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The Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) appears to be at an internal impasse over whether to finally embrace the House Democratic leadership’s approach to immigration reform or continue to criticize it openly.
For the better part of a month, the all-Democratic CHC has taken the leadership of the House to task for encouraging hearings on “piecemeal” immigration bills focused on enforcement issues while ignoring broader proposals that deal with increasing the number of visas awarded, creating guest-worker programs and adjusting the status of the current illegal population.
But in the wake of a press conference last week in which the CHC and House Democratic leaders joined to celebrate an “unprecedented investment in nutrition” for minority communities that was included in the farm bill, members of the Hispanic Caucus quieted down even as multiple hearings on bills to mandate employment verification and enhanced border security continued unabated.
On Tuesday CHC Chairman Rep. Joe Baca (D-Calif.) went a step further, saying the House Democratic leadership was on the ball regarding immigration, and added that the ongoing hearings — even on employment verification bills — were, at the end of the day, positive.
“Because ultimately what these hearings show is that our immigration system is broken,” Baca said. “And with these kinds of hearings people are finding out that you just can’t deal with this piece by piece as we’ve been doing.
“In the end, this will all lead us back to the need for comprehensive immigration reform,” Baca said.
Baca also significantly tamped down his earlier criticism of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) for pursuing only what he less than a month ago called a “Band-Aid” approach to immigration reform.
“We really appreciate the leadership from Speaker Pelosi,” he said Tuesday. “I think leadership has been there on comprehensive immigration reform … It’s the Republicans who keep blocking it.”
Nadeam Elshami, a spokesman for Pelosi, said the Speaker “is committed to balanced, fair and bipartisan immigration reform legislation, but unless the president and the Republican leadership engage Democrats in a positive way instead of using this issue to score partisan political points, members will only grow more frustrated with the process.”
On Thursday — just as the House Homeland Security subcommittee on Border, Maritime and Global Counterterrorism was holding another hearing on Rep. Health Shuler’s (D-N.C.) legislation calling for mandatory employment verification and enhanced border security — it emerged that Baca may not have been speaking for his caucus.
Rep. Rubén Hinojosa (D-Texas) on Thursday said that the CHC had just met in executive session to consider what to do about the lack of hearings on so-called comprehensive immigration reform — which includes the worker programs and legalization proposals.
Hinojosa declined to comment on the specifics of the discussions.
Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), however — whom other CHC members said had been tasked with communicating the caucus’s message on the issue — pulled no punches when talking about Pelosi, Hoyer and the immigration strategy being employed by House leaders.
“Even though a majority of the majority supports comprehensive immigration reform,” Gutierrez said, “the Democratic leadership only wants to appease this radical enforcement crowd by giving them hearings.
“Why can’t we have hearings on comprehensive immigration reform?” Gutierrez asked. “My opinion has always been if you can’t speak to the most vulnerable in our society, then just be quiet.”
Gutierrez said he remains “highly skeptical and highly critical” of additional hearings on any legislation that deals only with pieces of the immigration problem, including Shuler’s enforcement-only bill.
Late Thursday, the CHC sought to temper any notion of an internal divide by talking up the fact that the caucus remains united behind a comprehensive-only immigration reform platform.
“The CHC remains steadfastly committed to enacting a comprehensive system that is predicated on security — the security of our borders, the security of our homeland and the security of our families,” read part of a statement sent by Baca Thursday evening.
“The CHC remains united in our commitment to comprehensive immigration reform,” read the statement. “If any good is to come out of recent hearings on piecemeal and enforcement-only policy, it is to highlight that only a comprehensive approach will be effective in mending our badly broken immigration system.” |
