Posted on January 25, 2013

Republicans Shift Gears on Immigration Ahead of Reform Debate with Obama

Mike Lillis, The Hill, January 25, 2013

House Republicans have reshuffled their troops ahead of a high-stakes clash with President Obama over immigration reform, leaving reform advocates with a new glimmer of hope that an elusive resolution to the thorny issue is within grasp this year.

For years, conservative opponents of comprehensive immigration reform have fought successfully against efforts to overhaul the system, particularly as it pertains to the fate of the nation’s estimated 12 million illegal immigrants.

Yet even as the GOP conference has shifted to the right, there’s a growing chorus of Republicans projecting a softer position on the “amnesty” issue — particularly since the party was walloped by Hispanic voters at the polls in November. And a number of those voices are in new positions of power that put them at the front lines of the coming immigration reform debate.

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), for instance, is the new chairman of the House Judiciary Committee’s Immigration subpanel. While Gowdy has not made immigration a focus of his two years on Capitol Hill — most often toeing the party line without fanfare — he recently rejected the notion that the government should round up and deport the millions of illegal immigrants living in the country.

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Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas), the new vice chairman of the Immigration subcommittee, has also expressed a new openness to reform, announcing his support last month for a guest-worker program that drew immediate fire from conservative groups that consider it amnesty.

“It’s time for Republicans to take the lead on immigration reform,” Poe wrote in a Politico op-ed.

In another shift, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), who is among Congress’s most fervent opponents of “amnesty” provisions, lost his leadership spot on the Immigration subcommittee this year, with both Gowdy and Poe moving ahead of him.

Lynn Tramonte, deputy director of America’s Voice, a group that advocates for comprehensive immigration reform, said King’s demotion is a clear sign that GOP leaders view his hardline position — and often controversial statements — as a political liability that undermines the party’s effort to attract more Hispanic voters.

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Still another immigration hardliner, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), also has less power to control the debate this year. The chairman of the full Judiciary Committee for the last four years, Smith was replaced this Congress by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), whose background is in immigration law.

When Smith headed the committee, Tramonte said, everyone knew “he wasn’t going to move anything beyond enforcement measures.” With the new cast of characters in place, “it’s an open question,” she said.

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Rosemary Jenks, director of government relations at NumbersUSA, which advocates for tougher immigration laws, characterized Goodlatte as a “very solid, pro-enforcement” voice who picked “very solid, pro-enforcement” lawmakers to represent his Immigration subcommittee.

“There’s not a chance the House will introduce or move a comprehensive bill,” Jenks said Thursday in a phone interview. “Congress has tried comprehensive reform. It didn’t work in 2007. It’s not going to work this time around.”

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Obama has made immigration reform a top priority of 2013, and Congress is lining up behind that effort. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has said he’ll hold hearings on the issue in February. And Goodlatte’s House panel has slated a hearing for early next month, according to a GOP aide briefed on the schedule.

“We are a nation of immigrants and our immigration system has contributed to the greatness of the United States,” Goodlatte said Thursday in an email. “However, we are also a nation of laws. It is clear that our immigration system is in desperate need of repair and is not working as efficiently and fairly as it should be.”

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Not that anyone thinks reaching a bipartisan consensus will be easy. Indeed, one big sticking point seems to be that Obama and the Democrats want comprehensive reforms, while most Republicans favor a piecemeal approach.

Highlighting another hurdle, Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho), a member of the House Immigration subcommittee who’s positioning himself as a GOP point man on the issue, says he’s opposed to any “amnesty” provisions for those now in the country illegally.

Still, in a statement that would hearten reform advocates, a Labrador spokesman said Thursday that, taken on the whole, the Tea Party favorite is much closer to Luis Gutierrez on immigration than he is to Lamar Smith.