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Republicans have to pay attention to the Latino vote ahead of the presidential election in 2016, but they have to figure out how to do that and preserve their political base that is against rights for undocumented immigrants.

In what appears to be the start of immigration reform remaining the hot topic for the new congressional session in January, Republican lawmakers and pundits are considering several routes to fight Obama on his executive action for immigration reform and introduce their own legislation.

"What appears to be the smart move, and what they're going to do, is do immigration reform through normal legislative [channels]," Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, told The Hill. "Do it in a way that Republicans find acceptable, meaning take the border seriously [and] think of America's economic needs. Move forward on that and let them [Obama] be over in the corner stamping his feet."

Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and incoming Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., are under pressure to deny funding for the agencies overseeing Obama's executive action, which is proposing a Deferred Action program for parents that could protect 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation and a give them a chance to work in the U.S. temporarily.

Conservatives are known to be pressing their leaders to include Obama's executive action on immigration reform in the GOP's lawsuit against the White House on ObamaCare.

"The president's decision to bypass Congress and grant amnesty to millions of unlawful immigrants is unconstitutional and a threat to our democracy," the committee's chairman, Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, said in a statement. "I will use every tool at my disposal to stop the president's unconstitutional actions from being implemented, starting with this oversight hearing."

The oversight hearing by the House Homeland Security Committee Meeting is to be held on Tuesday, where the Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson is set to tell critics that President Obama's reform actions are "simple common sense."

The executive actions Obama announced two weeks ago will shield some 4 million immigrants living in the country illegally from deportation, as long as they've been in the U.S. more than five years and have kids who are citizens or legal permanent residents.

Johnson is scheduled to tell the committee, "The reality is that, given our limited resources, these people are not priorities for removal -- it's time we acknowledge that and encourage them to be held accountable," Johnson said in the testimony prepared for the hearing, according to The Associate Press. "This is simple common sense."

Other conservatives see both strategies as losing propositions.

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Immigration Reform News 2014: Republicans Devising ...

By Michelle Ye Hee Lee December 2

With each additional day that passes, another $37 million in revenue is lost. There is no denying the powerful impact that immigration reform could have on our economy.

The Cost of Inaction on Immigration Reform, the Center for American Progresss running tally of tax revenues lost due to inaction on comprehensive immigration reform

This figure has been cited by numerous Democratic lawmakers recently, following President Obamas decision to delay thedeportation of nearly 4 million undocumented immigrants and his renewed call for Congress to pass an immigration reform bill:

The $37 million figure comesfrom the Center for American Progresss clock tallying tax revenues missed from inaction in the House on the Senate-passed S. 744, better known as the comprehensive immigration reform bill. Organizing for Action, the nonprofit spinoff of the 2012 Obama for America presidential campaign, also has cited this figure.

As of the end of November, the clock claimed that the U.S. Treasury has lost out on $19 billion.

Whats the math behind this number?

By a bipartisan vote of 68 to 32, the Senate in 2013 passed the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Acttoprovide a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants and increase Border Patrol resources along the U.S.-Mexico border. But House Republican leaders said they would not to take up the Senate measure as written.

The left-leaningpublic policy research and advocacy group Center for American Progress launched its CIR inaction clock a year ago; the clock recordsthe amount of time passed since the Senate vote, and calculates the amount of supposed tax revenue the United States has missed out on since then: $37 million a day.

This amount comes from a Congressional Budget Office analysisof the bills fiscal impact. The report is the most recent version of CBO calculations relating to the bill and is an update of its previous, slightly higher estimates.

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Fact Checker: Has House Republicans inaction on immigration cost $37 million a day?

Details Published on Wednesday, 03 December 2014 05:14 Xinhua Hits: 135 Privacy Policy

A battle over immigration reform is brewing in Washington after President Barack Obama's announcement last month that he would act alone and issue an executive order to prevent the deportation of millions of illegal immigrants.

The announcement has sparked much controversy, as critics lambasted the president for what they call circumventing Congress and taking matters into his own hands to reform the broken immigration system. A number of opponents call Obama's action illegal.

Although GOP lawmakers are expected to protest vehemently, they may not have many tools at their disposal to undo an executive order.

"Republicans will try to weaken Obama's executive order on immigration. They will pass legislation, remove funding, and make angry speeches about this action," Darrell West, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told Xinhua.

"There will be a lot of attention on this issue, but the GOP doesn't have very many tools to prevent its implementation," West said. "The courts generally have given the president broad leeway to administer immigration issues."

"Obama's action will strengthen GOP resolve to fight the president on many different fronts, but the party's such acts will help Democrats rally Latino voters in 2016," he continued. "Those individuals will see the Republicans as doing nothing to advance immigration reform for Latinos."

Meanwhile, Congress needs to pass a broad spending bill before Dec. 11 to prevent a government shutdown. Although GOP lawmakers are steaming over Obama's immigration reform plan, their leaders would like to avoid shutting down the government over the issue, in the belief that such an action would backfire on them.

"There are many Republicans who would like to use every possible tool to undo the executive order, but much of the leadership would prefer to avoid a shutdown, for instance, and focus on other priorities," Christopher Galdieri, assistant professor at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire, told Xinhua.

Obama's announcement came on the heels of a decisive GOP victory in last month's Congressional elections, when Republicans gained control of both houses of Congress in one of the most resounding GOP sweeps since World War II.

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Battle over immigration reform brewing in US

President Obamas action on immigration represented a breach of the Constitution that will encourage more people to cross the border illegally, the chairman of a House committee said Tuesday in the latest wave of criticism of the action that Republicans call an overreach by the president.

Our immigration system is broken, and we need to fix it, said Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul of Texas.Theres a right way to do this and a wrong way, and unfortunately, the president has chosen the wrong way.

Theyve taken a sweeping approach to prosecutorial discretion that makes a mockery of the law, McCaul said.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, appearing before the committee, countered that he was confident that the action last month, which protects some 5 million people from deportation, was well within the presidents legal authority. He said that Obama only acted after it became clear that House Speaker John Boehner was not going to be able to corral the votes to pass an immigration reform bill, and after midterm elections.

Weve waited a considerable amount of time, Johnson said.

Obama announced last month that the administration would offer three-year work permits to people who have been in the country at least five years, and who are parents of citizens or other legal residents. That provision could shelter an estimated 4 million people, but does not offer a path to citizenship or legal status. The action also would open the door for more people who came as children to apply for a reprieve from deportation.

McCaul said that the program, by giving the impression that the U.S. isnt interested in removing unauthorized people, would become a powerful magnet that encourages more illegal immigration.

If we dont think that message is making its way back to Mexico and Central America, we are simply fooling ourselves, McCaul said.

But Johnson said the program will allow the department to focus more resources on border enforcement and on finding and removing criminals.

The reality is that, given our limited resources, these people are not, and have not been for years, priorities for removal, Johnson said. Its time we acknowledge that and encourage them to be held accountable. That is simple common sense.

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Republicans attack Obama's action on immigration as unconstitutional

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson defended President Barack Obama's controversial executive actions on immigration as legal and denied that the move was politically motivated as he testified before a House committee Tuesday. Johnson also dismissed Republican fears that the policy would encourage more illegal immigration.

The Homeland Security secretary said Obama initially wanted to roll out the executive orders in the spring but delayed them at the behest of Republican leaders. After it was clear that House Speaker John Boehner would not let immigration reform reach the House floor, the president acted.

"So we waited a considerable amount of time," Johnson said in response to a question by House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mike McCaul, R-Texas, who wondered aloud whether Obama's decision was motivated by politics instead of policy. McCaul noted that Obama initially said he did not believe he had legal authority to use his executive powers to change immigration policy: "He has changed his tune on this, and I think that's what's so confusing to Congress and the American people about the authenticity of the president's decision."

McCaul also said he was worried that the new immigration policy would create a wave of illegal immigration. But Johnson said that is not the case because the government is publicizing that new border crossers would be turned back.

"We prioritize recent illegal migrants. We prioritize those who came here illegally after Jan. 1, 2014, and I intend to highlight that fact wherever I go," the Homeland Security secretary said.

Johnson appeared before the House Homeland Security Committee. The committee is looking into the consequences that President Barack Obamas controversial executive action on immigration has on border security in a hearing titledOpen Borders: The Impact of Presidential Amnesty on Border Security.

Obamas executive action, signed late last month, protects roughly 5 million illegal immigrants from deportation. Illegals who are parents of U.S. citizens or permanent residents and have lived in America for more than five years will be protected under the order, provided they pay taxes. The executive action protects such individuals from deportation for only three years at a time, according to a White House fact sheet on the order. Felons, terrorism suspects, gang members and recent illegal immigrants will be at the top of the deportation list and wont be protected.

The executive order came under fire from Republicans, who accused Obama of presidential overreach. They said the action amounted to legislation, which can only be made through Congress.

The GOP is mulling options on how to respond to the executive order. One possibility is to only temporarily fund Homeland Security operations on immigration while financing other government operations until September, the New York Times reported. Folks understand we wont fix it now, but they wont understand if we dont send a message to the president that we dont agree with what he did, U.S. Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., told the Times.

Johnson, as Homeland Security secretary, issued a memo to his agency that makes clear that the government enforcement activity should be focused on national security threats, serious criminals and recent border crossers, the fact sheet goes on to say. The agency will direct all of its enforcement resources at pursuing these highest priorities for removal from the United States.

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Immigration Reform 2014: Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson Defends Obama's Executive Actions To Congress