Ted Cruz, Tea Party Republicans Hold ‘Secret’ Meeting On Immigration, GOP Leadership

[pampango]

Roll Call reports that two groups of about ten conservative House Republicans have held meetings in recent days following comments by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) in which Boehner mocked his colleagues for their unwillingness to tackle immigration reform this year. The speaker, who GOP members say is known for his rough humor with peers, has said he was only kidding, though he also admitted he may have gone “a little too far”. But the some of the chamber's most conservative Republicans still aren't amused.

Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who has often proved a thorn in the side of GOP leadership for his fierce opposition to bipartisan deals on a variety of issues, convened the first meeting on Tuesday night with about 10 members of the House, the site reported. Lawmakers were reluctant to give details on what had transpired, but one attendee, Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama, said immigration had been high on the agenda. Roll Call reported a day later that Brooks also attended a second meeting featuring another, separate group of 10 or so lawmakers. He told the site afterward that if House leaders decided to introduce an “amnesty” bill, he and other House members would “have to go to extraordinary measures” to oppose it.

Democrats and immigrant advocates have seized on Boehner’s mockery as evidence that the true obstacle to reform isn’t President Obama – whom House GOP members say they don’t trust to enforce border-surveillance laws. According to the Washington Post, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said on Thursday morning at a press briefing that she believed Boehner when he says he wants to pass a comprehensive immigration reform, but that his efforts were stymied by lack of commitment to the issue by his party’s rank-and-file. "When he put forth the principles, he ran it up the flagpole, we saluted; his caucus chopped down the flagpole."

http://www.latintimes.com/immigration-reform-2014-ted-cruz-tea-party-republicans-hold-secret-meeting-immigration-gop-170353

Looks like the hard-core conservatives in the House are going to continue to "just say NO" to immigration reform. That is not a surprise but part of me always wonders whether they will come to their senses at least when an election is looming. Apparently "their senses" are harder to find than I had imagined.

[Vogon_Glory]

1. They Won't

The hard right has no intention of letting any sort of immigration reform go through.

And why should they? Most of those guys are in districts so solidly reactionary that either hell will freeze over or the sea will crash over their rooftops before their voters elect even a Blue Dog Democrat to replace them. The remainder are either in districts where the remainining "moderates" have been cowed into submission or the majority of their constituents have chosen to be solidly politically asleep.

The sad truth is that there will be NO immigration reform as long as Republicans are in a position to stop it. Even Republican moderates are forced by intra-party politics to oppose immigration reform.

Republicans talking about immigration reform are dealing in bad faith. They have to.