Speaker Boehner says that what's holding up immigration reform is  a 'trust gap' with President Obama. But that doesn't mean the  door is shut on action in the House, even in an election year.
    Immigration reform, long stalled in theUS House, is    coming down to this: Republicans don't trust President Obama    to enforce immigration laws and won't act on new legislation    until that trust gap narrows.  
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    On Thursday, House Speaker John Boehner (R) of Ohio said that    distrust is one of the biggest obstacles to getting reform    done.There's widespread doubt about whether this    administration can be trusted to enforce our laws," he said.    "And it's going to be difficult to move any immigration    legislation until that changes.  
    Democrats dubbed this new focus on "trust" a dodge to get    around the fact that Boehner can't control his fractious    caucus. But some close observers of Congress's difficult and    protracted struggle over immigration debate see some promise in    this turn in the debate.  
    For the first time in a very long time, policy differences are    not at the heart of the immigration dispute  at least among    many Republicans in the House, where immigration reform hit a    wall after the Senate passed a bipartisan bill last year.  
    In an aside, Mr. Boehner commented Thursday that Republicans    by and large support principles that he released at a private    GOP retreat for House members    a week ago. Both the president and key Democrats in the House have    expressed openness to the principles, which allow for a path to    legal status for some 11 million undocumented immigrants in    America, but no special path to citizenship.  
    That said, the trust issue is a mountainous obstacle, depending    on whose trust the president needs to win. If trustees    include the faction of Republicans who will never agree to    immigration reform, who dislike Mr. Obama so intensely that    they cant bring themselves to support anything he supports,    then, no, he is unlikely to ever win their trust. But if it    refers to the Republican leadership  and if it is the    leadership that is driving reform in the House  it is not    mission impossible, according to some observers.  
    Certainly, some Republicans, no matter what, say We cant    trust this guy and we cant negotiate with him. But theyre    not the head of the party and theyre not the kingmaker, says    Lanae Erickson Hatalsky, director of social policy and politics    at Third Way, a moderate Democrat think tank. She, and others,    can think of several ways that Mr. Obama can respond on the    trust front.  
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Immigration reform: Boehner says it's down to a matter of 'trust' (+video)