POLITICO: Immigration Reform Is Dead
Their reasoning makes sense: Republicans in the House have no inclination to move on the Senate's recently passed bill, and most aren't favorable to any bill that includes a path to citizenship for the nearly 11 million unauthorized immigrants currently in the country.
From Politico (emphasis added):
In private conversations, top Republicans on Capitol Hill now predict comprehensive immigration reform will die a slow, months-long death in the House. Like with background checks for gun buyers, the conventional wisdom that the party would never kill immigration reform, and risk further alienating Hispanic voters, was always wrong — and ignored the reality that most House Republicans are white conservatives representing mostly white districts.
The piece comes the same day that the White House is out with a new report touting the economic benefits of the Senate's immigration bill, using data from the Congressional Budget Office to show that it would boost GDP and reduce the federal deficit while encouraging job creation and growth.
It also comes as former President George W. Bush spoke in favor of reforming the nation's immigration laws at a naturalization ceremony at The George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Texas.
"The laws governing the immigration system aren't working. The system is broken," Bush said.
House Speaker John Boehner and other Republicans will meet Wednesday to hash out their public strategy on immigration reform. But the reality is that most House Republicans don't have an incentive to move on the Senate bill — or any other bill that the Senate would pass and that President Barack Obama would sign.
House Republican districts are 82% white, while only 14% are Asian and Hispanic. Overall, Democratic districts are about twice as Hispanic as Republican districts.