US Immigration Information, Reform & News 2014: GOP Members Say New Law Not Likely to Pass During Obama Presidency
Sen. Marco Rubio, a Tea Party Republican who was one of the main authors of the Senate's comprehensive immigration reform bill, said he will not present the bill again in the next session of Congress.
When asked if he would push for an immigration overhaul during the 2015-16 congressional session, he insinuated that he won't try to present the bill again, Politico reported.
"A comprehensive, single piece of legislation on any topic, but especially on immigration, is going to be very difficult to achieve," Rubio said. "We keep talking about the same issue now for 15 years, and everybody is doing this all-or-nothing approach. And all-or-nothing is going to leave you with nothing."
Rubio's attitude echoes that of the current Congress, which has stalled on passing the comprehensive immigration reform bill that passed in the Senate last June. The bipartisan bill faces major opposition in the Republican-led House, and there is little chance of the bill passing after the midterm elections in November.
If the bill does not pass this year, lawmakers will be forced to write up a new bill in 2015. Yet, 2015 will be the year leading up to the 2016 primaries, meaning the GOP may be even more reluctant to pass comprehensive immigration reform out of fear that it will be ill-recieved by their conservative constituents.
"Comprehensive reform, if it means tackling everything at once, I think is unlikely to pass -- ever," said Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a potential 2016 presidential candidate. "'Comprehensive' means Democrats get everything they want."
Some lawmakers believe the bill may not see any movement until a new president takes office.
"I think, if it's not done this year, it's going to be next to impossible to do it next year," said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who drafted the immigration bill with Rubio in the bipartisan "Gang of Eight." "By early next year, the Republican primary season will be in full flower. And that moves everybody to the right."
Democrats will most likely try to use Republicans' lack of influence with Latinos prior to the elections to push the GOP to pass immigration reform as a last-ditch effort to gain Latino supporters.
Republicans have repeatedly said that one of the main reasons why they have been intransigent on immigration reform is because they do not believe President Obama will enforce the laws they pass.
Supporters of the bill are considering the time between now and August as the best window in which to pass a reform bill. As a result, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) said he thinks immigration reform is probably dead until 2017 if it's not passed this summer.
"I'm very much convinced that if it doesn't happen this year -- and this year really means before the August break -- that it doesn't happen," said Diaz-Balart, who supports immigration reform. "Because let me tell you what happens when the president acts [on deportations], which he is going to: All Cain breaks loose."
It is projected that Republicans will gain seats in both chambers in the midterm elections, meaning they may try to move forward immigration reform in a piecemeal fashion through smaller bills.
"If you're talking about one big pig-in-the-python-type bill, I don't think that's workable," said Minority Whip John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Senate Republican. "So I think what is [workable] is to try to find areas where there's consensus in a series of smaller bills -- so I think it's important we make as much progress as we can."
"But in order to do immigration reform, we don't have to do what the president and the Democrats want, which is a pathway to citizenship -- we clearly do not have to do that," he added.
Rubio and other GOP lawmakers believe the smaller bills should focus on increasing H-1B visas for immigrants who are high-skilled workers, attracting more temporary workers and increasing border security measures.
But Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), another co-author of the comprehensive immigration bill, is skeptical about breaking it up into smaller bills.
"I don't know how you fix this without dealing with the moving parts," Graham said. "Nobody in the Democratic Party is going to give us all we want on border security and new visas, unless you address the 11 million."
Meanwhile, the Senate's legislation -- which creates a 13-year pathway to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants and beefs up border security -- continues to languish in the House.