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WASHINGTON - Conventional political wisdom suggests that immigration reform in a midterm election year has a snowball's chance in July of getting any traction.

But maybe that wisdom isn't so conventional.

Some Republicans say they are warily preparing for the possibility that President Barack Obama could use executive action this summer to bypass congressional gridlock and act on immigration reform.

Those changes could include making noncriminals and minor offenders the lowest deportation priorities, a recommendation the Congressional Hispanic Caucus stressed in its meeting earlier this month with Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson.

Republicans have good reason to worry, said Stephen Yale-Loehr, a professor at Cornell University Law School.

"If I had to predict, I think the president will make some administrative fine tuning of his immigration policies in the hopes of pacifying the immigration activists," said Yale-Loehr.

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Florida, worries that day will come in August when lawmakers have headed home to their districts to campaign.

Diaz-Balart and his staff are cranking up the pace on crafting a measure that would help some undocumented immigrants gain their citizenship through currently existing channels, said Cesar Gonzalez, the congressman's chief of staff. He declined to say which existing channels the bill would use.

He added that the measure would also strengthen border security and try to address the backlog of green card applications for permanent status.

The White House has directed the Homeland Security Department to reexamine the administration's deportation policy following criticism over the roughly 2 million deportations that have occurred during Obama's tenure.

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U.S. considers curbing deportations

Two House Republicans from Illinois are endorsing some sort of legal status for immigrants in the country illegally, adding renewed GOP support for immigration reform efforts that have come to a standstill on Capitol Hill.

The statements from Illinois GOP Reps. Aaron Schock and Adam Kinzinger come in twin video testimonials that will be aired during an event this afternoon in Chicago with former House Speaker Dennis Hastert a rally meant to push fellow Republicans toward an immigration overhaul. The videos were provided to POLITICO in advance of Tuesdays event, hosted by the Illinois Business Immigration Coalition.

Quite frankly, I think if a man or a woman likes their American job, wherever they were born, they should be able to keep that job, Schock says in the video. We need a clear path to citizenship for workers who are already here and a fair and efficient on-ramp for those who want to come here.

Schock, who has expressed support for a pathway to citizenship before, made the economic case for reforming the immigration system, arguing that various industries throughout Illinois such as agriculture face serious hurdles in trying to hire immigrant workers legally.

And though Kinzinger doesnt explicitly endorse a shot at citizenship for those in the United States illegally, he called for a way to find a legal status for them.

We must work hard to come to an agreement on how to bring undocumented workers out of the shadows, legally entering the work force and becoming part of the American melting pot that makes this country great, Kinzinger says in his testimonial. However, if we do not adequately secure our borders, we could be facing these same problems a few years down the road, which is why this must be the first step of the reform process.

Kinzinger, a veteran who served in the U.S. Air Force, also argues that for young undocumented immigrants who want to serve in the military, we should thank them with legal status. That debate has become especially charged in recent weeks, with Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.)s effort to include a measure that would allow that in the must-pass defense authorization bill.

While the comments do indicate still some appetite for immigration reform within the House GOP ranks, the broader conference remains largely opposed to taking up an overhaul of immigration laws this year and is still deeply divided on some of the policy fundamentals, including what to do with millions of immigrants who are in the country illegally.

Chances remain low that the Republican-led House will take up immigration reform this year, but Tuesdays event in Chicago is an effort to try to change that. Key Illinois GOP political figures including Hastert, gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner and two former governors Jim Edgar and James Thompson will appear with several Illinois business leaders to pressure their fellow Republicans to do immigration reform.

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Two GOPers to back legal status

Jerry Seib: Immigration Reform on the Agenda Again
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House Speaker John Boehner recently told a group of donors that he was anxious to get an immigration reform bill passed this year. Speaking at a Las Vegas fundraiser, the Republican from Ohio said he was hell-bent on getting this done this year.

Many Republicans in the House have been reluctant to tackle the sensitive issue before the the midterm elections in November, according to Fox News. The original story on the comment broke in the Wall Street Journal Friday and Boehners office immediately began to try and quell speculation that Republicans were going to move on the issue this year.

Boehner has said many times in the past that Republican distrust of President Obama has made passing meaningful immigration legislation impossible.

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?' he said in a story from The Hill.

Nothing has changed according to Boehner spokesman, Brendan Buck.

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, Buck said after the story broke Friday.

The Senate passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill last year but it has not made it out of committee in the Republican controlled House of Representatives.

In December, immigration reform proponent, Rebecca Tallent, joined Boehners office. That addition upset many conservatives who took it as a sign that the Speaker might be growing soft on the hardline message concerning reform. Many Republicans still favor tight border security and stronger enforcement rather than path to citizenship types of legislation something many consider tantamount to amnesty.

Others remain suspicious of Boehner for other reasons. They think his recents comments may be a ploy to gain support for Republicans in the upcoming midterms.

"Boehner's blowing wind up someone's skirt, either that of the voters or the donors, Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies, wrote in a recent email. The fact that his spokesman didn't dispute the 'hellbent' comment (despite all the "chill out", "nothing's changed" stuff) suggests to me it's the voters Boehner's trying to fool.

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Boehner 'Hell-Bent' On Passing Immigration Reform. Others Not So Sure.

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Full Video: Friday Domestic News Roundup, 4/18/2014 - Video