner’s spokesman, said his comments in Ohio this week reinforced the speaker’s difficult position.

“It isn’t a secret about what John’s personal policy views are on this,” Mr. Madden said. “He believes this is an important issue that he’d like to get done.”

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