Republicans unveil an immigration proposal

What happened

The House Republican leadership has ignited a major intraparty struggle by unveiling a plan to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws and offer a path to legalization—but not citizenship—for the 11 million people in the U.S. illegally. The one-page draft proposal, made public last week after weeks of passionate debate among House Republicans, would offer legal status to immigrants as long as they admitted they’re here illegally, paid fines and taxes, submitted to a criminal background check, and demonstrated an understanding of English. Young people brought to the U.S. illegally as children would be allowed to apply for citizenship. But those steps would occur only if the federal government met certain “triggers” that proved that the border with Mexico had been secured. “These standards represent a fair, principled way for us to solve this issue,” said Republican House Speaker John Boehner, “beginning with securing our borders and enforcing our laws.”

Democrats welcomed the proposal as the start of a process that might finally break a political logjam. “I actually think we have a good chance of getting immigration reform,” said President Obama. But conservative Republicans in both the House and Senate denounced Boehner’s plan. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz called the proposal thinly disguised “amnesty,” while Sen. Jeff Sessions said, “Republicans must end the lawlessness, not surrender to it.”

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What the editorials said

To any reasonable person, “Boehner’s plan makes sense,” said USA Today. It would strengthen ongoing efforts to shut the border, and granting legal status to “undocumented workers would allow them to come out of the shadows and participate fully in their communities.” While Democrats and pro-immigration activists would prefer a path to citizenship, they’d support this plan because they know “legalization beats continued stalemate.”

This is a bad time for Republicans to jump back into this divisive issue, said NationalReview.com. Having been dealt “a winning hand” for the 2014 congressional elections by the failures of Obamacare, “the last thing the party needs is a brutal intramural fight.” Nor will granting “amnesty” help Republicans “in the key contests that will decide partisan control of the Senate.” If the GOP holds off on immigration until after it wins control of the Senate, it will be in a far stronger position to fashion reforms along conservative principles, and protect American workers from a continuing influx of immigrants.

What the columnists said

If Republicans want any chance in the 2016 presidential election, said Greg Sargent in WashingtonPost.com, they’d better not throw away this opportunity. Push reform back another year, and it will get tied up in presidential primary politics, which will force candidates to pander to the base with anti-amnesty “demagoguery.” That would only further alienate Latinos and other immigrants in the general election. In 2012, after Mitt Romney said he would force illegal immigrants to “self-deport,” Obama won 71 percent of Hispanic-Americans—and 73 percent of Asian-Americans.

There’s no evidence that amnesty will produce more Republican votes, said Phyllis Schlafly in NationalReview.com. Polls consistently show that most immigrants to the U.S., no matter where they come from in the world, are natural Democrats, with generally liberal views. Some 75 percent of Hispanics, and 55 percent of Asians, for example, say they prefer “bigger government providing more services.” Boehner’s plan is a Trojan horse that will produce millions of additional Democratic voters, said Daniel Horowitz in RedState.com. The minute his plan is passed, liberals will complain that the millions of newly legalized Hispanics are being treated as “second-class citizens” and will start demanding their “next civil right: citizenship.”

Reform may not win over the Hispanic vote, said Jonathan Tobin in CommentaryMagazine.com, “but the problem here goes deeper.” If Republicans again block 11 million immigrants from any path to legal status, the wider electorate—including young people, women, and allimmigrants—will conclude once again that the GOP is intolerant and backward. “Just saying no to immigration” may be tempting to Republicans, but it’s irresponsible, and will not improve “their chances to win in 2014 or beyond.”