All year long, House Republicans have been stalling on immigration reform, refusing to take action despite the Senate having passed legislation that contains a path to citizenship almost five months ago. Their excuses for not taking action? Everything from Obama and Obamacare to their distrust of Democrats. Elise Foley at Huffington Post today has a list of more.
According to Elise, here are some of the major reasons Republicans have been using to claim that they can’t pass immigration reform this year:
- Obamacare
- The president can’t be trusted
- The government shutdown showed the Senate can’t negotiate.
- Actually, the government shutdown showed that nobody can negotiate.
- If the House did negotiate on immigration, it could go badly.
- Previously: Dealing with the conflict in Syria would take up too much time.
- Now: There’s no time left this year to do it right.
It’s not clear who House Republicans think they’re fooling. Immigrants, advocates, and Spanish-language media have made it clear that the GOP must pass reform, or else the pro-immigration reform community will hold them accountable in elections to come. Republicans’ antagonism to Latinos and immigrants have already cost them in the past, and will continue to if they don’t take action on reform. The GOP needs to move away from their growing list of excuses, and move forward on immigration and an attainable path to citizenship.
