Kerry Eleveld of Daily Kos lifts up a report that Speaker John Boehner recently told an Irish audience that immigration reform is at the top of his agenda.
The headline from Eleveld’s post really does put it best: “LOL”.
The speaker of the US House of Representatives John Boehner has told a Dublin audience of his determination to overcome Republican resistance to immigration reform. Mr Boehner also told how Taoiseach Enda Kenny has harangued him on the matter, telling him how the lack of reform has left some Irish immigrants listening to a parent’s funeral by phone.
His remarks indicate he may yet move to confront opponents of reform within his own Republican party, which is in the vanguard of resistance to it and has a majority in the House. […]
Although he has consistently refused to put immigration reform to a House vote, he said certain colleagues thought the matter would be resolved by sticking their heads in the sand. “It doesn’t work that way.”
Now, if Speaker Boehner’s claim that he really does want to move on immigration sounds familiar, it’s because you’ve heard it before. In 2012. In 2013. In 2014. And now again in 2015.
As we noted earlier, in 2013, Speaker Boehner had the best chance in a generation to pass immigration reform and a path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants.
But rather than letting the Senate’s bipartisan bill come to a floor vote and sharing in on the credit, Boehner let himself get bullied by the likes of Steve King and other anti-immigrant nativists.
Meanwhile, the only immigration-related votes Speaker Boehner actually did allow were multiple mass-deportation votes handcrafted by King himself.
Oh, and that time Republicans almost shut down the Department of Homeland Security over President Obama’s immigration actions, too.
It’s always seemed like the House has been ‘a few weeks away’ from tackling reform according to the man in charge. Now, Boehner is back at it again, promising immigration reform to an audience overseas while preparing to do nothing back at home.
Speaker Boehner could step up and finally pass a humane fix to our broken immigration system. But until he finally finds that courage, it’ll be the likes of Steve King and Donald Trump who will continue to fill the GOP void on immigration.
