Time
By Zeke Miller
November 20, 2014
As President Barack Obama
prepares to announce executive action on immigration reform in a
Thursday evening primetime address to the nation, he is already facing
criticism from many of his would-be replacements.
At the annual retreat of the
Republican Governors Association, a cohort of governors eyeing bids at
the White House blasted Obama’s planned announcement even as they were
silent on any counter-proposals to address
the President’s concerns. The immigration debate, operatives in both
parties say, is likely to be front-and-center in 2016.
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence
called Obama’s forthcoming announcement a “profound mistake.” Louisiana
Gov. Bobby Jindal called it “the height of arrogance for this president
to go around the Congress.” Wisconsin Gov. Scott
Walker said someone should sue to stop it. Texas Gov. Rick Perry said
that his state would.
But the governors were
by-and-large loath to offer their own vision for how to address the
nation’s immigration issues. In 2013, after the party’s 2012 defeat, the
Republican National Committee identified immigration
reform as a must-pass issue for the GOP. But the GOP successfully bet
on an older, whiter electorate in 2014 to justify the delay internally.
House Republicans have refused to take up a bipartisan comprehensive
immigration reform bill that passed the Senate
in 2013, a move that Obama has said prompted his unilateral action.
The only apparent consensus
among the governors was that Obama was going down the wrong path and
should first deal with securing the border. “You will not get Americans
to support an immigration reform bill until—not
together, but until—the border is secure,” Perry said.
New Jersey Gov. Chris
Christie said he would wait to see what Obama announced before weighing
in. “We will have to wait and see what he says and what he does and what
the legal implications are,” he said.
The governors encouraged
congressional Republicans to avoid a government funding show-down this
December over Obama’s immigration actions, saying a shutdown would be
counterproductive. Christie said he has “confidence”
in Speaker of the House John Boehner and Majority Leader-elect Mitch
McConnell can keep the government open. “All this kind of hysteria about
shutdown to me is just people wanting to make news,” Christie added. “I
wouldn’t push a shutdown, I think you go to
court,” Walker said.
Pence called on Republicans
to use the budget process to push back against Obama’s action. “The
president has an opportunity now to work with the Congress after it
convenes in January and to find a piece-by-piece
approach in dealing with the issue of immigration reform,” he said.
“The power of the Congress is the power of the purse.”
White House Press Secretary
Josh Earnest said Wednesday the action would affect “millions,” while
advocates familiar with the action say roughly five million will be
affected.
Asked about specific
immigration reform proposals, Christie repeatedly declined to weigh in.
“If I run [for president], we’ll see,” he said. “If I were to run for
president, I would then articulate the basis for my
candidacy.”
Only Kasich explicitly
stated he was open to a pathway to citizenship for those in the U.S.
illegally. “I’m open to it, I will tell you that,” he said.
“There already is a path to
citizenship in this country and I would suggest it shouldn’t be
changed,” Perry said, breaking with Kasich.
For more information, go to: www,beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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