Just when it seemed as if the Tea Party was losing momentum and the Republican Party was more willing to compromise over issues of national importance, the party has taken a step backwards on immigration. Even though businesses, farmers, and technology companies have been pushing for legislation that would give immigrants legal status, the conservative wing of the party has refused to consider any bill that would give “illegals” what the conservatives consider amnesty.
House Speaker John Boehner has declared the issue of immigration is dead for this year and that no bill on immigration will come before the House. This stance is because of pressure from Heritage Action (the political offshoot of the right-wing Heritage Foundation) and the Tea Party Patriots. When Republican members of Congress went to their conference in January to the Eastern Shore of Maryland to discuss possible legislation for this year, they were bombarded by phone calls from conservative constituents who did not want immigration reform on the calendar. This barrage was induced by Heritage Action and the Tea Party Patriots along with the hashtag- #No Amnesty- on Twitter. Simultaneously, FreedomWorks, another conservative group, was collecting signatures for its Fire the Speaker petition because of his apparent agreement to consider the issue of immigration reform.
Thus, because of this conservative pressure, Speaker Boehner did what any self-respecting politician with no backbone would have done. He declared that immigration reform was dead for this session of Congress, or at least until after the November elections.
The Republicans feel the problems with Obamacare give them an advantage over the Democrats in this year’s election and they don’t want any other issues to muddy the waters. Conservatives believe that Boehner has already done too much to accommodate Obama and the Democrats and don’t want any legislation passed on immigration reform. In spite of conservative opposition, if the issue was allowed to come before the House, it would likely pass with moderate Republican and Democratic support. So Boehner’s retreat on the issue is to assuage his conservative base.
Republican members of Congress are also afraid that if they support an immigration reform bill that contains any whiff of amnesty, they are likely to be challenged by conservatives in the party primaries. This includes any legal status for immigrants, even if it does not contain a path to citizenship.
Boehner and the conservative Republicans are ignoring the demographic changes occurring in America by their refusal to address immigration reform. They are continuing to alienate Hispanics who will not soon forget the Republican opposition when they vote. The conservatives are also disregarding members of their party who want immigration reform for economic reasons.
The conservatives and Boehner claim that they don’t trust Obama to fairly implement any legislation they pass on immigration. They insist that protecting our borders has to be the most important aspect of immigration reform and that Obama is not concerned with this. However, conservatives are ignoring the fact that there has been a steady decline in immigration from Mexico over the last several years. Whether this is the result of tighter border controls or an improved economy in Mexico is unclear. But immigration is down.
So given the decrease in immigration and the economic need for farmers and businesses to have immigrant workers, isn’t it time for the conservatives and Speaker Boehner to drop their opposition and allow the establishment wing of the party to succeed on this issue. Or are the conservatives and Tea Partiers so strong that all Republicans including the Speaker are afraid to defy them in spite of the economic benefits that favor action, as well as the necessity to attract Hispanic voters in future elections? It appears that for the Republicans, the right-wing is in the driver’s seat.
Resurrecting Democracy
www.robertlevinebooks.com
Political junkie, Vietnam vet, neurologist- three books on aging and dementia. Book on health care reform in 2009- Shock Therapy for the American Health Care System. Book on the need for a centrist third party- Resurrecting Democracy- A Citizen’s Call for a Centrist Third Party published in 2011. Aging Wisely, published in August 2014 by Rowman and Littlefield. Latest book- The Uninformed Voter published May 2020