How to Bring Back Immigration Reform
Vulnerable Republican moderates should force their leaders’ hand
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What are the prospects that the U.S. House of Representatives will pass useful immigration legislation? House leaders are under increasing pressure from business groups and immigration activists to act. Internal political pressures may mount as well. After the government shutdown fiasco, some Republican representatives are newly vulnerable. Their reelection could be further threatened if Speaker John Boehner continues catering to the far right by refusing to bring immigration legislation to the floor.
Polls show broad public support for reform, including a path to citizenship for the nation’s estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants. The Senate in June passed such a bill 68-32—a thumping bipartisan victory.