Speaker Boehner & House GOP's Radical Immigration Tactics 'Candidly Impossible'
Border Bill Brings More Headaches for Embattled GOP
Passing the McCaul bill through a House Republican Conference that has long espoused a secure-the-border-first approach to immigration reform will not be intuitively easy...Sen. Jeff Sessions, a leading voice in the far right on immigration issues, has been rallying opposition, and that may translate into problems with House conservatives. Some conservatives have openly questioned whether the bill is merely the first step toward uncertain and unpalatable immigration changes. There is also growing sentiment on the right that the border bill is a ruse meant to smooth passage of a DHS funding bill that has yet to see Senate action. The worry is that GOP leaders will tack it on to the funding bill instead of measures targeting Obama's relaxed immigration-enforcement policies, which are not able to pass the Senate…Also troublingly, support for the border-security bill has been waning among the same single-issue groups whose approval leaders touted as reason to support the DHS funding bill in the first place.
And the House GOP plan to appease Rep. Steve King and the other Tea Party types in their Conference doesn't play well among Senate Republicans:
Senate GOP frustrated with Boehner over immigration tactics
Frustration is building among Senate Republicans that Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is not making more of an effort to manage the expectations of House conservatives…One of the first pieces of business conducted by the GOP House this year as to approve an immigration bill overturning President Obama's executive actions...But the language attacking Obama's executive actions is opposed by Democrats, leaving the bill dead on arrival in the Senate and putting Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in a tough spot.Some lawmakers think Boehner could have done a better job of reminding rank-and-file conservatives that a repeal of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and another executive action…has no chance of passing the Senate…."One of the things that we tried to stress at the conference was, ‘Look, we don't have 60 votes. We can't operate like the House does,'" said a Republican senator who requested anonymity to discuss Boehner candidly…"It's going to be very difficult to achieve what the expectations are out there. Candidly, impossible," the lawmaker added.
Senate Republicans say they're concerned a pattern could develop in the 114th Congress in which Boehner repeatedly sends bills to the Senate that have little chance of picking up Democratic votes, fueling frustration with the upper chamber among conservative activists…Republicans including Sens. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) have balked at the prospect of a standoff over immigration that could threaten funding for the agency.
Another option is to extend Department Homeland Security funding for another month. This would penalize the administration by hampering its ability to plan for programs more than a few weeks into the future…"The guys back home will throw up their hands and say, ‘Oh you're caving in. You're trying to fool us into think you're fighting.' But it's more painful than people realize. They can't plan anything beyond thirty days," said a Republican senator, making reference to the penalty that would be imposed on the administration.
Speaker Boehner, Vox sums it all up for you and your team:
The GOP's border bill would be a disaster
…the zero-tolerance standard is plainly unrealistic, according to experts. Marc Rosenblum of the Migration Policy Institute, who worked for the Congressional Research Service on measuring border security, says that "no serious student of the border" could possibly believe that the GOP's standard is a good idea.