In an effort to jumpstart House action, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., today again proposed to pass an amnesty bill with a 2017 effective date to mollify Republican concerns that Obama will not carry out the legislation’s enforcement provisions. A spokesman for Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, dismissed the offer saying that President Obama would then have no incentive to enforce immigration law for the rest of his term.
“I feel so strongly this bill needs to get done, I am willing to show flexibility,” Reid said. “I hope the Republicans will consider this offer. It’s done seriously. To show some compassion, start acting. They say no this offer, we’ll suggest that there’s never going to be a time when House Republicans are willing to act on immigration.”
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said, “They have about a six-week window, from June 10 after the last Republican primary until the August recess. If they don’t pass immigration reform then the president will have no choice but to act on his own.” Reid added that administrative rules are not his preference and “cannot trump legislation..but we’re going to have to do what we have to do.”
Dismissing the offer, Michael Steel, a spokesman for Speaker Boehner, said “Such a scenario would eliminate any incentive for the administration to act on border security or enforce the law for the remainder of President Obama’s term.” That would affect national security, he said.
Schumer claimed that, to date, House Republican leaders have not said whether they can secure a deal, and suggested that possible action on the ENLIST Act does not meet their demands. “We are not going to go along with minor fixes that fail to address the huge systematic problems of our immigration system today.”
In a Wednesday interview with POLITICO, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said he backs the policy behind the ENLIST Act, which would legalize illegal aliens after they serve in the armed forces. “If you’ve got a kid that was brought here by their parents — unbeknownst to the child — and…they want to serve in our military, they ought to be allowed to do that and then have the ability to become a citizen after that kind of service,” Cantor told the Hill newspaper.
Cantor said the ENLIST Act was “not something that is appropriate” to include in the National Defense Authorization Act, but did not dismiss the potential for a stand-alone vote on the measure later this year. He said the bill’s backers are “still working on language” and that “no decisions have been made.” He also said an amnesty for younger illegal aliens “is still under discussion.”
Illegal-alien advocates are now saying that Cantor, whose primary challenge has repeatedly criticized his pro-amnesty views, is the chief obstacle to reform in the House Republican leadership.
