WASHINGTON (AP) — Speaker John Boehner on Thursday all but ruled out passage of immigration legislation before this fall’s elections, saying it would be difficult for the Republican-led House to act on the issue that President Barack Obama has made a top domestic priority.

In his most pessimistic comments, Boehner blamed the stalemate on widespread skepticism that Obama would properly enforce any immigration reforms that Congress approved. The GOP leader didn’t mention that his own members have balked at acting on the contentious issue, which could enrage core conservative voters in the midterm election year.

“The American people, including many of our members, don’t trust that the reform we’re talking about will be implemented as it was intended to be,” Boehner told reporters at his weekly news conference. “The president seems to change the health care law on a whim, whenever he likes. Now, he is running around the country telling everyone he’s going to keep acting on his own.”

Just last week, Boehner and other House Republican leaders had unveiled broad principles for immigration changes, including legal status for the estimated 11 million immigrants living here illegally, tougher border security and a shot at citizenship for children brought to the country illegally.

National Republicans see the failure to act on immigration as a political drag on the party after 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney captured just 27 percent of the Hispanic vote, and they are pressing for action to moderate the party’s image. The principles endorsed last week were seen as a congressional jump-start for an issue that had been stalled since Senate passage of a comprehensive, bipartisan bill last June.

But conservatives rebuffed their leaders and questioned the wisdom of acting this year, equating legal status with amnesty and resisting giving Obama a long-sought legislative victory. Republicans also worry about primary challenges from the right and fear that new Hispanic citizens will add to the Democrats’ voter rolls.

Control of the Senate, Republicans say, is within reach, giving them hope for greater leverage in negotiations on immigration in 2015. But the year leading up to the presidential election could be a tough one for making progress since Republican candidates tend to move right to shore up support ahead of the primaries.

The latest unraveling on immigration came quickly.

Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who had advocated for action on immigration within his caucus, said this past weekend that passage of a bill was unlikely this year and cited distrust of Obama. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who faces a primary challenge, said Tuesday that differences between the Senate and House were an “irresolvable conflict.”

On Thursday, shortly before House members left Washington, Boehner said, “Listen, there’s widespread doubt about whether this administration can be trusted to enforce our laws. And it’s going to be difficult to move any immigration legislation until that changes.”

Boehner said Obama has to rebuild that trust. White House spokesman Jay Carney dismissed that demand.

“The challenges within the Republican Party on this issue are well-known, and they certainly don’t have anything to do with the president,” Carney said.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said she was willing to give Boehner time to succeed. Democrats could try to force the issue later this year, rounding up support to require a vote on the Senate-passed bill.

“Just knowing him, I believe he does want an immigration bill,” Pelosi said of Boehner. “I do believe he does not want to be the speaker who says, ‘I’ll do an immigration bill as long as it creates an underclass in America.’”

The Senate last June passed a bipartisan bill that would tighten border security, provided enforcement measures and offer a path to citizenship for those living in the United States illegally.

The measure stalled in the House, where Boehner and other leaders have rejected a comprehensive approach in favor of a bill-by-bill process.

Boehner’s comments raising doubts about the prospects for action on immigration legislation this year angered advocacy groups.

“I wish I could say I was surprised Speaker John Boehner is blaming President Obama for his own unwillingness to act on immigration reform,” said Eddie Carmona, campaign manager for PICO National Network’s Campaign for Citizenship. “The truth is, the speaker has, time and time again, proven that he would rather pander to the extreme portions of his party than work to achieve a bipartisan solution for an issue that impacts countless families and communities across the country.”

Rocio Saenz, the Service Employees International Union’s executive vice president, said Republicans have a choice: “They can pander to a small, extremist arm of the GOP and follow them into the political wilderness or they can do the right thing for our nation and pass immigration reform.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he didn’t “blame Boehner alone. Because the Senate Republican leader threw cold water on this,” a reference to McConnell’s comments.

Yet Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who worked to ensure passage of the Senate bill, said “I’m still optimistic that we’ll get this done.”

Though Obama has threatened to act on his own if Congress does not move on some of his other priorities, Carney signaled that Obama was not prepared to act unilaterally on immigration.

“There’s no alternative to comprehensive immigration reform passing through Congress,” Carney said. “It requires legislation. And the president’s made that clear in the past, and that continues to be his view.”

___

Associated Press writers David Espo, Stephen Ohlemacher and Jim Kuhnhenn contributed to this report.

• Politics & Government
• Immigration Issues
• John Boehner
• Barack Obama
• immigration reform

WASHINGTON (AP) — Conservative Republicans on Wednesday ruled out any immigration legislation in the House this year, insisting that the GOP should wait until next year when the party might also control the Senate.

House GOP leaders unveiled their broad immigration principles last week that gave hope to advocates and the Obama administration that the first changes in the nation’s laws in three decades might happen in the coming months.

Immigration legislation is one of the top priorities for Obama’s second term.

But several of the conservatives were adamant that the House should do nothing on the issue this year, a midterm election year when the GOP is angling to gain six seats in the Senate and seize majority control. Democrats currently have a 55-45 advantage but are defending more seats, including ones in Republican-leaning states.

“I think it’s a mistake for us to have an internal battle in the Republican Party this year about immigration reform,” Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, told reporters at a gathering of conservatives. “I think when we take back the Senate in 2014 one of the first things we should do next year after we do certain economic issues, I think we should address the immigration issue.”

Labrador’s comments were noteworthy as he was one of eight House members working on bipartisan immigration legislation last year. He later abandoned the negotiations.

“This is not an issue that’s ready for prime time to move legislatively,” said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, who said Republicans should use the principles to begin a dialogue with Hispanics.

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said the House should focus on the four bills dealing with security that the Judiciary Committee approved last summer. Absent any action on those bills, Jordan said it would be tough to do any immigration legislation this year.

The definitive statements from the conservatives came as Douglas Elmendorf, the head of the Congressional Budget Office, told a House panel that the comprehensive, Senate-passed immigration bill would have a positive impact on the nation’s finances.

The Senate last June passed a bipartisan bill that would tighten border security, provide enforcement measures and offer a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million immigrants living in the United States illegally.

The measure has stalled in the House where Speaker John Boehner and other leaders have rejected a comprehensive approach in favor of a bill-by-bill process.

Elmendorf told the House Budget Committee that a CBO analysis “found that that legislation would reduce budget deficits and lead to a larger economy and over time lead to higher output per person in this country.”

Specifically, he said additional workers, especially high-skilled, highly educated employees, would increase the nation’s tax revenues.

The House leaders’ broad principles would tighten border and interior security, establish a verification system for employers and legalize some of the 11 million immigrants. It would not provide a special path to citizenship to those living here illegally, though it would give children brought to the country by their parents a shot a citizenship.

Conservatives have said they distrust Obama to enforce any new law, citing his waivers and suspensions of provisions on the health care law.

Boehner said Tuesday that Republicans were discussing “whether we should proceed, if we proceed and how we would proceed. It’s also clear from our members that we believe that securing our borders has to be the first step in this process.”

But he added that conversations are continuing and “no decision’s been made.”

Further tamping down any optimism for legislation this year was Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who told reporters that differences between the Senate’s comprehensive approach and the House’s piecemeal strategy were an “irresolvable conflict.”

“I don’t see how you get to an outcome this year with the two bodies in such a different place,” McConnell told reporters.

• Politics & Government
• Legislative Branch
• immigration reform

You can consider immigration reform dead, again. Just a week after House Republican leaders circulated their plan to provide a path to legal status for undocumented adults, Senate Republicans have proclaimed it’s not worth pursuing. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who supports comprehensive reform and sponsored the Senate’s now-dead Gang of Eight bill, said Tuesday,

I think we have sort of an irresolvable conflict here. The Senate insists on comprehensive [legislation]. The House says it won’t go to conference with the Senate on comprehensive and wants to look at [it] step by step. I don’t see how you get to an outcome this year with the two bodies in such a different place.

House Speaker John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor offered a plan that would include a path to legal status, but not citizenship, for illegal adults. Dreamers, or the children of undocumented immigrants, would be offered a path to citizenship under the House plan. This is not as comprehensive as the bipartisan Gang of Eight bill. 

So neither plan will gain momentum before the midterm elections. Now that Senate Republicans are gunning for the majority in November 2014, they don’t see the need to work with House Republicans or the President on an immigration deal. Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who was originally part of the gang of eight, has since backed away from reform. He blames President Obama. While he thinks most Americans can agree on the House Republicans’ plan, he says there’s “a sincere lack of trust, well-grounded, that this administration will enforce the security components of it no matter how they’re written.” He’s referring to the fact that reform activists have called for Obama to stop deportations whether or not reform happens. The administration says it has no plans to stop deportations of illegal adults. 

RELATED: Actor Tells Unbelievable Story About Helping Bill Clinton Score with Elizabeth Hurley

In the House, some Republican members are now threatening to fire Boehner if he brings immigration reform to the floor. Rep. Raúl Labrador told Roll Call on Tuesday evening, 

I think it should cost [Boehner] his speakership. … There is a hunger in the conference for bold, visionary leaders, and this is not just conservatives … I think you’re going to see some changes here in the House over the next year. 

Rep. Justin Amash and Rep. Thomas Massie have come out and said that they would like to see Labrador as speaker. All three are members of the Tea Party. 

Sen. Ted Cruz told Robert Costa at The Washington Post on Tuesday that the time for immigration reform is 2015. He insists, “It makes utterly no sense to affirmatively, voluntarily change the topic to amnesty right before what is poised to be an historic election victory for Republicans. I guarantee you President Obama and Harry Reid are dancing in their offices at the desire of the Washington beltway crowd to light themselves on fire.” While Cruz doesn’t oppose reform, he wants Republicans to wait until they have a majority in the Senate to pursue it. Expect to hear a lot more about Obamacare and a lot less about immigration reform in the coming months. 

RELATED: The Wall Street Journal Is Pretty Bad at Data When It Wants to Attack Obamacare

This article was originally published at http://www.thewire.com/politics/2014/02/republicans-were-open-immigration-reform-about-week/357744/

Read more from The Wire

•   Five Best Wednesday Columns

•   Sandra Fluke Wisely Decides to Aim Lower with Her Political Ambitions

• Politics & Government
• Legislative Branch
• immigration reform

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services should get help from the Department of Commerce to oversee projects funded by the federal EB-5 investment-for-green-cards immigration program, a Washington think tank says in a report released Wednesday.

The Brookings Institution’s study agreed with a December report by the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General that found that the visa program for foreign investors goes far beyond the immigration agency’s mission and it should better tap the business expertise of other government entities.

The program has faced some criticism because it’s been used to fund several failed projects, including the idled Northern Beef Packers plant in South Dakota and a planned hotel and conference center in Chicago.

Audrey Singer, who co-authored the Brookings Institution report, said transferring the functions of the EB-5 program that have to do with vetting business plans and determining whether an economic development project created enough jobs to the Commerce Department or another agency could make the program more efficient.

“The shared responsibility would improve the program,” said Singer, a senior fellow with the think-tank’s metropolitan policy program.

The EB-5 visa program was created in 1990 to attract foreign investment and create jobs. An investor’s primary goal is usually to obtain visas for themselves and their families, but each investment of either $500,000 or $1 million, depending on a project’s location, must create at least 10 full-time jobs.

David North, a fellow with the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that examines immigration policies, said EB-5 is a more difficult and more troubled program than the report indicates. North, a longtime critic of EB-5, raised ethical questions about whether the United States should essentially sell visas for a half a million dollars each.

“I really would rather have it scrapped, but if it’s going to continue, it should be revised drastically,” he said.

Drawing on the Department of Commerce’s expertise is a good idea, North said, but the immigration agency should also partner with the Securities Exchange Commission because it has more of an enforcement mentality.

North said the EB-5 program tends to draw marginal investments that can’t get traditional financing from banks, and many of the projects funded with EB-5 money probably shouldn’t be pursued.

But Singer said that many EB-5 projects are viable and that the program has been drawing more attention because traditional financing has become so challenging.

“The banks have changed their practices so dramatically that this has become a viable option,” she said. “Economic development folks are feeling the squeeze and they are looking around to improve the timing and sourcing of their funds.”

The Brookings Institution report found that the EB-5 program seems to work well when the regional centers approved to recruit foreign investors collaborate with local and regional economic development entities. An increasing number of economic development leaders have been seeking information on the program, but they have a hard time understanding how it works, Singer said.

“It’s a confusing web of intermediaries,” she said. “We also talk about the fact that there is not a lot of data to evaluate the program.”

Up to 10,000 EB-5 visas are available annually for investors and their family members. The cap has yet to be reached, but demand has been rising, with 6,600 visas issued in 2012 compared with 800 in 2007.

North said EB-5 investments make up a small part of the U.S. economy and do more to benefit the recruiters who earn commissions of $30,000 to $50,000 to find each foreign investor.

“It’s significant to the middlemen, but I’m not sure it’s terribly significant to anybody else,” North said. “Those are the guys who are really interested in this program. The impact on the nation’s economy isn’t very much.”

___

Follow Dirk Lammers on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ddlammers

• Politics & Government
• Immigration Issues
• Brookings Institution
• Department of Commerce