Lame-duck Congress could move immigration reform, warns GOP opponent

Voters should be wary of a lame-duck Congress that could push through an immigration bill this year, one stalwart opponent of comprehensive reform warned Wednesday.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (Calif.), one of the GOP's staunchest opponents of illegal immigration, warned that President Barack Obama might seek immigration reform after this fall's elections, and urged lawmakers running for reelection to pledge not to move such legislation during a lame-duck Congress.

"If you listen to the debate, since the president’s speech, and now you look at this action by his Justice Department, what we can expect is that after the next elections, in between before the next Congress is sworn in, they will move and try to do something dramatic in the area of illegal immigration," Rohrabacher said during an interview with a conservative radio syndicate.

“We have got to make sure that everyone running for office pledges that they will not be part of a lame-duck conspiracy … to pass laws that they [the Obama administration] couldn’t get passed before the elections," he added. "That’s an insult to the American people and an insult to democracy."

Lame-duck Congresses take place after the elections when defeated, retiring lawmakers sit alongside their reelected colleagues for a few weeks during a session in which very little is usually accomplished.

Many lawmakers and the president himself have suggested that mustering the political will for reform could be difficult, potentially allowing lawmakers who are no longer vulnerable to feel freer to cast a vote at the end of the year.

But Democrats in the White House and Congress have been far from dismissive of the prospects for using the session for controversial measures later this year.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) has similarly hinted that Democrats could move the Employee Free Choice Act (“card-check”) legislation during a lame-duck session, while White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Wednesday he "certainly believe[s] it's possible" that a lame-duck Congress could be used to push through a controversial free trade agreement with South Korea.