Obama open to GOP ideas on migrants
President willing to consider piecemeal approach to reform
WASHINGTON — After months of insisting the House should take up the comprehensive immigration bill passed by the Senate in June, President Barack Obama changed tactics Thursday and said he might consider congressional Republican proposals to overhaul separate parts of the nation’s immigration system.
The White House is hoping that public anger at the 16-day government shutdown has so badly damaged the GOP that House Republican leaders will consider immigration reform as a way to improve their popularity with moderate voters.
Obama’s aides also are intent on showing that the president is willing to compromise, partly to counter GOP charges that he was inflexible during the bitter shutdown standoff.
In remarks at the White House, Obama hinted that he was no longer tied to the Senate bill, the product of months of intense bipartisan negotiations, to achieve a major priority for his second term.
Obama instead signaled that he might consider a package of smaller bills, if necessary, as long as they provide a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million people now in the country without legal status.
“If House Republicans have new and different additional ideas on how we should move forward then we want to hear them. I’ll be listening,” Obama told proreform activists from labor, business and religious groups.
The White House effort to resuscitate a bill that once seemed all but dead in the House still faces perhaps insurmountable odds. But the jockeying Thursday raised at least some hope that compromise remains possible.
“I hope President Obama meant what he said today about listening to new and different ideas presented by House Republicans,” Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, said in a statement.
In recent weeks, GOP leaders have worked behind the scenes to craft legislative proposals that might pass muster with rank-and-file Republicans and — if joined with a legalization program — could appeal to the White House.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and other House Republicans have met in small groups to write bills that would change component parts of the immigration system. GOP proposals include adding hightech visas, revamping farm and low-skilled immigrant labor programs and ramping up border security.
“I expect us to move forward this year in trying to address reform and what is broken about our system,” Cantor said on the House floor Wednesday.
Whether the House will go as far as the Senate and include a 13-year pathway to citizenship for qualified immigrants is far from clear. But Republicans seemed unwilling to accept the entire Senate bill, which includes $46 billion over 10 years for extra border security and other programs, as well as numerous legal reforms.
Outside analysts and advocates said Obama needs to gain support from House Republicans who might be tempted to support immigration reform but are wary of supporting a bill he has embraced. Simply urging the House to pass the Senate bill may antagonize them.
“He has zero credibility,” said Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, a Florida Republican who has worked for months on a House bill that would increase border security and make it possible for some immigrants without legal status to pay a penalty and eventually apply for legal status.
Rep. Luis Gutierrez, DIll., who asked the president in a meeting at the White House earlier this year to step back from negotiations in Congress for fear his involvement would spook Republicans, thought Obama struck the right tone Thursday.
“He didn’t say, ‘It’s my way or the highway,’ ” said Gutierrez, whois involved in discussions with House Republicans on immigration proposals. Gutierrez wants Obama to step up his involvement in crafting a deal, including bringing together both sides for a face-to-face meeting.
The bigger problem may be time. The House is only in session for five more weeks before the Christmas break. With other business stacked up due to the government shutdown, that leaves scant floor time to debate and pass a complex package of proposals.
Greg Brown, chairman of Motorola Solutions Inc., who chairs the Business Roundtable Select Committee on Immigration, saw room for compromise between the White House and House Republicans.
“We agree with Speaker (John) Boehner and the president that the time is now to fix our broken immigration system,” he said in a statement. “Our economy needs a boost, and immigration reform will help.”