In the face of growing conservative resistance, Senator John Boehner, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, yesterday cast strong doubts that he will be able to succeed in passing an overhaul of the immigration laws in the United States this year and has left winning the trust of skeptics in the Republican Party up to President Obama.
Boehner started his weekly press conference by admitting that he had been pressing for immigration measures to address new worker programs, border security and the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States for 15 months now, but that he knows full well how difficult trying to move ahead is going to be, including in 2014.
“The American people, including many of my members, don’t trust that the reform we’re talking about will be implemented as it was intended to be,” Boehner claims, pointing to the executive actions that have been taken by the Obama administration in order to delay or change the implementation of Obamacare. “There’s widespread doubt about whether this administration can be trusted to enforce our laws, and it’s going to be difficult to move any immigration legislation until that changes.”
Even members of the Republican Party that have expressed moderate support for the idea of immigration reform have stated that the time to move forward is not likely to be in election year, as it would detract from issues candidates want to focus on and cause divisions within the party.