As President Reagan famously once said, “Trust, but verify.” When it comes to the GOP senators trying to forge an immigration compromise with the Republican House leadership, that phrase from the Republican of Republicans might be handy for them to keep in mind.

House GOP leaders launch their immigration hearings on the Senate bill they deplore next month, starting in the border cities of San Diego, Calif., and Laredo, Texas.

These hearings are designed to strengthen their hand if they are ever forced to a negotiation table.

The House Republicans, who passed an enforcement-only bill Dec. 16, say they want to deal with border-security matters first before even entertaining the broader issues of a guest-worker program and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who are already in the United States. Those concepts are central to the Senate bill passed last month with 23 Republican votes.

But the GOP senators who are part of a bipartisan immigration coalition will have to decide if they trust the House leaders enough to give them a vote on an enforcement-only bill. Once they vote, their chit is gone. 

After listening to House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), I’d say that the Senate is facing a potential bluff.

At a briefing yesterday, I asked Boehner, “In principle though, if you got everything you wanted to secure borders — the border — in a way that you think is adequate, would you, as the House leader, entertain a guest-worker program?”

Boehner replied, “I’m not going to negotiate this bill between the House and Senate through the press. We’ve had conversations with the Senate. [House Judiciary Committee] Chairman [James] Sensenbrenner [R-Wis.] continues to have conversations with Mr. [Arlen] Specter [(R-Pa.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee] and others on the Senate side, where those negotiations and those conversations are going to continue. But I’m not — this is not the place to negotiate the bill. “

I tried again. “Well, I’m trying to get to a point where we can talk about policy without it being a negotiation with the press,” I said to Boehner. “You know, part of the point here is to get the bill, and you know how important the path to citizenship and the guest-worker program is to your president, President Bush, a Republican, who is at odds with his own leadership — you —”

Boehner said, “I think we’ve made our position very clear. We want a bill that will stop the flow of illegal immigration. And we believe the way to do that is to tighten our borders, secure our borders, and to enforce our laws. “

I took another stab. Boehner headed me off.

“I’m not going there,” he said. “I’ll tell you it’s pretty clear — listen, I am not going to negotiate possibilities of what could happen in a negotiation here. I think that’s for Chairman Sensenbrenner to do, along with his Senate counterparts.

Another reporter tried: “Mr. Boehner, the fundamental question, as posed by Senator [John] McCain [R-Ariz.], is this: Are you for enforcement first or enforcement only?”

“We’re going to try to work toward getting a good bill that the American people expect,” Boehner said.

So everyone clear? Trust, but verify.

Sweet is the Washington bureau chief for the Chicago Sun-Times. E-mail: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it