Boehner aide: No change on immigration
Speaker John Boehners (R-Ohio) office on Friday moved to tamp down speculation that GOP leaders are preparing to act on immigration reform.
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Boehner last month told donors at a Las Vegas fundraiser that he was "hellbent on getting this done this year, referring to immigration legislation.
But a spokesman for the Speaker said the quote does not reflect any change in position.
"Nothing has changed. As he's said many times, the Speaker believes step-by-step reform is important, but it won't happen until the president builds trust and demonstrates a commitment to the rule of law, Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck said.
The spokesman said he could neither confirm nor deny Boehner had made the hellbent comment.
House Republicans have long favored passing border security and enforcement bills in an incremental approach to immigration reform and have rejected a conference committee to consider the comprehensive bill passed by the Senate last year. While some of the piecemeal bills have moved out of committee, they have yet to see a floor vote.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), a top opponent of the Senate-passed bill, decried the reported Boehner comments and urged his party not to move forward on House companion bills. "At a time when trust in the President is at record lows, Republicans should not sacrifice their own credibility with such a maneuver. Such action would represent a colossal breach of the public trust: saying one thing before the primaries and then doing another thing after," Sessions said.
House leaders at their annual retreat this year released draft principles for immigration reform that included options for giving legal status to some illegal immigrants, but the majority of the GOP conference argued in favor of holding off on tackling the issue, according to lawmakers.
On Feb. 25, Boehner met with Obama to discuss immigration, and since then has consistently said that his members do not want to move forward because they do not trust Obama to abide by stricter enforcement mechanisms in any reform law.
Every time the president ignores the law, like the 38 times he has on ObamaCare, our members look up and go, 'Wait a minute: You can't have immigration reform without strong border security and internal enforcement. How can we trust the President to actually obey the law and enforce the law that we would write?' Boehner said.