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WASHINGTON -- In a last-ditch effort to bring an immigration overhaul to a vote in Congress, House Democrats on Tuesday began targeting key GOP lawmakers in hopes of pressuring House Speaker John A. Boehner to act.

The election-year campaign against 30 House Republicans, who have expressed interest in changing the nation's immigration laws, was framed by Democrats as one last opportunity to engage in a legislative debate before President Obama begins taking executive actions.

The administration has indicated it plans to halt strict enforcement of some immigration laws, including deportations that separate families, if Congress fails to act. Obama met Tuesday with faith leaders as protesters continued their second week of vigil in front of the White House.

"The president's going to be forced to act," said Rep. Joe Garcia (D-Fla.), a chief sponsor of a bipartisan bill that has sat idle in the House.

Boehner has tried to nudge the Republican majority to consider immigration reform, but lawmakers have been cool to the issue. Only three have signed onto the House bill.

A sweeping package approved last year in a robust bipartisan vote in the Senate landed with a thud in the House, where many Republicans from congressional districts with few minority residents have little interest in the issue. But GOP elders believe immigration reform is paramount to expanding the party's voter base before the 2016 presidential election.

The inaction has left immigration advocates increasingly frustrated with Obama, but the administration has urged them to focus instead on Republicans as the main obstacle to reform.

The effort launched Tuesday is a long-shot attempt to force a floor vote through procedural methods. Under House rules, Boehner would be forced to allow the vote if a majority of lawmakers sign a so-called discharge petition. Democrats are about two dozen signatures short of the 218 needed, and are targeting those key Republicans to make gains.

Both sides acknowledge that if the vote was held, the legislation may, in fact, pass, which could prove thorny for Republicans from conservative districts where many voters criticize the reform bill as "amnesty" for immigrants.

The measure would beef up border security and guest worker programs, while allowing a route to legal status for those who have immigrated illegally. It is similar to the bill that was approved by the Senate.

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Immigration activists push House GOP in last-ditch campaign for vote

Apr 15, 2014 4:02pm

President Obama has no plans to enact unilateral immigration overhaul by executive action, faith leaders from across the country said Obama told them today.

We did not discuss the need; we did not bring up the issue of the president doing unilateral action, Luis Cortes, president of Esperanza, a nonprofit law office serving immigrants, said at a news briefing after the Washington meeting.

We felt it was more important that Congress take action at this time.

Obama had asked the director of Homeland Security to look at ways to reduce the number of people deported for entering the United States without documentation. But White House press secretary Jay Carney says that is different from implementing immigration overhaul on his own.

The Department of Homeland Security is now performing a review of practices and implantation of enforcement guidelines. In other words, the administration is trying to obey the law and still rid the president of a title recently given him by Hispanic leaders, Deporter in Chief.

As for his changing immigration law, Carney said that is a nonstarter.

I think the president believes that there is an opportunity that still exists for House Republicans to follow the lead of the Senate, including Republicans in the Senate, and take up and pass comprehensive immigration reform, Carney said at todays press briefing. And todays meeting that the president had with faith leaders demonstrates and reinforces the fact that there is a broad, unusually broad, coalition that supports that effort, that supports comprehensive immigration reform and all the benefits that making reform the law would provide to the country, to our security, to our economy, to our businesses.

I think it highlights the isolation that House Republicans find themselves in when so many, not just politicians or advocacy leaders, but folks across the country support doing the right thing here and the irony, of course, is that there is a really strong conservative argument to be made on behalf of comprehensive immigration reform, he said.

In a series of meetings in the past few months, Obama has met with immigration reform activists and leaders on the topic, hoping to gain their support to pressure House republicans into action.

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No Executive Action on Immigration Overhaul for Now

House Democrats on Tuesday increased their pressure on GOP supporters of immigration reform to fight harder for a bill this year.

"We're calling out the members of the House who have said they support immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship," Polis said on a press call. "We're saying, 'Do something about your support.' "

With November's elections inching ever-closer, the Democrats see the next few months as their last chance to overhaul the nation's immigration system this Congress. The Senate passed a comprehensive reform bill last summer, and a failure of the House to follow suit before January would be a huge set-back to reform advocates, who would be forced to start from scratch in both chambers in 2015.

The Democrats acknowledge they almost certainly won't attract enough Republicans to their discharge petition to force a vote. (The 191 members who have endorsed the petition all Democrats are well shy of the 218 needed to bring the bill to the floor). But the design is to generate local headlines and build enough public pressure that GOP leaders are left with no choice but to act.

Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) compared the current immigration push to that surrounding last year's reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act another measure opposed by Republican leaders, who reluctantly brought it to the floor after months of attacks from Democrats and women's rights groups.

"It seemed we were at loggerheads and we were going nowhere with that but then the pressure from around the nation became too enormous," Chu said. "The pressure from around the nation [on immigration reform] has to be just as enormous."

Chu said that simple demographics make immigration reform a bipartisan issue, and there are "a significant number of Republicans that know that they have to pay attention to their district."

"We have this variety of viewpoints within the Republican Party," she said. "And [Majority Whip] Kevin McCarthy has to consider all of them, he has to consider the survival of the Republican Party."

The Democrats are targeting 30 Republicans who have voiced some degree of support for immigration reform that includes a pathway to citizenship for the nearly 12 million immigrants estimated to be living in the country illegally.

The Republican targets are Reps. Don Young (Alaska), Chris Stewart (Utah), Sean Duffy (Wis.), Spencer Bachus (Ala.), Jeff Denham (Calif.), David Valadao (Calif.), Greg Walden (Ore.), Paul Ryan (Wis.), Michael Grimm (N.Y.), Darrell Issa (Calif.), Mark Amodei (Nev.), Mike Coffman (Colo.), James Lankford (Okla.), Mike Kelly (Pa.), Mario Diaz-Balart (Fla.), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Fla.), Devin Nunes (Calif.), Jason Chaffetz (Utah), Joe Heck (Nev.), Peter King (N.Y.), Raul Labrador (Idaho), Sam Johnson (Texas), John Carter (Texas), Daniel Webster (Fla.), Aaron Schock (Ill.), Steve Pearce (N.M.), Tim Griffin (Ark.), Justin Amash (Mich.), Vance McAllister (La.) and Renee Ellmers (N.C.).

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