Immigration

The Hill's A.B. Stoddard sits down with Pundits Blog contributors John Feehery and Peter Fenn to discuss the latest developments in Syria and the chances for passing immigration reform. 

As a recent story in The Hill suggested, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has some pretty big decisions to make.

No decision is more important for the Speaker and the Republican Party than whether to make immigration reform the law of the land or whether the GOP House destroys the prospects for immigration reform in the current Congress.

It's hard not to be consumed by the avalanche of news about the government spying on all of us, everywhere. But you don't have to be a cynic or an intelligence expert to ask, seriously, why wouldn't they?

But something less dramatic yet just as significant has developed this week while few noticed: Immigration reform is going down the tubes. That's right, the only hope of the two parties doing anything together before the next election is almost gone.

The posturing in the Senate and the House has supporters of immigration reform disheartened and discouraged. Latinos, in particular, feel that the moment has come and gone. The blame game has started.

But not so fast. Don’t confuse political maneuver on this highly complex issue with ultimate outcomes. Here’s how I see the state of play:

Perhaps no politician in Washington, D.C. has more at stake in the immigration bill debate than Florida Senator and prospective presidential candidate Marco Rubio (R).

Rubio was recruited into the Gang of Eight senators to serve as the unassailable conservative Republican pitch man. His job was to reassure the Republican base that the legislation was going to meet their fundamental concerns about amnesty for illegal aliens and that the legislation would not significantly increase the size and scope of government by dramatically expanding the dependency class.

And he would have succeeded except for the diligent efforts of Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and later Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to bring to light the actual content of the legislation before it was voted on.

Comprehensive immigration reform will get 75 votes in the Senate, making it harder for conservatives to kill it in the House.

The Senate Judiciary Committee easily brushed aside efforts from Republicans and Democrats to amend the base bill with potential poison pills, a sure sign that it has real momentum. While the markup is scheduled to go on for three more weeks, the committee should agree to just bring the whole bill, un-amended, to the Senate floor and dispense with the needless drama.

I noticed a great headline in The Washington Examiner announcing the invasion of Washington by sex-starved cicadas and immediately thought of Republicans in 2013. 

Of course, this Examiner story was not about politics, it was about the harmless bugs who hibernate for a decade or two and emerge with deafening noise to mate, a thought that comes to mind as the Senate gets serious about immigration.

Easy fellas. It has only been a week since National Review blasted immigration reform legislation being promoted — with enormous difficulty — by the Gang of Eight. Now a cover story titled "Rubio's Folly" is the latest attack by the conservative publication, this time aimed personally at Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), the man who both parties agree is reform's best hope.

Insisting the key provisions Rubio promised are not in the 844-page bill, the editors wrote that Rubio has lashed himself to the bill, making "convoluted justifications" and "laughable arguments," to promote the legislation.

Perhaps no one in American politics has more invested in a single public policy issue than Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) does with immigration.

Rubio, perhaps following the White House move to use an executive order on the DREAM Act for children of illegal immigrants last year, made the conscious decision to shape events, not react to them.

The Hill's A.B. Stoddard sits down with Pundits bloggers John Feehery and Peter Fenn to discuss what impact the Boston Marathon bombing will have on the gun control and immigration debates.