House Speaker John Boehner has promised repeatedly that the House would take up immigration reform. He has repeatedly broken that promise.
He promised it in 2012, noting even back then that "this issue has been around for far too long." He promised it in 2013, after the Senate had passed its own comprehensive reform bill with Republican support. He promised it again in 2014, releasing a set of principles that included a path to legalization. "Some want to call it amnesty," he told the Cincinnati Enquirer at the time . "I reject that premise … If you come in and plead guilty and pay a fine, that's not amnesty."
Clearly, Boehner understands how untenable and inhumane it is to keep more than 10 million people -- most of them hard-working, decent people who came here with our tacit invitation -- in the shadows of the law forever as a permanent subclass. But it is now almost 2015, and after years of unkept promises there is still no sign of movement on the issue within his caucus.**
We know why there is no movement. It's not President Obama's fault, it's not the Democrats' fault, as Boehner is now alleging. We know why no action has been taken because in a moment of candor driven by frustration, Boehner told us why no action has been taken:
Having waited and waited and waited for Boehner to keep his promise to be a partner in reform -- and having taken considerable heat from some in his own party for waiting so long with nothing to show for it -- President Obama finally appears ready to take what action he can on his own.
“(The Republicans) have the ability to fix the system," he said again today. "What they don’t have the ability to do is expect me to stand by with a broken system in perpetuity."
The final details of those actions are still uncertain, but it may affect the status of as many as 5 million of the estimated 11 million immigrants here illegally, including more than 3 million undocumented parents of children who are U.S. citizens or are here legally. Obama has also made it clear to Republicans that "the minute they pass a bill that addresses the problems with immigration reform, I will sign it, and it supercedes whatever actions I take."
That's pretty simple: If you don't like the executive action -- action well within the historical and constitutional parameters granted to the presidency -- then pass reform legislation that addresses the status of those millions and the executive action will be rescinded. With Republicans in charge of both the House and Senate, it is fully within their power to take the president up on that offer.
Once again, they will not do so. Instead of taking the positive step of pushing legislation, Boehner instead promises to “fight the president tooth and nail.”
It's uncertain what the speaker means by that, or how that will be any different from his approach to date. Will he promise to file a lawsuit claiming that the president is abusing executive authority, and then quietly fail to keep that promise out of fear the suit will get laughed out of court? Will he shut down the government again, and lose again in the court of public opinion? Will he schedule yet another vote to repeal ObamaCare? Having already committed to all-out political warfare against Obama from the very beginning of his presidency, having at times rejected even the notion of compromise with the president, what horrors remain in Boehner's bag of tricks?
It seems to me that Obama has finally accepted the new rules of Washington -- rules established by Boehner and his fellow Republicans -- and is willing to play them out to their logical ends, whatever those may be. It isn't good for the country; in fact it's dangerous. But if there is to be no cooperation, if there is to be no negotiation, if Congress is institutionally unable to act even with both chambers in the control of one party, then this is where we find ourselves.
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** As a famous son of Atlanta once put it, in a different yet closely related context:
"For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant "Never." We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice denied."
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